My Mom's "Grüner Salat mit Kartoffeln" (Green salad with potatoes)

A green salad? Whats's so special about it?

This is a no ordinary green side salad. Three ingredients make it stand out:

• thinly sliced boiled potatoes
• lots of garlic
• dark and nutty pumpkin seed oil

My Mom uses a mix of different greens and slices in small pieces of boiled potatoes, adds lots of minced garlic and a special kind of oil - pumpkin seed oil. It has a slighly nutty flavor. We used to call it "Dunkel-Öl" (dark oil) because it is almost black.

I love my Mom's green salad with garlic. I have always had a taste for vinegar in general (such as in pickles). As a child, I really was crazy about this garlic vinegraitte/ dressing, however, I only "ate" (or drunk) the vinegraitte with the small pieces of potatoes in it. I did not really care for the green stuff ;) My Mom sometimes gave me a separate bowl in which she added some of the vinegraitte and she also picked out small pieces of potatoes for me :)

The right kind of Mixed Greens

• Add some TEXTURES: tender (e.g., loose leaf lettuces), crispy (e.g., romaine, iceberg, chicory), curly (e.g., coral lettuce, frisée)
• Add some COLOR (e.g., red romaine, red leaf lettuce, red lollo rosso)
• Add some BITTERNESS (e.g., lollo rosso, radichio)

There are different kind of lettuces:

• Loose leaf lettuce are large, loosely packed leaves joined at the stem. They don't form a head. They have a mild delicate taste and can be smooth or ruffled. The ruffled ones, e.g. coral lettuce like green lollo bionda and red lollo rosso, are slightly more bitter.
• Romaine lettuce are long leaves that form a loaf-shaped head. They are more crisp in texture and have a strong but not bitter flavor.
• Chicory family (e.g., radicchio, escarole, frisée, endive) are crisp in texture with a sweet nutty flavor and a mild bitterness.
• Iceberg lettuce have a tight cabbage like head, are crisp but very mild in flavor. They are high on B vitamine folate.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

• 200g mixed greens (I used some ruffled red loose leaf lettuce and some crispy green romaine)
• 2 small potatoes, waxy (e.g., Yukon gold or baby potatoes)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vegeta salt
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil
• 3 tablespoons water (cold)

optional: add some sweet corn

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoe skin on in saltwater till soft. They need to almost slide off a fork. Drain the poataoes and let cool down. 
2. Cut the greens. Wash and dry them. Add to a bowl. Mince the garlic on top of the greens. Slice the potatoes in small thin pieces over the greens. Sprinkle the seasoning over everything. You can add some corn or thinly sliced tomatoe, but I do like to keep it simple and natural.
3. Pour first the vinegar evenly over the greens, then the different kinds of oils including the dark pumpkin seed oil, and last the water. As you do not prepare and mix the vinaigrette separately, it is important that you now thouroughly mix everything. Use some big salad spoons and slash them together from both sides with the greens several times. This will not only help to mix the dressing of vinegar and oil, but also break down a bit more the potatoes, thickening up the dressing just slightly.
4. Serve as a side salad. I like to eat it with my Mom's Spagetthie Bolognese that also contains lots of garlic :)

Print this recipe: