I finally cracked and made my own potato salad and “meatball” bento – looks Scandianvian, doesn’t it?
Homemade potato salad though, and the “meatballs” are falafels. They come pre-fried and just need microwaving – very handy! Then there’s some gardengrown salad and some cherry tomatoes, a skewered pickle and some red beets (which were the last of my freezer stash).
Pretty simple bento, but I came home late from training and STILL made the potato salad from scratch then. (I make my own mayonaise – I can’t stand salad with storebought mayo.) So – simple-looking, but not that simple.
Potato salad
About 600g of potatoes, boiled and still warm! Boil while you make the rest.
Mayonaise: 1 room-temperature egg
unflavoured oil (I use corn or sunflower)
Salt
1 Tsp. mustard
Beat up the egg a little, then beat in the oil in a thin stream until emulsion forms. Add salt and mustard. I did the whole thing in a food processor and added 4-5 small pickles in the end, which got chopped up in the mayonaise. Saves time.
Salad
2-3 Tsp. Sourcream (I don’t like sourcream all that much, so I use thick yoghurt. It gives a different taste though, which is somewhat rougher than sourcream.)
1/2 red onion, chopped
2-3 Tsp. vinegar (preferable apple, if you have it)
Mix with the mayonaise. Add salt and pepper to taste (and don’t be afraid to file on the recipe a little until it matches your taste!)
Peel the potatoes and chop them into slices. Toss with the salad while still warm. Cool at room temperature and enjoy!
It’s not the most spectacular recipe, but I needed it written down somewhere :)
I’m not fond of Austrian style (non-mayo) potato salad, which is made with broth. But my grandma swears on making her own mayonaise for mayo salad, and I love that! Adding yoghurt or sourcream makes it a *little* less fatty, which is also good, and fresher.
That looks so yummy!
I love homemade mayo too!! Can’t stand the store bought ones, either too sweet or too sour!
Your bento looks so yummy!!
This is a fabulous looking lunch! I recently made mayo for the first time and wanted to slather it all over my arms and lick it off. Is TMI?
So nummy looking, and rich and creamy-looking.
Is there a way around the mustard? My dad’s allergic to that spice.
That tomato flower- it’s the top of the sliced cherry tomato, right? Just readjusted, or is there a trick to that?
I’m pretty sure you don’t need to use mustard if you don’t want to. I have seen recipes with worcestershire sauce or just lemon and garlic (aioli) as well.
To make the tomato flowers, cut a sawblade pattern – /\/\/\ – around the tomato’s diameter with the tip of a sharp knife. Then you can glide in the knife gently and cut off anything that’s still connected in the middle, and slide the two halves apart. Voilà – two tomato flowers!
;)
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