Delicious Dinner of Potato Salad, Sesame Green Beans and Bruschetta

Over the weekend, Paul told me that he felt like making a potato salad with chipotle, similar to the one that we had at Strong Hearts Cafe in Syracuse. Then, he said that he also felt like having the Sesame Green Beans that we make a lot during the summer when the green beans are in season. We also happened to have some pre-made bruschetta mix in the fridge, so a trio of side-dishes was prepared for dinner! Even though all of the Vegenaise in the potato salad likely isn't all that healthy, we definitely got our servings of veggies in with this dinner!

Here is the recipe again for the green beans:

INGREDIENTS

10oz green beans, trimmed
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp maple sugar (you can use brown sugar also)
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (ie. Kikkoman brand)
Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan of boiling water, blanch the green beans for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in ice water, and drain again.
2. In a grinder, coarsely grind sesame seeds and transfer to a bowl. Mix in sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce and salt to form a paste. Stir in the beans to coat.

For the potato salad, we used the smaller potatoes and boiled them until they were soft enough when pierced with a fork (about 15 minutes). Then, we cooled the potatoes in the fridge. We chopped up a whole bunch of green onions and garlic scapes purchased at the farmer's market, plus a bunch of garlic chives from the garden. Then, we mixed the potatoes with the onions/scapes/chives, along with a whole whack of Vegenaise. Then, we added chipotle pepper spice to taste, as well as salt and pepper.

We purchased a yummy fresh loaf of garlic sourdough bread from the grocery store (ACE bakery, yum!) along with some pre-made bruschetta mix that looked fairly healthy. Once we get some tomatoes that are ready to be picked, you can bet that I'll be making the bruschetta mix from scratch!