Winter Potato Salad that's great in the summer

Roasted veggies sound like a winter dish, and some folks are adverse to running the oven any longer than they have to in the summer. But the addition of green beans to this anti-mayo potato salad, along with the bright balsamic dressing, make it a nice change of pace for summer time dining.




You need:
4 oz green beans, cut half
1 head of garlic
1 lb new potatoes, 1-to-2 inch cubes
1 red pepper, cut into largish chunks
2-4 green onions, finely chopped
(Optional: button mushrooms, sweet onion, green/yellow/orange peppers)


salt and pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbs or more balsamic vinegar
1+ Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp snipped fresh rosemary
(optional: chopped cooked bacon)

Heat your oven to 400º.

Cook the green beans in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and dump into ice water to cool. Drain again.

Peel away the paper from the bulb of garlic. Slice off the pointy top of the bulb, just enough to slightly expose the tops of the cloves. Place in a square of tin foil, then drizzle with olive oil. Wrap the foil over the top of the garlic, twisting the top so that it is covered but the foil is not touching the exposed tops. Set aside.


Add the green beans, potatoes, red pepper, and green onions in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then drizzle half of the broth (about 1/4 cup) over everything. Place the
garlic bulb in the middle of the veggies and roast in the oven for 1 hour. Stir at least twice, drizzling with the remaining chicken broth.


Remove from the oven and set the pan aside to cool for just a few minutes. Remove the garlic bulp from the foil and squeeze out the roasted garlic paste into a bowl or measuring cup. Add 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar and 1 Tbs olive oil and mix with a fork. Add the rosemary and mix again.


If you really, really like balsamic, you can add another Tbs or two. Or you can add another Tbs of olive oil instead to thin it out. Spread the dressing over the veggies and gently stir to coat. (Optional: bacon!!) Serve immediate warm or cove and chill for up to six hours. Since this is anti-mayo potato salad, it travels well for outdoor events, and it's easily doubled for large groups.



Pepper trivia: Most folks know that Christopher Columbus, the famous explorer known for getting lost and "discovering" things that had already been discovered, misnamed the indigenous people of this country as "Indians" based on a the mistaken belief that he was half a world away. Columbus is also responsible for mistakenly naming peppers, which went by forms of the words capsicum or chile amongst the peoples who already grew them. In Europe, "pepper" referred to any hot spice, stemming from the peppercorns that come from the unrelated Indian plant Piper nigrum. Because Columbus "found" this "new" family of plants that were spicy, they also became known as peppers, and to this day the term refers to both groups of plants.