I just finished my second Daring Kitchen challenge! Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!
I wracked my brain to figure out a rich tasting potato salad while trying to cut the fat content. Awhile ago, I made mashed potatoes with a yellow potato I found at Whole Foods that was advertised as a “butter potato.” Sure enough, when I boiled it, I didn’t have to add butter or cream to it and the potato itself had a lovely creamy rich taste. I went and picked up another bag of the yellow butter potatoes to make potato salad.
The recipe I’m submitting for the potato challenge is a truffled potato salad with garlic roasted mushrooms. It’s packed full of flavor and fairly easy to make. For the challenge, I ended up making two versions of potato salad. The truffled one and a Japanese inspired one since I had fresh shiso on hand and I grew up eating a similar version my mother made. I figured that if my truffled version ended up being epic potato fail, I’d still have another one to blog about.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb of butter potatoes
1 shallot
1 T minced onion
minced chives (extra for topping!)
2 oz wild mushrooms (oyster/shitake/crimini) minced
2 oz pancetta (optional)
3 hard boiled egg whites (yolks removed) loosely chopped
3 T Japanese Kewpie mayo
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
truffle oil
salt and fresh cracked pepper
Boil the potatoes in some lightly salted water until they are tender. While the potatoes are boiling, saute the minced garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil and add in the minced mushrooms until they are crispy and brown. Render the pancetta (if using) in a separate pan while mushrooms are roasting. When potatoes are finished cooking, peel them, quarter, and toss with the remaining ingredients. Salt and pepper to your taste and at the very end, drizzle in a splash of truffle oil. Top with more chives for garnish and serve!
Cooking the potato salad was fairly straightforward. It was standing there juggling multiple pots and pans that were super tiring!
The garlic roasted mushrooms smelled divine and I couldn’t help stealing little bits out of the pan during the cooking process. The mushrooms add a nice heartiness to the salad that makes it perfect for vegetarians as a “substitute” for bacon.
Everything in the bowl except the mayo! I realized that the bowl was too small to mix in so I had to dress the salad in a large metal mixing bowl to evenly coat everything.
I loved the splash of truffle oil at the end to accentuate the earthiness of the mushrooms. I opted to make the vegetarian version without the pancetta.
Yummy!! 
Even Sam was a huge fan!
Japanese Inspired Potato Salad!
My mom always made a version of this without shiso, bacon/pancetta, and with carrots while I was growing up. I changed it up a bit by putting in a quick pickled/salted cucumber to give it some crunch and sprinkling in rendered pancetta to give it a burst of saltiness. I mixed in the shiso to help temper the brininess of the pancetta so that the salad would taste light and fresh.
I love having hard boiled egg whites in there. Getting rid of the yolks definitely cut down on the fat and cholesterol!
I cut the cucumbers thinly and then halved the rounds and heavily salted them to make a quick briney pickle. After soaking in the salt for 10 minutes, I rinsed it in water and soaked the cucumbers multiple times in water to get rid of the excess salt.
Rendered pancetta! MMMMmmmm… I like putting a piece of parchment paper on top of the pan to prevent splatters and keeping my stove in a fairly clean state!
Everything was finished and prepped while the potatoes boiled. When the cucumbers no longer tasted salty, I squeezed out all the excess water and added it into the bowl.
Mixed and topped with a chiffonade of shiso!
YIPPEE!! June challenge success!!