Recipe: White Bean, Potato and Asparagus Salad

I was recently at a conference and attended a session about heart disease and a plant-based diet. The speaker mentioned the documentary Forks Over Knives and encouraged everyone to watch it. So I did – I borrowed it from one of my favorite people and sat down for 96 minutes. Well actually, I watched about half and thought “I want my husband to watch this, too” and the next day started it all over.

It basically advocates a whole-food, plant-based diet to fight or reverse a lot of diseases. It was compelling enough for me to get several cookbooks from the library to try a more whole-food, plant-based diet. There were two cookbooks I picked up. The first was the Forks Over Knives cookbook which had mixed reviews on Amazon, but I checked it out from the library anyway. The second was called Thug Kitchen. The recipes were good but the content was so off-putting/offensive that I took it back to the library and told them they should put a warning on the cover. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.

One of the salads both my husband and I loved from the Forks Over Knives cookbook is below. I have it with me again today! Give it a try and let me know what you think.

White Bean, Potato and Asparagus Salad (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 pound red-skin potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ½ inch dice

• ½ pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces

• 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

• 2 cups cooked navy beans or one 15 ounce can, drained and rinsed

• 8 green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

• 3 tablespoons minced chives

Directions

1. Steam the potatoes in a double boiler or steamer basket for 10 minutes, or until tender, adding the asparagus during the last 3 minutes

2. Combine the brown rice vinegar, mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper in a large bowl and whisk well.  Add the warm potatoes and asparagus, beans, green onions, and chives and mix well.

Notes

• If you are not serving this salad immediately, prepare the potatoes and asparagus and rinse until cool, refrigerate until ready to serve, and add the dressing just before serving.

• I couldn’t find brown rice vinegar so I used rice vinegar.

• I also didn’t have Dijon mustard so I used Silver Springs Deli Style Mustard and it think it added a little kick to the salad so if you don’t like spicy, just stick with the Dijon mustard.

Happy eating!