Middle Eastern Potato Salad + Bits to Read [17]

I have been on a mission to find a tasty potato salad recipe that doesn’t involve mayo. I’ll admit it, I’m not the biggest fan of mayo. Please don’t judge me. Mayo is just something I never grew up with, so I don’t usually keep any in the house.

When I found this vegan and gluten-free Middle Eastern Potato Salad on Floating Kitchen, and I knew I had to give it a try. It’s a very simple salad with fresh herbs and spices and goes well as a side to any meal. That’s right, I had a bit of this salad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Here are a few of my notes from making this salad:

• Don’t overcook the potatoes! I wasn’t keeping my eye on the potatoes the first time I made this salad, so the potatoes cooked for much longer than they needed to be. The flavors were still good, but the potatoes were too mushy.
• I didn’t have any allspice around the house, so I just added a generous pinch of dried oregano.
• I decided to use 3 tablespoons of lemon juice instead of 4 to reduce the acidity in the salad.

Give this recipe a try soon!

Fig season is upon us! I discovered Kadota figs last month, and I’m hooked! I’ve only eaten Black Mission figs before and I wasn’t particularly fond of the taste. Kadota figs, on the other hand, are less sweet and doesn’t have an aftertaste that I detect when I eat the Black Mission variety.

Because it’s fig season, here are some great posts about this delicious fruit:

• Did you know that California produces around 98% of figs in the US? Or that figs date back to 9400 to 9200 BC? More fun facts here. // Huffington Post
• Great roundup of desserts with figs. // Serious Eats
• How to store and prepare figs. // The Kitchn
• Should figs be grown year round? // NPR
• Oh yes, more fig facts for you in case this topic comes up on your next pub quiz! // California Figs
• More fig recipes, including a fig tart and a fig cocktail! // The Kitchn