Autumn Potato Salad Recipe

A simple roasted potato salad incorporating a couple other seasonal root vegetables like parsnips and carrots. I served it on a bed of wild rice with a simple mustard vinaigrette.

Autumn Potato Salad

I did that thing the other night, Halloween actually, where you're invited to a party and can't decide exactly what to bring. At first I said I'd bring a hearty salad of some sort, but as soon as I heard the word salad leave my mouth, ideas for savory tarts started flitting around my brain. And wow, is that a pâte sucrée tart shell in the freezer? Maybe I should make something with that. I also decided, right around the same time, that it would be a good idea to bake cookies for trick-or-treaters instead of handing out candy. I was looking at a long day in the the kitchen for sure.

I got an early start, and in the morning collected ingredients from all my favorite shops. It was beautiful and sunny out, and hey, we should really go for a walk. And do you want to try someplace new for lunch? And, and.....and somehow the day snuck away from me in a hundred fantastic ways. In the end, a spinach tart made it next door, and the neighborhood kids got freshly baked cookies, and the chocolate tart made it out of the oven, but not to the party. And this salad never made it out of my head. It had to wait until later in the week to make an appearance. But I thought I'd share it with you because I liked how it turned out.

Autumn Potato Salad

The idea was a simple roasted potato salad incorporating a couple other seasonal root vegetables like parsnips and carrots. I served it on a bed of wild rice - all with a simple mustard vinaigrette. I've think I've subliminally been on a bit of a mustard bender since I returned from Paris.

Autumn Potato Salad

Also, I should mention, embarrassingly enough - that when all these roasted beauties finished their term in the oven, I noticed the parsnips waiting patiently on the sideline, quiet as church mice, raw as ever. They never made it onto the pan. I'll include them in the recipe though, because they were supposed to be there .

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Autumn Potato Salad Recipe

I used some charming pink-fleshed, huckleberry potatoes (or at least I believe they were huckleberry potatoes), but any small, waxy potatoes will do. Also, on the mustard front, I seek out plain whole-grain mustard for the dressing - no added herbs. Also, and I've mentioned this before, wild rice takes some time to cook, so I make up big pots of it, drain it really well, let it cool, pack it into freezer bags, and freeze it. It freezes beautifully, and makes quick work salads like this - perfect for soups too. And one last note of importance, do your best to cut your vegetables into pieces of similar thickness, so they roast in a similar time frame.

1 1/2 pounds small, waxy potatoes, well scrubbed and halved or quartered
1/2 pound baby carrots, well scrubbed and halved or quartered
1/2 pound parsnips, well scrubbed, and halved
6 medium shallots, peeled
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 big pinches of sea salt
2 bunches of scallions (green onions), greens topped off, and halved lengthwise

vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small shallot, minced
2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon heavy cream or creme fraiche (optional)

2 cups cooked wild rice (opt)

Preheat oven to 375F degrees.

In a large bowl toss the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and shallots with 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 big pinches of salt. When the ingredients are well coated, turn them out onto a large baking sheet in a single layer. There will be a bit of residual oil in the bottom of the bowl, gently add the green onions to the mixing bowl and push them around a bit until they are coated as well. If there is room on your baking sheet add the onions in their own corner (they take less time to roast and you will need to remove them), or place them on their own baking sheet. Place in the oven.

The scallions will likely finished baking first, remove them when they are well-browned, roughly 20 minutes. The rest of the vegetables usually take somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes. Let them go until they are deeply golden and tender throughout. Check them regularly, flip them with a metal spatula once or twice along the way, and if any of the smaller pieces are getting too dark pull them off the pan.

While the vegetables are roasting, start the dressing by pouring the red wine vinegar into a small bowl along with the chopped shallot. If you have the time, let it sit there for twenty minutes or so. Then whisk in the mustard and salt, before slowly drizzling in the olive oil, whisking all the while. Whisk in the cream, taste and adjust with more mustard, vinegar, salt, etc to taste.

When they are done roasting, remove the vegetables from the oven. In a large bowl toss the wild rice (if you're going that route) with a splash of the vinaigrette. You can now either transfer the rice to a serving platter, as a bed for the vegetables, or you can add the roasted vegetables to the bowl and toss them with the rice, the rest of the dressing, and half of the scallions. Turn everything out onto the platter and serve topped with the remaining roasted scallions.

Serves 6.

Prep time: 15 minutes - Cook time: 45 minutes

If you make this recipe, I'd love to see it - tag it #101cookbooks on Instagram!

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Comments

Ola Heidi, Thanks for sharing with us a beautiful recipe you have. I would like to include this new recipe to the list of my family menu. Thanks and always keep posted us newest one. With love, Elizabeth, Timor-Leste

elizabeth

I am unable to comment on the garlic soup but have a question I am itching to know the answer for. What is the best egg-free way to adapt the soup ? Like the Orzo soup I can just skip the step? Many Thanks for your wonderful recipes!

Amrutha

We do the same stuff girl, the only 'dif' is You are more persistant than Me. I Fall back in Autumn. Your stuff looks great, somehow I'm just not hungry anymore. Got any healthy smoothies coming my way? I need smoothing.

Laura

to Sim: If vinegar (and wine) don't suit your tastes, then any type of acid will work in a vinaigrette. Lemon might be a good match here with the mustard.

Emily

Thanks for this recipe! I have never been a fan of traditional potato salad with mayo or sour cream.

Jeff

Hi, I made this for a baby shower and it was a big hit. My only comment for improvement was that I found it to be slightly oilier ( is that a word?) than necessary - the veggies were swimming in it after roasting and I had to do a fair bit of straining before putting it all together. It was of course, delicious - thanks!

Lisa

Hi Heidi, Made this salad for dinner last night and substituted yams for the purple potatoes because of my partners allergy to potatoes. Couln't get any parsnips so I added celery root, turnip and fennel with the carrots and scallions. I really enjoyed this dish and decided after eating the dressing that I would experiment with a roasted shallot-balsamic vinaigrette.

SugarNymph

sounds great,makes one to salivate.thanks for sharing this

anthony

I love cooking and eating specially veggies! This is a good recipe (as well as all the others)... Thanks for 101 Cookbooks.

Luisa Mercado

I would appreciate any info for a substitute for the red wine vinegar. Neither wine nor vinegar are good for me, but I still would like to make this salad and its dressing. Long time reader and admirer, first time poster. Whatever I tried from your blog was a huge success, with the winning prize being the japanese pizza recipe. Thank you.

sim

YUM. And thank you so much for making so many of your recipes so vegan friendly - it makes my search for the perfect take along party food or romantic dinner easy as salad :).

Emma

What a lovely salad! And what perfect autumn colours!

Tiina

Great looking salad!!! The cookies look great too, but beware, a lot of parents will chuck them when their little trick-or-treater makes it home. Anything that's not in store-packaging tends to be mistrusted (you know the old wives tales of razor blades and poison in halloween candy). I would hate to see your beautiful cookies in the trash!

becca

I can't wait to try this recipe in my catering services surely my clients will loved it.

BirminghamCatering

its a nice recipe. its looks so delicious

simi

This roasted root vegetable salad looks marvelous! I've never used a dressing when I've made similar dishes, so this is a great addition to an already fabulous dish! Thanks!

Fresh Local and Best

this looks so delicious, i can't wait to try it out.

Hannah

I love the addition of the rice providing such great contrast to the colourful vegetables.

emma. our kitchen

Inspiring!

Evie

I love the plate you are using for the photo.

Tobias Cooks!

Hmph. Well, I don't like parsnips anyway. Great recipe though! I considered making cookies for trick-or-treaters too, but I was afraid parents would be weary of homebaked stuff, given that creepos in the past have stuck scary things into children's treats. Disgusting, really. However, I bet people know you from miles around from the lovely smells constantly wafting out of your house, so they'd know to trust those cookies, and confiscate them only to keep them for themselves ;)

Anonymous

Let me just say, you have me on a mustard bender too. Esp after those mustard croutons with the broccoli cheddar soup (which was fabulous). I'll def try the mustard vinaigrette.

anna

Glad to know that even you get stumped sometime on what to bring. I do the same thing. I agree to bring one thing and then get excited about another.

Kelly

Wow! Heidi~ This salad looks delicious and I can't wait to try it!!! YUM! Heidi~We have our NEW healthy bakedinmaine cookies available in our etsy shop. Let me know what u think .....We LOVE healthy cookies!!! Mimi xo http://bakedinmaine.etsy.com

Wow! Heidi~ This salad looks delicious and I can't wait to try it!!! YUM! Heidi~We have our NEW healthy bakedinmaine cookies available in our etsy shop. Let me know what u think .....We LOVE healthy cookies!!! Mimi xo http://bakedinmaine.etsy.com

I made this tonight for a sick friend and her family, it was a really beautiful presentation. I also added baked lemon garlic chicken breasts, a couple handfuls of garbanzo beans and topped it off with italian parsley and lemon zest. Thanks for the inspirational recipe!

Becky C.

Such a comfort recipe, hits on all points, the warmth and nutty taste or the wild rice mixed with the sweetness the comes from roasting the vegetables. I added sweet potatoes to the roasted mix. I also added toasted walnuts to the cooked rice after adding the dressing In the dressing I used rice vinegar instead of the the red wine vinegar. Raw shallots also are hard on my stomach sometimes so I substituted it with Garlic.

Shelley

Is there anything better than roasted vegetables in the fall? I usually roast them with rosemary, but I think a mustard vinaigrette sounds fabulous!

Cooking with Michele

This was wonderful! I could not find just wild rice, so I used a brown rice, wild rice, wheat berry combo. I to skip the cream, since I did not have any, the dressing was great without it. Yum!

Elle

This is a great recipe - perfect for Autumn! -Eliza

Eliza

Hi Heidi ! I love all the salads you make, they look so nice and colourful! Ciao Sabrina

Maccaveggieblog

It was incredible! My wife was shocked I cooked so good. She said she loved me!! There was practically no cleanup, I am hooked.

Manu

This is a great use of Autumn root vegetables. What a beautiful, hearty dish!

Cookin' Canuck

I've been on a roasted veggie roll...and something in roasted celery lately is making me obsess! But, your take on it here with the mustard vinaigrette is just too delish!! Great recipe, just what I'm in the mood for! And, the trick or treat cookies...I'd have been happy with that treat too!

LoveFeast Table

MMMmmmm! Roasted veggies in a salad this sounds to good to be true. I think I will have to make this very soon, I already have some cook wild rice, this recipe is so calling my name! http://whatyourmommadidntknow.blogspot.com/

Sophia Pflieger

this looks very nice and I think it's healthy to eat.

agentenfilme

I find potatoes to be such a crowd-pleasing salad base, since (obviously) they're much heartier than lettuce but still not unhealthy. In the summer, I like to add them to tomatoes, cukes, and onions marinated with olive oil - what we call grandpa salad. It's the kind of dish where the sum transcends its parts, since the potatoes soak up the flavors in such a miraculous way.

Small Kitch Cara

Hi Heidi, this looks so delicious, and perfect for getting the dregs out of our weekly veg box. Have you gotten Clotilde's new book yet? It arrived at my desk today, and it's soooo heavy, and I am sooooo excited. Can't wait to get home and tuck in! T

Tuula

I made this last night with some friends, and we all absolutely loved it. I definitely recommend serving it on the bed or mixed in with the wild rice. I didn't add the creme fraiche to keep it vegan. I went to the Ballard farmers market in Seattle and picked up a mixture of red potatoes and blue potatoes. Beautiful dish. Thanks Heidi! -Jules

Julie

I've recently started adding parsley root to all my roast veggie dishes. So great and so available this time of year!

Meghan (Making Love In The Kitchen

I've recently started adding parsley root to all my roast veggie dishes. So great and so available this time of year!

Anonymous

Just want to let you know how much I appreciate your recipes --- esp. the simpler ones. We plan dinner via your site all the time! Thanks for sharing...

Leigh

Heidi, this salad is beautiful. It incorporates everything I like in an autumn salad and it doesn't use mayonnaise as a cheap trick to cover the ingredients! I liked your plate, too. ;-)

CJ

The food is always good. But I can't help but notice your very beautiful plate. Very beautiful! :)

The Artist Chef

Love the look of this (and appreciate how you included your oops on the parsnips - we all have those moments). Beautiful!

Nancy

Looks heavenly! Once I taught a cooking class centering around garbanzo beans...and I left them out of the main dish. whoops!

Michelle @ Find Your Balance

My father and I just had this salad for lunch. I did the cooking. :) What can I say? Simply wonderful! The dressing really adds a lot of great flavor! Thanks for a great site and and some great recipes!

Jeff in Alaska

Salad looks beautiful - but HOW do we know that churchmice are quiet?????

Karen

Yum! This will be on my plate sometime this week... perhaps with small Cornish hens roasted to golden brown and a bed of wilted greens as the bed for the salad instead of the wild rice ... hmm, I can see the colors already! Thanks, Heidi!

Susan

Just lovely!

MC

This looks so mouthwatering, I can just devour it right now :)

Sudeshna

Made it! It tasted just as nice the next day1 I added whole garlic gloves as well. Great side dish minus the rice to cold roast beef!

Mary from Sharjah

Great tip about freezing the wild rice! It's not something I use very often because, like you said, it takes forever to cook. But now I'll definitely make a pot full and store it :) Oh, and the salad looks absolutely gorgeous. I love the color of those potatoes.

S.

Hi Heidi I am just waiting to try out this wonderful recipe for my son who is a big patato patron !!

SMITA

This is making me crave roasted vegetables. BTW, I'm impressed that you can hand out home-baked cookies and parents don't freak. I guess if they know you, it's all good.

Erica

Yum! I love any way of preparing root vegetables. I'll definitely give this a try soon! Parsnips are one of my favorite things.

Amy

just wanted to thank you Heidi for all your amazing recipes. i make them often and making this one right now. the house is filled with the most wonderful smells. so grateful!

amy

Gorgeous photo! Makes me want to cook... if I knew how

Tory - Hip Paris

Very unique salad.

Miranda

Sometimes I like recipes that require me to attend to the timing of different ingredients (like these many items baking in the oven for different times), and sometimes that is annoying. This looks valuable enough to push past any annoyance I may have in order to arrive at such a neat salad as a reward!

RiverWhispers

perfect for this time of year; filling and using ordinary things. The bright splash of the dressing will be perfect. thanks.

Darlene Webb

I think what I love most about your uniquely you........ share -a - dish marathon blog heidi .. IS:..............It never stops making me smile & never disappoints & it is just a place to embrace the beauty of being alive...thank you for giving so much to us!

Christy jill

What a gorgeous salad! I love your recipes and the photos are just stunning.

Victoria@Gastronommy

So colorful and seasonal! I have the same root veggies ready for a roast tonite...may have to pair them with wild rice!

Karen@Cook4Seasons

Mmmm... I know the feeling, the day gets away from you... but glad you were able to make and share this salad! Thank you.

Maggie at EatBoutique

Oh, this sounds delicious. I don't know if I could leave the roasted veggies alone long enough to make the vinaigrette, though. :-)

Pestomama

While I enjoyed your recipe Heidi, I'd have to say I enjoyed your recollection of the day even more. You described a perfect day for what it's like to live in the city by the bay. It's a special place and I look forward to my next visit.

tom | tall clover farm

Delicious!

Winny

Love the "quiet as church mice" bit. Never thought to make an Autumn potato salad before. What a great idea.

Lucy T.

This looks fantastic! Only, I don't really care for parsnips. Do you think sweet potatoes or yams (I don't really know the difference) would be a good substitute?

Stacy

How about the recipes for the spinach and chocolate tarts!!!! My mouth is watering here!

Mary

I like salad potatoes very much.

angelo

i love your honesty about the parsnips. i do that ALL THE TIME! forget an ingredient! *sigh*

Benjamin

thanks for sharing the recipe;;;;

eldhot

Hello Heidi, Such a beautiful salad! I do roasted root vegetables (with herbs) all the time during autumn/winter, but the vinaigrette here sounds really good... I'm looking forward to trying this when I go back in a kitchen :)

chika

This was very delightful dish for me and it is one of the healthiest potato recipe too.Want to try and taste it out.Thanks for sharing and iam one of your fan and will keep on updating your recipes.

cookeaze

I can not get enough mustard, either. I want it on everything!

Shannon

Wow, that is a gorgeous and delicious-looking potato salad! I thought about making cookies to pass out this year, but decided against it figuring that parents would deem them "unsafe" because they weren't safely prepackaged in a wrapper. How were the cookies received? Or are you mainly giving out treats to kids that you know? You know, I was worried about it for a minute or two - and then decided that it would be so much more fun if more people made homemade treats. So I went for it. There were a mix of kids that came by - some I knew, most I didn't. The parents seemed totally fine with the cookies, some even asked if they could have their own! And I have to say, the faces on a lot of the kids really lit up when they saw I had cookies - It was very cute. I highly recommend it for next year.

HomegrownTexan

The combination of roasted potatoes, carrot & parsnip is one of my favourite easy side dishes. I usually just toss them in salt & butter but next time I'll call it a salad and use a vinaigrette and maybe the wild rice too.

Daily Spud

We're always looking for new ways to enjoy potatoes - this looks great! Thanks!

Simply LIfe

Although I have said it before, I must say again, that this is my favorite food blog and recipe source. You regularly feature recipes for foods I grow, or can get from local farmers - and they are always delicious. Add to that your beautiful photography and stories and it is indeed the perfect recipe. Your generosity toward others, (cooks you have featured here), greatly inspired me in my own work. Thank you Heidi. This potato salad looks delightful. Michaela

Michaela at The Gardener's Eden

This looks great, all ingrediants already on hand. Will make this tonight for dinner! I came across your blog only a week ago and I am in love...your philosophy and amazing recipes are right up my alley. I think I've already made 5 recipes from it! All wonderful Thanks Heidi! From your newest fan :)

Jessica

Quite possibly the most elegant looking potato salad I've ever seen.

Heather (The Yummy Mommy Diet)

Beautiful. I have a couple of sweet potatoes here, whispering that they would like to join in the fun. Have just added wild rice to the shopping list... Thank you!

Mouse

Thanks for share good recipe. Good post, keep it up.

balunov7

This is the healthiest potato salad recipe I've ever seen. I am so making this soon!

Erika from The Pastry Chef At Home

Heidi, Your potato and wild rice salad sounds great. We've been cooking up wild rice here quite a bit now that it is chilly and rainy. I pressure cooked a batch the other day but I don't like the texture of it as much as simply slow cooking it in a pot. It does take so much time that I think I will freeze some next time as you suggest. I like to have a few cups cooked to just toss into veggie soups at this time of year. And huckleberry potatoes? I have never heard of those. They sure are beautiful! Thanks! -Ali :)

Ali

This is exquisite, and right up my alley!

Gena

Heidi: This sounds and looks delicious- exactly what I've been looking for!!! P.S.- I don't see how to comment on the 'Basic Chocolate Cake" recipe, but I just made it for my husband's birthday and it was a total hit!! I made it in a springform pan and topped it with fresh raspberries. Thank you so much!!!!! :)

Janinka

I do not think I have ever seen an Autumn potato salad. It not only looks beautiful I have a feeling it probably taste great too :)

Nutmeg Nanny

Sorry Heidi, but I am really glad to hear that you forgot the parsnips. It's so nice to know that even you make mistakes sometimes :)

Monica

I love recipes I can make from staples I keep on hand in my refrigerator. Add some cubed tofu to the root veggies, and this could be a great main dish... might end up as my lunches for the week!

Alana

What a beautiful salad!!

Estela @ Weekly Bite

i need to eat this right now

amanda

Festive and beautiful, as always. :)

candice

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