Recipe: Miso Potato Salad with Yellow Wax Beans
Springtime brings one of my favorite farmers market treats: tiny new potatoes. Their fresh flavor is delightful in a simple potato salad, like this one, which trades in mayo-laden dressings for a lighter sauce of tangy yogurt mixed with savory miso.
I’m always looking for ways to use another spoon or two of miso; after all, we can’t eat miso soup every day. (Well, I probably could, but it still wouldn’t use up that miso very quickly.) So I like to sneak it into salad dressings for an extra bite of umami and savory sweetness.
This dressing reminds me just a little of the miso and walnut dressing I crave on green beans (see a review of this recipe here). Any miso paste will work well in this recipe, although I usually use white miso — the sweeter, lighter variety. It gives the tangy yogurt dressing a savory and sweet taste that complements the creamy potatoes and snappy yellow wax beans. (You can substitute green beans if you can’t find the yellow wax beans.)
It’s just one more way to make baby potatoes into a meal — and to use up a little more of that tub of miso at the same time.
Miso Potato Salad with Yellow Wax Beans
Serves 4 to 6
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1 pound
small red potatoes or new potatoes, washed
- 1/2 pound
yellow wax beans, trimmed
- 1/2 cup
roughly chopped Italian parsley
- 3
shallots, peeled and sliced
- 3 tablespoons
miso paste, softened at room temperature
- 3/4 cup
whole milk yogurt
- 3 tablespoons
olive oil
- 1 tablespoon
red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Cut the potatoes into quarters. Fill a large pot with about 2 inches of water, and bring to a boil. Insert a steamer basket and fill the basket with the potato quarters. Cover the pot, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. When the potatoes are tender, remove the potatoes and rinse the basket. Put the wax beans in, cover, and steam for about 6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove and toss with the potatoes, parsley, and shallots.
For the dressing, whisk the miso with the yogurt, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the vegetables. Let sit at room temperature for at least half an hour before serving, or let it sit overnight in the fridge.
Recipe Notes
Updated from recipe originally published October 2008.