For most people, potato salads are favorite side dishes. There are many potato lovers out there. They continually find ways to invent new dishes for potatoes.

There so many recipes you can get about potato salads. However, there are things to consider about this type of salad:

• Potato salads sometimes have ingredients that easily spoil. This is why getting the right potato is important. Idaho or Russet potato is perfect for French fries and baked potato recipes but not for boiling and making salads. The Yellow Finn, red potato and Yukon Gold are the best kinds for salad dishes. These potatoes are waxy, with a superior texture and high moisture.

• The basic combination for a potato salad would be potatoes, mayonnaise or salad dressings, vegetables (such as celery and onions), eggs (optional) and seasonings. Since mayonnaise and salad dressing can easily spoil when mixed, you need to store them in a cool temperature.

• When boiling the potatoes, you need to make sure you reach a certain pint before you take them out. You can either cut your potatoes prior to boiling them or you can put them in whole. For smaller pieces, boiling time is shorter. However, before placing the potatoes inside a pot with boiling water, you can add salt onto the water. You will know if the potatoes are ready when it becomes tender enough to be bitten through.

• After boiling the potatoes, allow them to dry by placing them onto empty pots. Another option is to place them on top of some cookie sheets inside the oven just for a few minutes. This is very useful since it allows the seasonings, oils and dressing to sink into your potatoes later on.

• Since potatoes absorb the flavor best when they are still hot, you can add the seasonings already. However, make sure you do not add anything that the heat can easily spoil. Just dab a very light blend of oil, along with some spices and herbs with the potatoes. For the case of cold salads, allow the potatoes to cool down prior to finishing your salad.

• Liven up your potato salad with other ingredients you like. It highly depends on your favorite foods. You may add slices of ham, chopped carrots or raisins.

• The key point in making these potato salads is to have your own set of ingredients. Make it as distinct as you can imagine and as fresh as you want it. You can make use of bacon crisps, pickle juice or even add some vinegar onto it. This is entirely up to you. Try to be as creative as possible and experiment.

For more information on How to prepare potatoes for salad and Starters and Snacks Recipes please visit our website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Urmann

http://EzineArticles.com/?Tips-in-Preparing-Potatoes-For-Salads&id=1752146

If you are short of space then grow earlies! The first earlies are a great treat when you can harvest them and cook them within a very short time. Nothing you can buy in the shops will compare. You also plant them closer together as they do not need to grow as much!

If you have a lot of space for potatoes then you will want to make sure you grow a mix of potatoes but include some that are good for storing. If you are short of space you can grow first earlies in a barrel or potato bag. This means you can grow them even on a patio! Chitting should be done about six weeks before you want to plant them out. So work backwards from the recommended planting date. This will be late January in the warmer regions of the UK and further north it will be February.

A potato has a rounded more blunt end. This is where the eyes are. It is the eyes that sprout.

Stand them so the blunt end is pointing upwards. Use a tray or an egg box. Keep them in natural light but in a frost free place. Frost will damage the potatoes.

You can remove some of the shoots if there’s a lot. They shouldn’t grow too spindly. You want the shoots to be strong. IF you get long thin shoots then they have been kept too warm. Shoots that are tiny indicate too cold.

Spraying the chitting potatoes with a small amount of weak feed of Maxicrop, this is a seaweed feed, can encourage strong growth.

By chitting you encourage the plant to be ready about a week earlier – so there’s not a great deal of problem if you buy potatoes late and just throw them in the ground.

Before planting dig in some well rotted compost.

Plant them the right way up, the right distance apart according to the type (30cm for First Earlies, 45cm for second Earlies and maincrop). The weather needs to be frost free and the soil shouldn’t be water logged. The plants need to be earthed up – that is, the soil pulled up around the plant as it grows. This ensures the foliage is more protected from frost as well as keeping away the weeds. When your plants are 10cm tall you can earth them up almost completely. You can do this again about twice more. If it is difficult to earth them up then you can apply a mulch of well rotted compost or even straw. Just leave the tops of shoots showing from the top of the soil.

About two weeks before you plan on harvesting them you should give them a really good soaking. This enables the tubers to take up more water and increased the weight of the potato crop. Regular watering during the growing season is also recommended.

More information about growing potatoes: http://www.gardenandgardener.co.uk/2010/01/11/growing-potatoes/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_Drinkwater

http://EzineArticles.com/?Potato-Growing-Hints&id=3555542

Technorati Tags: grow potatoes

Celebrate Spinach Lover’s Month with this easy pasta and spinach recipe. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamins A, B2, B6, C and K, as well as magnesium, manganese, folate, iron, calcium, and potassium. Popeye must have really been on to something!

This recipe is vegetarian and can also be vegan if you skip the grated cheese or substitute with a vegan cheese.

Capellini with Spinach

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

10 -12 cloves garlic, minced

2/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

16 oz Fresh Baby Spinach

Juice from one Lemon

3/4 Cup White Wine

1 lb Capellini Pasta (or whole wheat capellini or spaghetti)

Pecorino Romano or Parmesian Cheese (grated)

Start heating the pasta water in a large pot.

In a separate deep frying pan, saute garlic in olive oil until softened (not brown). Slowly add the spinach leaves and keep turning them over in the pan until they get soft. Add the lemon juice and white wine and cook uncovered until alcohol burns off about 2-3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Take pan off heat and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the pasta water and cook pasta as directed on the package.

After pasta is cooked and drained, combine it with the spinach mixture.

Serve immediately and top with grated cheese.

Variations:

Reduce spinach and olive oil by half and add a jar of sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil. If you’re a meat lover, you can add cooked chicken pieces to the mixture at the end.

Debbie Gisonni is an author, speaker, personal growth expert and former corporate executive. Her books include, The Goddess of Happiness: A Down-to-Earth Guide for Heavenly Balance and Bliss, and Vita’s Will: Real Life Lessons about Life Death

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debbie_Gisonni

http://EzineArticles.com/?Easy-Capellini-and-Spinach-Recipe&id=3556983

The Greek salad is the quintessential Greek lunch enjoyed sitting in the sun at gingham laid tables overlooking the turquoise waters of the warm Mediterranean Sea. It evokes the senses: pleasant memories of warm sunshine, fresh herbs, tasty tomatoes and cheeky but handsome waiters.

Greek food is renowned for its simplicity, and the authentic Greek salad is no exception. It is simple to prepare, using simple fresh ingredients. But how can you recreate the authentic Greek salad when you are back home? It’s worth doing, because this simple dish is tasty, healthy, and evokes those memories of vacations by the sea. But it’s important to get it right.

So let’s do it!

To be as authentic as possible, it is important to try and use the freshest, tastiest ingredients just like the Greeks would do. The problem is, many of the ingredients we have available are forced-grown, and often inorganically grown. This affects the quality and also the taste. Many restaurant owners in the resorts in Greece are farmers too (or their cousin Kostas is.) The ingredients they use would often be picked that day from their own farms, organically grown and nurtured by Nature.

The best we can do in our home country, is try and get fresh local ingredients from local shops who advertise local produce, or genuine farmers’ markets — or grow our own! However, the one thing we must accept is that the prime ingredient, Feta cheese, must come from Greece itself — because if it doesn’t, it isn’t Feta.

Ingredients

½ red onion

½ a long cucumber

1 red and 1 green pepper (capsicums)

1-2 big soft red tomatoes

A big rectangular slab of Feta Cheese

Extra Virgin olive oil

Oregano

Salt and Pepper

Lemon juice (if desired)

Some local variations include capers (Santorini), and a softer, less salty cream cheese instead of feta (Crete).

Method

This is a salad remember, so it’s not complicated. But here’s a few tips.

Take the ingredients (except the feta) out of the fridge about 1 hour before you make up the salad. Salad vegetables always taste better when not fridge cold, especially tomatoes.

Use local, organic produce for the best taste.

Use extra virgin olive oil, again for the taste.

The Greeks generally peel the cucumber, so why not do the same?

Chop the vegetables into fairly decent-sized chunks and mix gently. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with plenty of olive oil, and a little lemon juice if you want to.

Pop the slab of feta on the top and drizzle with more oil, then sprinkle with oregano.

Have a good chunk of granary bread handy, because there’ll be some lovely olive-oily juice at the bottom when you finish.

A soft, light white wine goes well with this authentic Greek Salad!

Graham Yates wrote this article. To learn more about Greek and Cretan food, and the World Famous Cretan Diet, visit http://www.completely-crete.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Graham_Yates

http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Make-an-Authentic-Greek-Salad&id=1553939

Technorati Tags: greek salad

One of the earliest and most nutritious greens we can find in spring is the commonly despised dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). In North America, most people view dandelions as a weed, good only to ruthlessly remove from lawns and gardens. However, other cultures, especially Europeans, value the common dandelion, and grow it as a respected and nutritional plant in their garden.

Every part of the dandelion can be useful. The flowers are used to make an herbal wine, or even put into stir fries or battered and cooked as fritters. The young fresh leaves are a tasty and peppery addition to spring salads, stir-frys and soups, or served steamed like spinach. Make sure only to use young leaves, as the older ones quickly become bitter.

High in beta carotene, iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium and other minerals, the leaves and root are highly nutritious. Most of our common greens, like spinach, lettuce and chards do not come close as nutritional powerhouses. They are also full of Vitamin A, most B vitamins, and have a high Vitamin C content.

This is a perennial plant, and if you plan to use the roots, allow at least two growing seasons so the root reaches a good size. They can be dug in the fall, cut into small pieces and dried, roasted and used to make a caffeine free tea. This tea can be used as a diuretic, helping with cleansing the liver and is a digestive tonic. The milky white sap has astringent qualities, so can help dry up some skin conditions like eczema and acne. However, it’s best to do some testing, since some people react adversely to it.

Dandelions grow almost any where, in all zones from 2 to 9. They prefer full sun, but will grow in partly shady spots quite well. They don’t seem to mind what type of soil is provided, as long as it is loose. If you decide to plant dandelions in your garden as a spring green, collect wild seeds from the puffballs in summer. Organic seeds are available from some growers commercially.

Sow the seeds shallowly in early spring where you want them to grow, since they don’t take well to transplanting. If you plan to use the roots, dig in compost or rotted manure, and loosen the soil. The plants will grow into a 6 to 12 inch rosette of deeply toothed dark green leaves above a long taproot. In late spring the bright golden flowers appear, followed by the white puffballs of seeds. One precaution – keep ahead of those airy parachute seed heads, since a wayward breeze can easily seed your whole garden with dandelions for the following year.

Gardening expert Nicki Goff offers a free e-mail starter course all about her main passion… herb gardening. Visit her website for access, and even more great tips in her new comprehensive e-book on creating, maintaining and enjoying your own home herb garden, along with bonus e-books on specific aspects of herb lore.

Find more tips, links and articles on her general garden blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicki_Goff

http://EzineArticles.com/?Dandelions—Pesky-Invader-Or-Nutritional-Powerhouse?&id=3573059

One of my favorite things is a chopped salad. The reason is the different textures, the little bites of different flavors all in one mouthful. This one is particularly healthy as well because there are so many ingredients and each one brings something nutritious to the party.

As always, feel free to think outside this recipe and add or delete to suit your palate.

While grilling one or more of the ingredients isn’t necessary it adds a surprise of smokey-ness that has summer written all over it.

Feeds 4 – 6 as a first course

Ingredients

4 cups of fresh greens cut or torn to bite sized. Arugula is delicious with the below combo of other ingredients

1 Cup chopped green beans-cut them into small rounds, 1/2″ or so

1 cup chopped sugar snap peas

1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes

1 cup chopped cucumber

Note from the chef:

When a recipe asks for one cup of chopped ingredient you measure after chopping. If you start with say, one cup of sugar snaps whole, then chop them you will likely come up short for the desired amount.

The grilled veggies:

2 large ears of corn, grill either in or out of the husk, when cool, cut kernels off

1 small red onion cut into slices, season with s & p and grill but don’t blacken, once grilled chop small

1 small yellow or red bell pepper, standing on its end, cut sides of pepper off so you have 3 or 4 slabs, season as above and grill. Peel when done and chop

6 – 8 asparagus spears, season as above, grill lightly, chop

Method

Combine all veggies with greens in a large bowl. Pour in some dressing, enough to coat everything, toss it very gently. Place a good handful on each or 4 or 5 or 6 plates and try to ensure that each plate gets some of all the veggies.

This can be a first course-maybe a little goat or feta cheese tossed on top? It can also be a side dish in hot weather.

I have at times added golden beets, grilled yellow squash, avocado, even grilled carrots.

Dressing

There are many ways to go here flavor wise but my choice is a basic balsamic vinaigrette with the addition of fresh basil.

I make the dressing in the blender. (Amounts are approximate as I almost never measure)

I toss all of these ingredients in: 3/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, splash of water, salt and pepper. When it is creamy and the proportions are right I add some fresh basil leaves or a bit of pesto and blend again. The basil adds to the summer quotient and sets this dressing apart from your usual balsamic vins.

Want more recipes and great healthy food tips? Head over to the blog and grab a free report or sign up for a weekly audio postcard with mind and body tune up tips you can use.
http://midlifewithavengeance.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregory_Anne_Cox

http://EzineArticles.com/?Kitchen-Sink-Summer-Vegetable-Chopped-Salad&id=2780194

Technorati Tags: vegetable salad