arugula, potato and green bean salad
But I still only want simple food. When food is this fresh, little needs to be done to make it stand out, which is perfect as I’m exactly lazy enough right now that I barely want to fuss. I saw this recipe from Martha Stewart a few weeks ago when I was trying to dream up a potato salad that wasn’t so… weighty. Basically, I wanted my potatoes but I didn’t need them swaddled in mayo or sour cream or chopped eggs and pickles… at least not every day.
And this deliciousness totally fit the bill: Sharp arugula, barely-cooked green beans (I’m seriously addicted to green beans this summer), coins of fingerling potatoes and my favorite, toasted walnuts and a lightly creamy walnut vinaigrette. It’s a potato salad, sure, but a potato salad fit for weekday nights, like after the gym with a couple beach weekends on the horizon. Just because one looks like they swallowed a beach ball doesn’t mean they have to eat like it everyday, right?
One year ago: Salad Olivier
Two years ago: Red Bean Chili
Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad, with a Creamy Walnut Dressing
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 8 small salads or 4 larger ones
1 ounce walnuts (about 1/3 cup)
1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
6 ounces haricots, verts, or other green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch segments
2 tablespoons white wine or other mild vinegar
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons walnut oil
3 ounces baby arugula
Preheat oven to 375°. Place walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly, then coarsely chop and set aside.
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to a colander to drain and cool. Set aside.
Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Return pan of water to a boil. Add green beans, and cook until tender and bright green, about 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Drain.
Whisk together vinegar, yogurt, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl; season with pepper. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified. Set dressing aside.
Arrange arugula, potatoes, and green beans on a platter. Season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with toasted walnuts; toss to coat.
Looks delicious! Sometimes you just need the potatoes without ten tons of mayo–one of my favorite potato salads has shallots, chives, and a lemony vinaigrette.
This looks downright lovely! I’m sad all my stuff is packed and I have to get take-out, because now I’m craving this instead.
This looks like a great solution to the boring (but easy) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I usually pack in the morning. As long as I don’t forget to prepare it the night before, I should be set.
Thanks for sharing a no-mayo potato salad. I’m always looking for them since I am definitely NOT a mayo fan!
I made a potato and lettuce salad for dinner last night too! I roasted my potatoes (in bacon grease!) instead of boiling though. And boy did it hit the spot!
This potato salad is one of my go-to meals this summer. I love the idea of adding some arugula into the mix. Thanks Deb, once again, for helping me shake things up a bit in my own kitchen.
Pregnancy does funny things, doesn’t it? Be thankful that you’re craving simple, healthy foods. All I wanted during my pregnancies was Campbell’s cream of mushroom and tomato soups. This looks like the perfect salad for a summer’s evening – bun in the oven or not.
Something completely different to do with all these green beans coming out of my garden.Thanks!
Wow that looks great. I had fingerling potatoes the other day and was trying to find a great recipe, wish I had this one! Will definitely try it another time.
This salad looks really tasty, I would totally take a portion of it!
Something about this salad looks autumnal to me. It’s gorgeous though, and I’d eat it in a heartbeat.
The best part about this is that I have all of these ingredients in my house right. now. Guess what’s for dinner….
Yes! This sounds delicious! It makes me think of Niçoise salad pared down. Love blanched green beans + potatoes. And I’m a HUGE fan of nuts in almost any salad.
If I were to eat fish with this what type would you recommend? Thanks!
As of late, I. Cannot. Get. Enough. Arugula. Perhaps it’s my body’s way of trying to balance out all the ice creams I’ve been churning out or the day I ate half a dish of clafoutis (Who? What? It’s FRUIT, okay?). At any rate, I wish I could fashion a sort of cloak out of wild arugula salad so I could surround myself with it, I really love it so much. Point: this recipe came at a perfect time. Thanks!
This looks tasty and perfect for dinner on a hot summer day. This summer I’ve been pickling everything I see lol
I’ve been totally craving green beans this summer too! This salad looks like a wonderful way to use them and make a hearty yet healthy dinner.
This looks delicious!
If you need a new recipe to tackle I would love to see how you would make Mujadara. I had some today and I would love to make some of my own, its vegetarian (maybe even vegan).It consists of rice, lentils, caramelized onions, raisins, and various spices, served warm with a cool salad over it. So good!
Thanks for all of your posts and inspirations!
This looks wonderful, love the color variety that the greens, walnuts, and potatoes make.
That looks excellent! I recently made a summer salad and tossed in potatoes and was really pleased. Who knew?
this is my kind of salad. balanced, simple, not 1000 ingredients messing it up. Just perfect. Great photos too as usual.
It’s totally a worthy dinner. Good for you too. The dressing sounds quite tasty. So tasty that you should bottle it.
So very glad you posted this! I admit that I am not a huge fan of creamy potato salads (shocking, I know), so this is a great, light alternative to the usual warm German potato salad that just seems so…heavy…in summer. Love the walnut vinaigrette!
What a perfectly light & delicious-looking summer potato salad!
Yeah yeah, great salad but are you STILL pregnant?
Sheesh woman, hurry up and have that kid already.
You see, I’ve had four, and people used to say that to me constantly from about the four month mark. So much so it used to just shit me to tears.
So here I am, sharing the love.
;)
ummmm, this will be dinner. tomorrow night. done. THANKS!
hmmm, that thought you were done with leafy salads! chopped? Anyways, I hear you on devouring pad thai and when fridge drawer. a bounty of vegis remain in my fridge drawer.
I like to go for asian slaws to jumpstart my farmer’s market consumption.
Gabrielaskitchen — I’m useless in the fish department. Just not my thing.
Ali — LOVE mujadarra. But I usually just buy it at Kalustyans. I’ll try my hand at it this winter.
katiek — Good catch! I have a soft spot for spicy arugula. I like the stuff from this Satur Farms place in Long Island. It’s the one packaged arugula (or any lettuce) I forgive because it actually tastes like something.
that. looks. divine. Mmmmmm.
ohh i love these summer salads – on with the intervention!
This looks like it needs to be made pronto!! Anything with arugula immediately interests me :)
I love your blog, your commentaries, and your recipes, but I wish when i wanted to print a recipe, that i would just get the recipe only, and not the commentary. (As much as i love it!)
Working on it! (Like as we speak, seriously.) Anything before April 2008 as of now will only print the recipe portion. Soon, the rest of the archives will be done! And not a moment too soon.
I love the colors in this salad and i love mustard in salads!
I’ll eat anything with potatoes in it and this looks delicious!
After the cake..I’m ready for this salad. This looks so good and simple.
I love hearty salads like this in the summer. The potatoes make it filling enough for dinner, but it’s still light….Yum!
The salad sounds simple and filling. I like it :)
Wow, this looks good. I can’t find walnut oil in my part of the world. What would you recommend I use instead? I guess olive would be ok, but any other ideas?
Where can I get walnut oil?
That looks great! Though my daughter has peanut and tree nut allergies so we don’t keep any in the house. Any ideas for substations for the walnut oil? Olive oil? Sesame oil? Maybe avocado oil? Hmmmm…I might have to play with this.
Oops, substitutions above, right clicked for auto correct and I must have been so far off it came up with that, lol.
Forgot to add I made the zucchini pizza and the yellow layer cake and frosting last night for my mother in laws birthday and it was a huge hit, though I let my pizza dough rest for too long while I was busy with the cake and it was more like a ciabatta with cheese and veggies, lol.
I feel the same way lately… lazy. And I’m not even pregnant. Must be these 105 degree days we’re having in Texas. I think I would like the potatoes better if they were roasted, but that would require heating up the oven (and the house—ick!). I’ve been making dressings lately with yogurt but the idea of making it with walnut oil is totally appealing to me right now.
You are the queen of salads! Do you have a book out?
I can’t handle the taste of arugula, I can’t pinpoint why, so I may have to substitute something else. Any suggestions? It’s like geraniums – some people enjoy the smell, but for me, there’s something about them that is completely repugnant.
Lauren — Don’t know where you live and what’s around you. Usually at a Whole Foods or er, “fancier” grocery store. I see a three-pack (for a great price, good walnut oil is unfortunately not cheap) on Amazon. Definitely look for smaller quantities (another reason why a three-pack might not be a bad idea). Nut oils, once opened, don’t last as long as other oils, but their flavor more than makes up for their short shelf life. You can try swapping walnut oil for the oil in one of your favorite breakfast muffins — ridiculously good.
Ooh, and I’ll have to try this with a different green (my hubby does not like the rocket).
I’ve been so tired and lethargic when I get home lately that dinner has been homemade bean spreads (umm, 5 minutes in a food processor) and oven toasted bread with cheese. It would be nice to make something a little more real and a bit more healthy.
Potatos have been my #1 pregnancy craving thus far…can I join you in the boring pregnancy cravings club?
Thank you for this recipe! My parents gave me a large bag of green beans from their garden and I was wondering what to do with them– they are not the most versatile things in the world, and my girlfriend and I aren’t crazy about them on their own.
Love this salad! Reminds me a bit of a nicoise with the potatoes and beans.
But since I’m on a tight budget and don’t have some of these items, what would be best substitute for walnut oil? Olive or canola? And I’ve never tried fingerlings. I’m thinking a Yukon would be a good substitute.
We don’t have any good farmers markets where I live in North Central Florida unfortunately, so it’s Publix or nothing and they’re expensive for things like unusual potato varieties, like $3.50 for a tiny bag, bedraggled though they may be.
This looks delicious! I typically blanch my veggies in my pasta cooker – the kind that has an insert, so when the 3 minutes is up, I can quickly pull out the entire batch, let it drain for a few seconds, then dump them all into the ice water. Much faster than scooping with a slotted spoon (and less steam burns!), if you happen to have a pasta cooker like this give it a try!
I hate traditional potato salad, but this looks like a recipe worth trying!
Gorgeous! Can’t wait to try it. Love the idea of the non-traditional potato salad.
Arugula salads are the best! Just had one at a restaurant a couple of nights ago with grilled figs stuffed with herbed goat cheese. The whole things was sprinkled with toasted pistachios. Marvelous. This one looks so healthy. Must try when I’m back to cooking in a couple of weeks. Thank you!
That looks great. I love the walnut dressing.
This looks beautiful.
I’ve always thought heavy potato salad felt so much more like a winter lunch item than a picnic item. I like it, but I always skip it on hot days.
THIS, though, this I will eat on a hot day. Thank you!
Beautifully composed – perfect for a warm day to put Farmer’s Market fresh fare to good use!
this looks fabulous!! i love arugula salads and always need a new way to dress them up besides my usual beets.
This looks so good and refreshing…I love that it’s mayo-free! The creamy walnut dressing sounds great!
This looks great. I’ve been eating a lot of my new favourite potato salad which is just fingerling potatoes, scallions, and chopped capers tossed in a simple dijon mustard, sherry vinegar, and olive oil vinaigrette over the last few weeks so must blog it before potato salad season is over!
This looks really good! I’m craving salads this summer. I’m going to try this with some grilled flank steak and make it an entree salad.
Minus the walnuts and this would be my new favorite salad:)
Wow! That looks fabulous. And, it contains all my favorite salad ingredients. Thanks!
Is there anything better than fresh green beans in the summer? Peaches maybe. And all of the berries and melons. Oh, summer food rocks – all of it. This salad sounds wonderful.
OK Deb, so this is the first time I’ve posted here, I’ve made your homemade oreos almost world renown (at least in my world) and I’m about to make this salad for the second time in as many days! A friend of mine has had her 8th child and I’m taking them dinner tomorrow and had a dinner party last night. I have tweaked it a bit (cause that’s the kind of girl I am), I subbed lemon juice for the vinegar, added sun dried tomatoes, and gave it a generous addition of garlic… I was going for a Greek feel. I love your site and all your ramblings!! Please keep up the good work!
I made this salad today when I had a surprise lunch guest and it was just lovely! Everything came together easily at the last minute and held until we were ready to eat. I added a bit of lemon juice and a small bits of goat cheese to it for more of a meal, and we loved the flavors.
I had been dreaming of this recipe for days and when we stopped at a farmer’s market on the way home from vacation, I snagged the potatoes and arugula. SO TASTY. I used purple potatoes too, only because I like any excuse to eat purple food.
I made this yesterday and it’s very good. The crunchy walnuts and snappy string beans against the soft, yielding potato– and the peppery arugula paired with the tangy, creamy dressing– make this a recipe for addiction.
I’m envisioning other applications for the dressing (I think it would be fabulous over grilled fish), though in the future I would use less salt as my salad was too salty.
made this saturday evening for out BBQ!! was a big hit, so delish and so easy. Thanks!
Deb, I’m a stalker who has expected to love and loved many of your recipes here – icebox cupcakes, raspberry buttermilk cake, potato and squash torte, spinach-orzo-meatball soup…But this was one that I just expected to be so-so, not really my style — and I LOVED it. Used yukon gold potatoes from my garden. Thank you.
And, as mother of a six month old, let me assure you that when I was pregnant, I ate a least one bowling ball per day.
Notes – I used apple cider vinegar and olive oil, as they were what I had on hand, and some mixed artisan lettuces instead of arugula. Despite those alterations, it tasted fabulous.
Delicious!! Had to sub olive oil for the walnut (but just added more nuts), but this is hands-down one of the best salads I’ve ever eaten. Thanks for your site!
This recipe looks delicious, but I have a question about potatoes … I have been trying different potato salads lately but always end up with potatoes that are either too mushy or so dry such that the skin falls off in chunks from the backs. I guess I am overcooking them but was wondering if you had any secret advice like what kind of potatoes I am using or whether what you put in the salad makes a difference?
What kind of potatoes are you using?
MMM. This is *exactly* what I’m craving lately: the potato-green bean combination with some kind of tart vinaigrette. I have no idea where this craving is coming from, but I must address it at once!
Delish! Used store bought green beans/walnuts/arugala, and YellowTree Farm carola sp?-heirloom taters…next time I’ll sub the vinegar with lemon juice.
Lovely salad and it looked just like the picture. i brought it along for a work potluck. it was great since others brought crab cakes and chicken so was the perfect accompaniment. thanks! I had to use yukon potatoes. Maybe fingerlings just aren’t in season right now since I tried fairway and wholefoods.
Wow, I have everrything right now in my garden. All have to do is go get them. Which I will do. Now. Thanks.
this was so deelish! I love your recipes, choc. chip cookies is the best I’ve done!
Great recipie, I didn’t have yogurt so I used sour cream (never a problem). My husband asked what was for dinner and I said “A new Smitten Kitchen recipie I want to try” he said “Great!” that’s all I have to tell him now.
Still, I think the mayo comment is funny, considering your ‘one year back’ link points to Salad Olivier :)
Made and enjoyed tonight in a two-salad dinner for a near-vegan friend. (But a little yogurt in the dressing, he assured me, was okay.) Thanks.
Made this for dinner last night…delicious! We added some grilled scallops on the side too. I’ll definitely make this again and use that awesome salad dressing for other salads. Thanks!
Made this last night and it was a delight! (Totally didn’t mean for that to rhyme). I did lemon juice and vinegar to go with the chicken I was roasting. This is a perfect go to salad/side dish that is great to entertain with. Loves it! Thanks!