Memorial Day Weekend Recipe-Vegetable Potato Salad

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
I decided to spent a part of my extra long weekend making another attempt at cooking. This time, my latest concoction was an always popular summertime dish, potato salad.

Potato salad is one food that I never hesitate to indulge myself in whenever I see it as menu item at a restaurant. I've always been strangely addicted to it (my addiction can probably be attributed to the simple fact that potatoes are my favorite veg), and it's a dish that I've always wanted to recreate in my own kitchen. Unfortunately, it's something that I never got around to trying until now. It was perfect timing actually considering that it's an ideal summertime favorite and I was coming across all these articles on how to create the "perfect" potato salad. I finally came across a Delicious looking potato salad recipe in Southern Living. What made it so appealing was that it contained a variety of vegetables aside from the potatoes and it contained less calories. A "lightened" up version of potato salad made my health nut side excited.

Here is the recipe for a veggie potato salad courtesy of Southern Living. You can also find this recipe on myrecipes.com (another great site).

Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds baby red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup whole buttermilk

1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise with olive oil

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 carrots, grated

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup sliced radishes

1/2 cup steamed, cut fresh green beans

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 garlic clove, minced

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Bring potatoes and salted water to cover to a boil in a large saucepan; reduce heat, and simmer 7 to 10 minutes or until tender. Drain. Place potatoes in a large bowl; sprinkle with vinegar and oil, and toss gently. Cool completely (about 1 hour).

2. Whisk together buttermilk and next 3 ingredients. Stir in carrots and next 6 ingredients; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon buttermilk mixture over potato mixture; toss gently to coat. Cover and chill 1 to 24 hours before serving.

As with all my recipes that I've shared with you all, it's relatively easy to make and most of the ingredients are readily available in my kitchen. I decided to exclude the radishes, the celery, and the green beans because I'm not a fan of any of these vegetables. That might have been a mistake because I think having more vegetables in the salad would have given it more flavor. Another problem I noticed with my take on this dish was that it tasted too sour. This might be attributed to the excessive lemon zest that I added. To combat the sour taste, I continued to add more sour cream(I used fat free sour cream instead of reduced fat. Both taste the same though). I think that backfired on me because it made my salad soggy, and I think it lost all of its flavor. One significant ingredient that was missing from this version of potato salad is the eggs. Now, I know eggs are an important ingredient in many foods, but I've always wondered if it was necessary for potato salad. When I was making this, I did wonder if eggs would have made it any better. Overall, my attempt at this recipe was mildly successful. I haven't decided if I'm going to attempt this recipe again. Maybe I'll just continue to enjoy it at my favorite restaurants.

Here are some restaurants around Birmingham that offer delicious potato salad:
1) Zoe's Kitchen
2) Kairos Katering
3) Kingler's European Bakery and Cafe
4) Olexa's
5) Max's Delicatessen

If anyone has any tips for making a fabulous potato salad, I'd love to hear from you!