Smash-and-Toss Roasted Potato Salad

By Tom421

Ingredients

• pound small potatoes, smaller is better
• 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes (oil packed)
• 2 tablespoons oil from sun-dried tomato jar
• 1 tablespoon pickled sushi ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
• 5 scallions, chopped
• Juice of half a lemon, or to taste
• 1/3 cup toasted, sliced almonds
• a handful of basil, slivered
• basil flowers, to finish

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 35mins
Adapted from 101cookbooks.com

Preparation

Step 1

I'll kick this off by saying, this is a roasted potato salad with a secret weapon ingredient. Or, if you prefer, a wild card. Pickled sushi ginger. It sounds odd, but I'm going to argue that it works. Here's what's happening. I took the tiniest, little baby potatoes I could find, and threw them in a hot oven until they were fluffy and tender. Not long at all. Then I smashed a portion of them, and tossed the whole lot with French lentils, plus a mix of ingredients that really punch when it comes to flavor - sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, scallions, pickled ginger, and lemon juice.

For those of you who appreciate variations - I can imagine a smashed chickpea version of this, or roasted cauliflower. I made this with sun-dried tomatoes driving the flavor profile, but kept thinking a version with preserved lemons and preserved lemon oil would also be a stand out! Enjoy!

Heat oven to 425F. Rinse the potatoes, and pat dry with a clean dish towel, absorbing as much extra water as possible. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Roast until well-cooked through - you want them to be fully cooked, fluffy and tender. Remove from the oven, wait five minutes, take a fork, and press about half of the potatoes. You want to smash the potatoes, while still having them retain some structure.

In a large bowl, toss the lentils with the sun-dried tomatoes, sun-dried tomato oil, ginger, sea salt, garlic, most of the scallions, and lemon juice. Toss well. Add the potatoes and gently toss again. Top with the remaining scallions, the almonds, and basil.

Serves 4.

A vegetarian take on what I think of as the Chinese chicken salad of my youth. I love so many components of that salad, the crunchy peanuts, the thin, garlicky sweet dressing, the green notes of cilantro and scallions in there with the salad and cabbage. In place of shredded chicken, I'll pack a hard-boiled egg, or a bit of pan-fried tofu to make a one bowl meal of things.