hey guys, this is Heather So potato salad is that classic summer dish,
you see it at all the BBQs and picnics...
But it's usually made with mayo.
so I wanted to show you a vegan version today, we're going to try a cashew mayo.
I haven't actually made it before, so this is gonna be and experimental one.
I have made and showed you guys a tahini mayo, but I wanted something a little smoother,
creamier, a little bit sweeter...
And I've shown you an avocado mayo, which is super creamy, but I wanted to make something
today that wouldn't go off if it's sitting out in the sun like at a picnic...
so we're gonna try the cashew mayo And if you stick around to the end of the
video, I want to talk about potatoes, cause I feel like potatoes are usually not given
much credit by nutritionists and dieticians and I wanted to give you my opinion.
so stick around for that - but in the mean time, we are gonna get making this potato
salad!
I'm gonna start by scrubbing my potatoes.
You can peel them if you want, but there are a lot of nutrients in the skin of potatoes,
including iron.
And if you have any bits like eyes or little bruisy bits then you can just cut those out,
but otherwise I'm gonna just brush these and then I'm gonna boil them whole
We're gonna now cut up some celery, cause that's always nice to add a little bit of
crunch, a little bit of nutrients to a potato salad.
Little trick - if you find celery too bitter, just flip it over and just kind of shave off
- you can even use a potato peeler if you want - just shave off the very back of it,
cause that's where a lot of the bitterness comes from.
And that's also where the stringy bits come from, if you don't like getting celery bits
stuck in your teeth, just shave that off.
I'm just gonna start putting this all in one big salad bowl.
Now, I'm making like a super traditional, classic potato salad, with just potatoes and
celery.
Feel free to add whatever else you might like.
Like, I know I have some red pepper in the fridge and I might throw some in, just for
a little extra colour...
Yeah, that always looks nice, doesn't it...
Green onion - you can do less if you like, but I really like a lot of onion to offset
the starchy heaviness of the potatoes.
And you can use a different kind of onion if you want to do red or sweet or whatever...
Now most classic potato salads include egg.
I'm gonna do chickpeas for my protein boost in this potato salad.
Now my potatoes are not quite done cooking yet, so we're gonna move on to this cashew
mayo!
So I'm gonna make this in a twister jar of my BlendTec, so that while it's blending I
can mix it up like this so that it gets thick.
You can also do this in a food processor, but I would not do it in a regular blender,
I don't think.
And if you don't have a high-powered blender, you probably want to soak your cashews before
doing this so that they're nice and soft.
so measure a cup, dry, and then you would soak them.
I'm gonna put in 2 cloves of garlic, cause I really like garlic, but you can just do
one if you prefer.
The juice from half a lemon, or a lime as I am using today.
Oh, and this one's not terribly juicy, so I'm probably going to wind up using both halves
of it.
You can always put the zest in, and you guys who know me know that I love my zest... but
it's not usually part of mayonnaise, so I'm not going to put it in today.
Just a little bit of apple cider vinegar, to up the acidity.
Some sea salt - do as much or as little as you like.
And I wouldn't put this if I was just making mayonnaise, but because most people add dijon
mustard - oh, hello!
- to their mayonnaise when they're making potato salad, I'm gonna put a little bit of
that in.
And then we gotta get just the right quantity of water, so I'm gonna start with 1/4 cup,
see how that goes.
ooooooo, that looks good!
Now, the ever-important taste test - also texture test is really nice, thick, creamy,
exactly what I was hoping for.
oooo!
zingy!!
The dijon mustard definitely coming through.
I think I maybe put a little bit too much in, so go easy on the dijon until you taste
it.
Maybe make the mayonnaise first, and then add the dijon.
I like it, and it's gonna be tossed around the all of our nice potatoes so it'll mellow
out once we toss it in.
On its own, though, the dijon is a little bit much.
Checking in with our potatoes - the old fork test.
And even the biggest ones are soft, so I'm gonna drain these and then put them in some
cold water to chill them off and then cut them.
I love these purple potatoes, how fun is that?
I thought they just had purple skin, but they're purple all the way through!
So my potatoes are a little bit overcooked, cause I was making the dressing and wasn't
watching them as closely as I should have.
It's nice if your potatoes are a little bit firmer for a salad, cause you are gonna be
picking up bites, but it's not the end of the world if they get a little overcooked.
Then we're going to get our dressing and toss it through, and that's all there is to it!
That just looks like a party on its own, doesn't it?
with the purple, and the red, and the green, it's like confetti!
ready to take to your next party.
I've got a little bit of everything on this bite
Yeah, so the amount of dijon works with the salad - the amount of garlic also, I think
adds to the zestiness of my dressing, but it works with the salad.
So if your dressing is a little bit on the strong side, don't worry too much.
The crunch is nice, the mix with the soft potato is nice, and there's so much flavor
from the dressing, from the red pepper really adds a lot, and the green onion.
Nice!
I haven't had potato salad in forever, I actually don't remember having potato salad very many
times in my life, because I just don't really like potato salad.
But that - I like!
So that may not say much for potato salad lovers, but I like it, it's super good.
So I hope you enjoy that recipe, I'm gonna have mine with some corn on the cob for dinner.
Mmm, perfect!
And like I said, I wanted to talk about the nutrition of potatoes, because a lot of the
time potatoes get lumped in with those white foods that nutritionists like to hate on.
Like white bread, white pasta, they usually put white potatoes in there.
Now - personally, I don't eat a lot of potatoes, only because I don't really like them - although
I really like that recipe, as I said, it's out of character for me.
But - I don't have anything against potatoes generally, because potatoes are not refined
carbohydrates like white bread and white pasta, so I wouldn't put them in the same category.
They are fairly high glycemic, but if you don't have blood sugar issues then it wouldn't
be a problem for you.
And as you saw, there are lots of different types of potatoes, different colours, so I
had some white potatoes in there but I also had some yellow potatoes and some purple potatoes.
so you can expand your potato horizons beyond white potatoes if you want to.
But even in and of themselves, white potatoes - if you're not loading them up with things
like sour cream and cheese and bacon bits - or if you're not deep frying them - they're
actually a fairly low calorie-density food.
Because they're just starchy carbohydrates, so complex carbohydrates that digest slowly,
there's a lot of fiber in potatoes, there's a lot of water content.
And like any vegetable, there's a lot of vitamins and minerals in potatoes.
So any potato is going to have a lot of potassium - just like bananas.
It's gonna have a lot of niacin, which is one of the B vitamins, also B6, vitamin C,
manganese, copper - which is an interesting one because it assists with iron utilization,
and the skin of potatoes is where you'll find a lot of iron.
So when I was talking about just scrubbing your potatoes, that's when you'll maximize
the iron from your potatoes.
And there are some special phytonutrients in potatoes, which are smaller nutrients than
vitamins and minerals, and a lot of the time they act as antioxidants.
So the phytonutrients in potatoes do act as antioxidants - there are a lot of carotenoids,
which are the same antioxidants in carrots that help our eyesight.
Also flavonoids, which have antioxidant roles.
And there's something special in potatoes called kukoamines - and I'm probably pronouncing
that incorrectly - but the important thing to remember is that those special phytonutrients
in potatoes help to lower blood pressure.
So that's why potatoes are often recommended as part of an overall cardiovascular healthy
diet.
Potatoes are a staple food in a lot of countries, and a stable vegetable crop for agricultural
communities.
So, I don't like to malign potatoes, because they are so important and they've been part
of human history for so so long, that even though I personally don't have a taste for
them - it doesn't mean that they're nutritionally inferior.
And I especially don't want people to think that they have to give up that one more comfort
food when they're going vegan.
So I am fully in support of potatoes, for anyone who enjoys them.
different colours, different textures, try out different types of potatoes, cook them
differently, make them in different dishes - and enjoy them.
Sweet potatoes are personally my favorite, they do have more of certain nutrients than
white potatoes or regular potatoes, but you can mix & match - put them together, or you
can do baked sweet potatoes one night, baked white potatoes another night of the week.
So I hope that gives you a good overview of potatoes, gives you some motivation to go
enjoy that potato salad, bring it to your next pot luck, picnic or BBQ, and show people
a vegan twist.
Thanks so much for watching guys, be sure to subscribe so you get new videos from me
every week, with vegan recipes, nutrition tips and motivation.
We'll talk soon - bye!
xo h