Recipe: Peruvian Potato Salad

Peruvian Potato Salad

4 servings
About 1-1/3 cups sauce

Peruvian Potato Salad This salad is most flavorful when the potatoes are warm, but it is equally enjoyable when chilled. Use Peruvian blue potatoes if available, but any all-purpose or boiling potato will work.

Heat in a small skillet over medium heat:
1 tablespoon peanut oil

Add:
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped

Cook until soft and lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Transfer to a blender and add:
1/2 cup roasted unsalted Spanish peanuts, skins removed
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup crumbled ricotta salata or farmer's cheese
1-1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 fresh jalapeño or other chili pepper, quartered and seeded
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Blend the sauce until smooth and set aside.

Cover with cold water and bring to a boil:
4 to 6 Peruvian blue, Yellow Finn,
or boiling potatoes (about 1-1/2 pounds)

Cook until tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, about 25 minutes. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, peel and slice into rounds.

Arrange on 4 salad plates:
Lettuce leaves

Top the lettuce with the potato slices and, if desired, season with:
Salt and ground black pepper

Spoon the reserved sauce over the potatoes.

Garnish each plate with:
Hard-boiled eggs
Pickled onions
Black olives
Cooked corn on the cob,
sliced into 2-inch-thick rounds

Buy the Book!

Joy of Cooking
All About Vegetarian Cooking
By Irma S. Rombauer,
Marion Rombauer Becker & Ethan Becker
Simon & Schuster, Inc., October 2000
Hardback, 128 pages, $19.95
150 photographs; 100 in full color
ISBN: 0-7432-0209-9
Recipe reprinted by permission.