A Better Bag of Groceries

Recipe Makeover: Grandma Wood’s Potato Salad

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 07:05 AM

Welcome to Summer, the season of mayonnaise!  How many cookouts will you go to?  How many mayonnaise-drenched salads will be on the table?  Too many to count.

In general, I am not a fan of mayonnaise-y salads.  I just think there are much better ways to bring out the flavor of foods.  I much prefer a cold pasta salad with olive oil, pine nuts and basil to one that’s a big blob of mayo.  Call me a dressing snob.

There is one exception to my mayo aversion:  old-fashioned potato salad like the one my Grandma Wood used to make.  The mix of onion, celery, mayonnaise, cold potatoes and her secret ingredient (red wine vinegar) was heaven in a bowl.  I resurrected this recipe a few years back for those hot summer nights when a cold side was in order.  However, with my new-found NuVal  knowledge, I think I’ve truly perfected and healthified this recipe.

Since I began blogging for NuVal and experimenting in my kitchen, I’ve discovered a great trade-up:  Yogurt.  Here’s my rule about yogurt. 

• If the recipe calls for sour cream, try substituting non-fat plain Greek yogurt.
• If the recipe calls for mayonnaise, try substituting non-fat plain yogurt (NOT Greek).
• If you miss the taste of the sour cream or mayonnaise, try just reducing the amount and adding in the yogurt to make up the difference.

And that is exactly what I did with Grandma Wood’s Potato Salad!

Ingredients:

One 3-lb bag baby red potatoes:  NuVal score 93

1/4 cup red onion, chopped: NuVal score 93

2 stalks celery, chopped: NuVal score 96

2 T. fresh dill (or more if you are a big fan of dill, OK to use dried): NuVal score 100

1 T. fresh chives (I buy a chive plant and try to keep it alive): NuVal score 100

1/3 cup plain non-fat yogurt (not Greek): NuVal score 96for Dannon Fat Free Plain

1/3 cup red wine vinegar (not scored)

3 T. light mayonnaise: NuVal score 7 for Hellmann’s Low-fat

1/2 tsp Kosher salt: NuVal score 1

1/2 tsp ground black pepper (not scored)

Directions:

Scrub potatoes and place them in a pot.  Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.  Cook until you can pierce with a fork but they are still somewhat firm.  Remove the pot from heat, drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water.  You can even immerse them in a large bowl of ice water.  Drain again and store in the refrigerator for a few hours.  Typically, I boil the potatoes in the morning, before it gets too hot,  and put them in the fridge all day.

Remove the potatoes from the fridge.  Chop coarsely into bite size chunks, leaving the skin on, and place them into a large mixing bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients (red onion through black pepper).  Mix well. 

About the Mayonnaise

As you can see, I did leave some mayonnaise in this recipe – but just 3 Tablespoons.  That is significantly less than the probably 1/2 cup my grandmother used to put in.  She never measured, so it could have been more.  As you can imagine, mayonnaise scores rather low on the NuVal scale.  Interestingly, Cain’s regular mayonnaise scores better than Cain’s Fat-Free mayonnaise.  That’s right.  Cain’s regular scores a 2.  Cain’s fat free scores a 1.  Wow!  The mayonnaise products with the best scores are Smart Balance Light (NuVal score of 18) and Hellmann’s Canola Cholesterol Free (NuVal score of 18).

How else is this recipe different?

I am old enough to remember the days when supermarket tomatoes barely had color and only came wrapped in cellophane.  Grandma was more likely to use regular potatoes (they score the same as red, by the way), but I like the size and texture of the red with the skin on.  She also did not have the advantage of buying fresh dill or chives in the produce department of her supermarket – certainly not 12 months out of the year.  And who used Kosher salt back then?  Anyway, I love the updates to this recipe and it makes a great fuss-free, guilt-free side on those hot nights.  Now, if only I could get my kids to eat it!

Winner of Yesterday’s Giveaway

Congratulations to Commenter #54, Arlene!  You’ve won yesterday’s giveaway – Nature’s Path cereal, 2 Larabars and a NuVal t-shirt.  Please email me at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your t-shirt size and mailing address.  Thanks to all who entered!

Posted by: Melissa 4 comments

Posted in: yogurt

Tags: potato salad

Fun Things to Do With Yogurt

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 09:09 AM

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I work for this amazing company called NuVal. We are analyzing thousands of foods and scoring them on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being highest. This process is eye-opening, to say the least, and there have been many “Ah-ha!” moments along the way. One of the most interesting categories so far has been yogurt. Considered by many to be one of those universally healthy foods (It’s yogurt, it must be good for you!), yogurt actually has a huge range of scores, from 14 – 99.

We used to be all into Activia in our household. I guess we thought we’d try the whole digestive health thing to see if it made our tummies happier. The Activia scores are all over the board, with Dannon Activia Light Fat Free Blueberry scoring an 89 and Dannon Activia Low Fat Mixed Berry scoring a 23. So, my DH and I ate our yogurts, but not with gusto. We just ate them because, you know, it’s yogurt and it’s good for you.

And then, on the advice of my super-healthy, Pilates-studio-owning sister, I tried Greek yogurt. Well, I just thought I had died and gone to heaven. Yum, yum, yum. I love it. It is smooth and creamy and filling. When I was growing up, we actually made our own yogurt. We bought a yogurt-maker with S&H Green Stamps (I am so dating myself here) and made delicious plain yogurt that we ate with strawberries. I think that experience gave me my taste for plain, thick yogurt, which I much prefer to thinner, fruity varieties. I love that Chobani Non-Fat Plain Greek yogurt scores a 94.

Here are some things I’m doing with my Chobani plain these days.
1. Mixing it with blueberries, strawberries and/or bits of nectarine
2. Serving it on baked potatoes in place of sour cream
3. Layering it in our Healthy Fajitas (we use a whole-grain tortilla, slices of lime grilled chicken, my famous Avocado salsa, and of course some Chobani plain)

A well-mannered foodie friend of mine mixes her plain Greek yogurt with cold boiled new potatoes and fresh dill for a delicious potato salad.

Another structured foodie friend makes a great salad dressing with plain (not Greek) yogurt, a little feta cheese and fresh or dried dill. It is my new favorite dip. I even had the kids fooled for a while until they demanded they get their Ranch back.

What fun things are you doing with yogurt these days? I’d love to hear your comments.

Posted by: Melissa No comments yet

Posted in: Activia, Chobani, yogurt