butterball potato salad with green beans and thyme

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potatoes salads mustard roasted vegetables garlic oil green beans

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This recipe is modified from a recipe in Annie Somerville’s Everyday Greens. If you serve this recipe at a picnic, I predict that people will be neglecting the burgers. Or do like we do, and just make this salad and another vegetable or salad to go with it, like grilled zucchini or the carrot & mint salad with currants. I like a high proportion of green beans to potatoes, but if you’d prefer the salad to be heavier on the potatoes, use fewer green beans.

2 pounds garlic-roasted potatoes (recipe follows)
garlicky red wine mustard vinaigrette (recipe follows)
½ medium red onion, minced (about ½ cup)
red wine vinegar
1-2 pounds green beans, cut into 1” pieces
1 ½ tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
½ tablespoon fresh thyme, coarsely chopped, or ½ teaspoon dried thyme

1. Make the garlic-roasted potatoes.
2. Make the vinaigrette.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil and salt lightly. Place the onions in a small bowl and scoop a little boiling water out of the pot, just enough to cover them. Let the onions soak for 30 seconds, drain, and toss with ½ tablespoon of the vinegar. This takes away the sharp bite of the onions, but leaves great flavor and crunch.
4. Drop the green beans into the boiling water and cook until just tender (2-5 minutes). Drain the beans and immediately spread them out on a baking sheet spread with a dishtowel. (This allows extra water to evaporate, and the beans stop cooking almost immediately.)
5. Transfer the roasted potatoes to a large bowl with the onions, capers, thyme, and several large spoonfuls of vinaigrette. Add the green beans just before serving (so their color won’t fade from the acid in the vinaigrette) and adjust the seasoning with more vinaigrette, salt, pepper, and/or a splash of vinegar, if needed.
6. If you’ve made enough for leftovers, only add the green beans to the portion you’ll be serving right away, to keep them nice and green.

garlicky red wine mustard vinaigrette
This might make more dressing than you need, but it keeps very well in the refrigerator. See the other uses for this salad dressing in the salad greens section, under green salad with garlicky red wine mustard vinaigrette.

6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 medium cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1 tablespoon honey
——
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put first 5 ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Slowly pour in oil to make a creamy emulsion. Taste and season with more salt and/or honey.

garlic-roasted potatoes
These potatoes are great with all kinds of things, and are the basis of the previous potato salad recipe, as well as a possible component of the salade nicoise and the tostadas three ways recipes. The garlic-infused oil really makes a difference in the taste! Use these instead of mashed potatoes or rice with any dish. This is an especially fantastic recipe if you use Alaskan Butterball potatoes. Make an effort to buy them, if you can, because they make the very brownest, most caramelized potatoes of any I’ve ever eaten, I think because they have a slightly higher sugar content.

2 pounds Butterball potatoes (or other yellow, waxy potato)
garlic oil (recipe follows, in Step 1.)
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Make garlic oil: Mash or mince 3 or 4 garlic cloves and cover with ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil. Let steep for 30 minutes if you have time. Strain out the garlic and store the oil in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters. Toss them in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of garlic oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss again.
3. Lightly oil a large baking dish or sheet pan, and transfer the potatoes onto it, making sure that a cut side of each potato is touching the pan. (The side touching the pan will brown nicely). Roast the potatoes until tender and browned, 35 to 40 minutes.