Creamy Dill Potato Salad

Last night, we went over to our friend's house for a birthday gathering.  It was a bar-be-que, and my friend Grace made a great traditional mustard potato salad.  It really got me jonesin' for MORE potato salad, so I decided to veganize a creamy potato salad so Steven and I could have some to much on this week.  Now I would've attempted to vegan-up a mustard potato salad, but I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted, so I went for my other favorite potato salad...the new potato dill kind.


I can not stress enough how important the use of raw cashews are to making real yummy, creamy, gourmet vegan foods.  With raw cashews, you can recreate almost any of your favorite omnivore foods...except animal proteins, of course.  Anyway, my dill potato salad came out wonderful, and we can't stop eating it.  Give it a try!

Creamy Dill Potato Salad

Ingredients:

-  About 18 small red skinned potatoes, give or take

-  Red onion thinly sliced (optional)

(Sauce ingredients)

-  1/2 cup raw cashews

-  1/2 cup water

-  2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

-  1 tsp. dijon mustard

-  1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

-  2 tsp. kosher salt*

-  1/2 tsp. onion powder

-  1.5 tsp. dried dill

-  !/2 tsp. dried parsley

*This is quite a bit of salt, but if you use this amount, you will not need to add any salt after mixing the sauce and potatoes together.  Also remember, when you taste the sauce before you add it to the potatoes, it will taste too salty, but the sauce is responsible for salting and seasoning a whole bunch of bland potatoes, so it needs to be intense.  If you're nervous about it being too salty, back it off to 1.5 tsp kosher salt...I'm a salt fiend, so it was perfect for me, but may be too salty for others.

Directions:

Quarter the new potatoes, and boil them in a pot of water until thoroughly cooked, but still firm and hold together. Do not over cook your potatoes!  Drain, and leave to cool in a colander, etc.  Set aside.

In a blender, add the cashews and water.  Blend on high until until a creamy homogenous texture is achieved.  Next, add the balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, and onion powder.  Blend until thoroughly combined.  Finally, add the dried parsley and dill to the creamy mixture, and only pulse to combine and distribute spices throughout mixture.  Finished sauce should be thick in consistency.  Remove from blender carafe and into a small tubberware container with a lid.  Set aside in the refrigerator.

Add the cooked new potatoes to a large bowl.  If you wish, thinly slice some red onion and toss to combine with the potatoes.  At this time, add the sauce to the potatoes and onions in hefty portions.  I say to do this because everyone's different on their preference of how wet or dry they want their potato salad.  Use your judgement; I used all the sauce.  If you don't use all the sauce, or wish to make a smaller amount of potato salad by cooking less potatoes, you can always use the excess sauce as a salad dressing on your leafy greens, or as an awesome veggie dip.  Whatev's.  Be creative.

And, that's it!  It's best to let this sit in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving so it can marinate the potatoes.

Sooooo tasty,

CC