• Welcome to 101 Cookbooks, my recipe journal. I primarily feature healthy, vegetarian recipes - with the occasional sweet treat thrown in. To subscribe simply enter your email address, this way you'll never miss a recipe.

Fourth of July in San Francisco isn't like celebrating in other American cities. In fact, drive just 10 miles in any direction, and it is an entirely different experience -- primarily because of the weather. While the rest of the country is decked out in tank tops, sun dresses, and a slathering of SPF 25, here we load up the car with blankets, hoodies, and mittens. People migrate towards the bay to see the fire works, others visit friends living high on one of the hills overlooking the city in hopes of seeing a spectacular fireworks show after nightfall. There is always a bit of anticipation in the air, people never knowing if the fog will clear enough to actually see the spectacle. There have been years where watching the fireworks is like seeing dozens of giant colored fire-flies glowing through a haze of thick cotton high above.

I wanted to choose a quintessential July 4th type of recipe - something I could take to whatever BBQ's we ended up going to this weekend. I almost went for the Buttermilk Pie recipe from the Jimtown Store Cookbook, but instead opted for this stunner of a potato salad from Once Upon a Tart. As we all know, potato salad is a staple of many Fourth of July bar-b-ques - holding its own right up there with grilled corn, cold beer, watermelon, and red white, and blue berried fruit tarts. But today I was after a contemporary take on potato salad. One that wasn't slathered in mayo. One that used a range of fresh produce, not just potatoes and celery. I thought this recipe might just fit the bill.

It calls for the beautifully freckled scarlet runner beans which I easily found in the bean bins at Rainbow Foods. They are big, meaty, and substantial. Small red potatoes, green beens, fresh herbs, and a rainbow of tiny tomatoes left me with a beautiful collection of perfect summer produce on my kitchen counter. I rinsed. I chopped. I boiled. I blanched. And what I ended up with was one fine salad if I don't say so myself. Not only was this an impressive tasting salad, but it was also a looker to boot. I loved it. It is tossed with a strong red wine vinaigrette that seeps deep into the creamy potato chunks and glistens off the bright green beans - delicious!

The only drawback to this salad, as with many chopped salads, is that there is quite a bit of prep involved. You have to boil and blanch your ass off - so make double while you are at it and have a healthy lunch or snack for the next few days. Enjoy. This recipe is a keeper!

p.s. The potatoes are in there they are just hiding at the bottom in the picture.

In some of the early entries on this site I didn't request permission to run the recipe I was writing about from the publisher so it won't appear here. The majority of entries on 101 Cookbooks will have the recipes attached, this just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't.

From: Once Upon a Tart Page: 139

Print Recipe

Never miss a recipe!
Enter your email address to subscribe to 101 Cookbooks via email:

3 Comments Print Recipe Print with Photo Email this Recipe

Add to del.icio.usAdd to StumbleUponShare on Facebook