It seems like every family has their own recipe for ‘The Best Potato Salad.’ My family’s no different….This is a dilly of a potato salad!   It’s so light and refreshing due to the fresh dill, crunchy celery and tossing in my skinny ranch dressing.   Normally potato salad is prepared with lots of mayo. I’ve made it colorful by using a bag of multicolored potatoes but using only red potatoes or yellow ones works just as well.  The skinny for each serving is 140 calories, 3 grams of fat and 3 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.  One side order of KFC potato salad has 230 calories and 14 grams of fat.  One bite and you’ll see why this is by far my favorite way to prepare this classic side dish.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 pounds red (new potatoes), yellow potatoes or a combination of both, cut into cubes (I used Trader Joe’s mixed bag of yellow, red and purple)

½ cup fresh dill, chopped

½ cup scallions, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped fine

½ cup Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing

½ teaspoon salt or to taste

Fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water.

2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook until soft (10-15 minutes).  Do not overcook.

3. Drain and rinse in cold water.

4. In a large bowl, add the cooked potatoes and all remaining ingredients.

5. Gently toss using a rubber spatula.

6. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.  This potato salad will keep for several days.

Serves 6 (each serving, ¾ cup)

Food Fact

Potato salad became very popular in the second half of the 19^th century.  It’s a staple of both home and deli kitchens.  The American idea of making potato salad with mayonnaise has no recorded history.

New potatoes are young potatoes.  They haven’t have time to completely convert their sugar fully into starch.  They have a crisp, waxy texture and thin underdeveloped wispy skin.  Because they keep their shape when cooked, they are particularly good to use for potato salad.

Fresh dill has been around for thousands of years.  The 1^st- century Romans thought it to be a good luck symbol.

Healthy Benefits

Potatoes have surprising health benefits.  No need to keep them out of your diet.   They’re rich in complex carbohydrates that can supply energy.  They are low in calories and contain no fat.  A medium size potato contains about 120 calories and 5 grams of fiber.  They contain more potassium than any other fresh vegetable, even more than bananas!  Potatoes also contain vitamins C and B6.

Fresh dill has a long history of medicinal uses dating back as far as the middle Ages to relieve the symptoms of such things as hiccups.  One of the more recent health benefits of dill is its possible anti-cancer potential.  Dill is high in substances known as monoterpenes, which have been shown to have anti-cancer activity.

Prep Tip

It’s essential that you use a rubber spatula to mix any potato salad.  If you use a metal spoon, it will break the potatoes and become more like mashed potatoes.

Weight Watchers (old points) 3
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 4

This entry was posted Sunday, June 19th, 2011 at 4:10 am and is filed under Recent, Recipes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.