Adding cauliflower to potato salad a healthy option

If you read this column regularly, you know by now that we have a big vegetable garden and that I put food by, as I suspect many of you do, too. I am rapidly entering the season when, if I am not paying attention to menu planning, the garden will get the upper hand. We still have potatoes in the cellar (I have snapped off the sprouts twice now, and let the potatoes get a little sun to dry them before re-storing.) And this week the first whole cauliflower was ready to eat. With just two of us, one cauliflower goes a long way. Half of it I chopped and blanched to add to tomato sauce for spaghetti. The other half weighed on my mind until I decided to make potato salad for supper one night when we had friends over.

What do cauliflower and potato salad have to do with each other? Well, do you remember a while back when everyone decided they had to cut their carbs? Boiled and mashed cauliflower was suggested as a substitute for mashed potatoes. My sister served it once and I thought, “say, this is pretty good!” So I made this little substitution connection between cauliflower and potato that came in handy the other evening. I cooked the cauliflower until it was fork tender and cut it up into an equal amount of cooked potato, and then proceeded just exactly as I would for a regular potato salad.

I realize that “regular potato salad” may vary from household to household. Oh, heck, from meal-to-meal in ours. Most potato salads at our house have celery and something from the onion family in them, but everything from cooked peas, broccoli, fresh or pickled green beans, cucumbers, eggs, little pieces of ham or bacon, etc. etc., have found their way into the dish. Onion family stuff has included scallions, white onions, red onions, shallots and chives, alone or with others, sufficient to provide a nice oniony flavor.

I vary dressings, too, sometimes just mayonnaise, sometimes mayo and Italian or a garlic dressing together, or Italian or vinaigrette dressing alone. I bet you have a favorite you always use; feel free to do so in this recipe, too.

Actually, I don’t know that we can call this a true recipe – those of you who make potato salad a lot will know how many potatoes you usually cook and how much of each ingredient you like to use. I will try to do a little handholding for the novice.

First thing to consider is how many potatoes. When I make potato salad, I figure on one medium potato per person, so with this potato-cauliflower salad, figure on half a medium potato per person, and about as much cauliflower as potato. The salad below is sufficient for six people, plus maybe even some handy leftovers. Remember that the following is only a bunch of suggestions: use more cauliflower, use little red potatoes, leave out onions if you want, use dill instead of parsley.

Potato Cauliflower Salad

Serves 4-6 people.

3 medium boiled potatoes

Half a head of cauliflower, broken into florets and cooked till tender

3 stalks of celery, chopped

4 scallions (or one small onion), chopped finely

2 eggs, hardboiled, peeled and chopped

Several sprigs parsley, finely chopped

Mayonnaise and-or vinaigrette salad dressing

Salt and pepper

Optional add-ins: steamed broccoli florets, cooked peas, cooked green beans,fresh cucumber, chopped small

Cut the potato and cauliflower into bite sized pieces and put into a large bowl. Add the celery, scallions or onion, eggs, and parsley and mix well. Add other ingredients as you please. Add sufficient mayonnaise and-or salad dressing to coat the ingredients to your taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.