Roast Potatoes with Avocado Garlic Sauce

Potatoes Are Us these days.  They can be quite dull after a while unless you take them to task and explore completely new ways to prepare them.  This particular potato recipe was adapted from another favourite blog "Oh She Glows" written by Angela Liddon. Love this site.  She is a genius and her blog is easy to read and her recipes are delicious.  

Angela Liddon's version uses new potatoes and smashes them. Super fun.  I was looking for a slightly more classical look and decided to simply slice russet potatoes and top them with her special sauce. Avocado Aioli Sauce.

Oh my.

The men in my family loved this.

Aioli is basically a Provence-style mayonnaise traditionally made with olive oil, garlic, and seasonings.  It includes egg yolks and is prepared just like our current mayonnaise that we buy in our stores.  The recipe below suggests adding Veganaise which doesn't contain eggs for those who are vegan.  Make sure the sauce is used up the day you prepare it because otherwise it will turn brown.

Slice the peeled potatoes into about 1/4 - 1/3 -inch slices.

Toss with olive oil.  The potatoes were roasted and the slices turned
 over half-way through cooking time to get a nice brown on both sides.

Serves:  6

Cook and prep time:  about an hour

3 large russet potatoes, peeled

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Fresh chopped parsley

Avocado "Aioli" Sauce:

Two garlic cloves, smashed

One large or two small ripe avocados

1/4 cup mayonnaise (Veganaise is preferred)

1/2 fresh lemon, juiced

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slice potatoes and arrange them in a roasting pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and turn slices over so they are coated.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 15 minutes.  Turn the slices over to finish cooking.  They should be crispy on the outside and slightly puffed.

While the potatoes are cooking, whir together the aioli ingredients in a blender.  Start with the garlic then add the rest of the ingredients. You will want to make the sauce as creamy as possible.

One of many presentation ideas.  A great side-dish for any meal.

Plate the roasted potatoes and spoon the avocado aioli over.  Sprinkle fresh chopped parsley over. Voila!

http://ohsheglows.com/2014/10/15/crispy-smashed-potatoes-with-avocado-garlic-aioli/



- Kim Fielding

Fresh harvested Yukon gold potatoes.

This is such a fun time of year for gardening.  We always say we will cook what is fresh-picked but sometimes I am suprised with what son #2 brings inside.  I had planned on making a pasta dinner with left-over chicken and some other veggies from the garden, but this was too good to pass up.

I am sorry I don't have a picture of this meal, but it played out like this:

Serves:  5
Prep and cook time:  about an hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Thinly slice 3 large Yukon golds.  Place slices in an oiled baking dish (I used a 7 x 10-inch size) and cover with either your choice of broth or gratin ingredients.  I chose to use gratin-style ingredients which included a little butter, a little half and half, and salt and pepper.  I wish I had chosen broth.

Bake until fork tender, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your left-over chicken and the rest of your meal. I cubed the meat and set it aside.  We washed fresh lettuces and made a salad that included avocado, green bell pepper, sliced almonds, and a homemade vinaigrette.  Then, we sliced up a fresh melon and garnished the platter with fresh raspberries and blueberries from the garden.  (Our melons aren't ready yet but I found a couple of beauties at the Farmer's Market)

I no longer dress salads but put vinaigrette on the side with a small spoon so people can drizzle it over their greens if needed.  I found that we weren't eating all of our dressed salad in an evening and hated to see how much went to waste.  A dressed salad doesn't keep.  An undressed salad, if it isn't finished and everything is still fresh, can be the base for a salad the next night.

The cooked potatoes came out of the oven.  I spread out the cubed chicken over the potatoes and topped with shredded Comte cheese. Back into the oven, we waited until the cheese melted and then pulled it out to serve.

Voila!  Baked potatoes topped with chicken and cheese (not too much), fresh lettuces salad, fresh melon and berries, and left-over lentil salad with garden veggies.

To make this vegan/vegetarian,  cook the potatoes with broth and serve with our left-over lentil salad, fruit, and greens salad.

Experiment, explore, and enjoy!

- Kim Fielding

Grilled Vegetable Salad Dinner

Potatoes, peppers, eggplant, chards, red onion, green beans, and fennel sliced and ready for the grill.
 

End of summer produce is the best.  Hot days ripen tomatoes, eggplants and peppers mature, and other produce available in farmer's markets and stores is glorious.  For our cooking class I featured grilled vegetables in a pasta salad and a Nicoise salad.  Left-overs inspired this simple salad that was filling enough to sate my boy's bellies.

The vegetables were tossed only with olive oil before grilling.  The eggplant cooks quickly while the onions, fennel, chard stems, green beans, and peppers take a little longer.  Be watchful so that the veggies are neither under nor overcooked.

Composing the salad consisted of a handful of spring mix surrounded by halved cherry tomatoes.  Arugula is good also as are a variety of chopped herbs.  Next, layer on grilled veggies.  (I used them all).  Top with your choice of protein.   In this case we used thinly sliced grilled beef.  Other protein options include pressed and grilled tofu or seitan, chicken, or whatever your heart desires.

The finished product.  A salad composed of grilled and non-grilled vegetables topped with a lean protein. 

The final touch is the dressing.  As always, a freshly made vinaigrette is the first choice.  Two parts oil, one part vinegar, salt and pepper, and depending on how you feel, herbs or dry mustard.  In this case I ventured into something a little different.  I added ricotta salata which is a hard version of ricotta cheese and is crumbly.  Add a couple tablespoons of crumbled cheese to the vinaigrette and then drizzle over the composed meal.  For a vegan option, leave the cheese and meat out.  This was delicious.

One of the great things about eating healthy, besides not feeling guilty or glutteny afterwards, is that you can walk away with a sense of well-being.  A stroll after dinner with your family or spouse, your dog, or your music should end the evening and prepare you for restful sleep.

Calories for the salad with the ricotta salata dressing but not including the meat is about 550 and offers almost 15 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein.  The measurement for this calculation included 1 cup greens, 3 cherry tomatoes halved, 2 red small red potatoes halved, a handful of green beans, 4 slices eggplant, about 1/2 head of fennel, several slices of red onion, and a couple tablespoons of vinaigrette.  All vegetables except the lettuces and tomatoes were grilled.

- Kim Fielding