side dish

Super Good, Southern Potato Salad

March 17, 2019 by Becky Spoon

If you grew up in the South as I did, every picnic, family reunion, or Church potluck, there would be Fried Chicken, potato salad and baked beans. Oh yes, I forgot about the 4th of July!

There were mustardy potato salads, salads with just mayonnaise, salads with whipped potatoes or a little chunky like mine. I used russets, but sometimes I use red potatoes or Yukon golds and I don’t always remove the skins when using the red or gold.

I still make potato salad like I had growing up and I always have it with BBQ. It just seems mandatory! Every BBQ joint in Texas will serve potato salad as a side dish.

Super Good, Southern Potato Salad

Other than this recipe German Potato Salad is great! I don’t have a recipe on my blog yet for the German style but here is a link that sounds delicious: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/german-potato-salad

This recipe is crunchy from all the added vegetables, creamy from warm potatoes mixed with mayonnaise and a little mustardy from added yellow mustard, I love this recipe. It is sweet and sour from sweet and dill relish and a little spicy from Louisiana Hot Sauce. I love that part!

This is the perfect side dish for my Crockpot Pulled Pork: https://the2spoons.com/next-best-thing-to-smoked-crockpot-pulled-pork/

Hope you like this recipe as much as we do!

Southern Potato Salad

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

2 Large Baking Potatoes diced (I used the really big russet baking potatoes, if you don’t have use 4 medium)
3 hard boiled eggs
2-3 tbsps red wine vinegar for drizzling over the potatoes while still hot
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
3 green onions, tops and bottoms
1/2 cup celery, diced
2 3/4 oz jar pimento
2-3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup dill relish or dill pickles chopped
1/2 cup sweet relish
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp pepper
salt to tast
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1 tsp Louisiana hot sauce or other hot sauce of your choice
1/2 cup mayonaise
paprika for garnish

Instructions

Dice the potatoes and boil them in salted water until fork tender. While the potatoes are boiling, cook your eggs to a hard boil by placing them in cold water, bringing up to a boil, lowering the heat to medium-high and cooking for 10 minutes after they begin to boil. After 10 minutes, drain and place in ice cold water. Peel your eggs, dice or chop and set aside.
When your potatoes are fork tender, not mushy, drain and place in the bowl you will be mixing your ingredients. Douse with 2 or 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar while they are still hot and toss with a couple of spoons or your hands. This just adds to your flavor and you are starting with a flavorful potato before you add the other ingredients. You don’t want too much so 2-3 tablespoons just depend on your amount of potatoes.
Add all of your ingredients except for the mayonnaise. Toss and check for seasoning. Add a little salt and pepper if you need. I say salt to taste because you are adding celery salt, so you don’t want to add salt until ingredients are combined and you taste before adding more.
Now add your mayonnaise, starting with 1/2 cup. Add more as needed or until you reach your desired creaminess. Place in a serving bowl and garnish with a little paprika.

Crockpot Pulled Pork — Southern Potato Salad

Twice Baked Potatoes, Easy and Delicious

March 11, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Jump to Recipe

I can’t make twice baked potatoes without thinking of a lifelong friend of mine. She and I would cook together every weekend – actually much more than that. Jan would make baked potatoes and add lemon pepper, cheese, and green onions, I think? They were delicious, and since then I always add lemon pepper because I loved her baked potatoes so much! These are loaded with other goodies, and of course lemon pepper. The lemon pepper makes these potatoes.

These twice baked potatoes are loaded with roasted garlic, green onions, various spices, sour cream, lemon pepper, fresh jalapenos, cheese, topped with bacon bits and green onions! I used a medium cheddar this time, but I’ve used many different kinds of cheese in this recipe.

I used large russet baking potatoes for this recipe. You could use a medium-size russet, but I do like the russet because they are less likely to tear while you are removing the potato. There are other great potatoes, but like a Yukon Gold, their skins are so thin, they aren’t my first choice.

Wondering which potato is the best for certain recipes, like mashing or french fries? Here’s a link that describes the best use for each type of potato. https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/what-types-of-potatoes-are-best-for-which-recipes/

These potatoes are the perfect side dish for my grilled steak. Here’s the recipe: http://www.the2spoons.com/lucies-oh-so-good-easy-steak-on-the-grill/

Twice Baked Potatoes

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Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

2 Large Russet Baking Potatoes, baked until fork tender Bake the potatoes salted and oiled with no foil
4 green onions, diced, saving a little for garnish
1 tsp roasted garlic
4 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp jalapeno, finely chopped (optional)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup grated cheese of your choice, reserving a little to top the potatoes
2 slices bacon, cooked and chopped for garnish

Instructions

As noted in the ingredients, do not wrap your potatoes in foil, instead rub them in oil and salt them and place on a sheet pan and bake until fork tender. Then remove the potatoes from the oven and leave your oven on. With your potatoes laying lengthwise slice a top portion of your potatoes (Not halfway down, maybe 1/4 down) and scoop out into a bowl your potato from that slice and from the entire potato, being careful not to break the skin. Place your potatoes back into the oven for maybe 10 minutes or so allowing them to dry out a little in the pulp portion and the skins crisp up a little, kind of like potato skins.
Add all the ingredients to the potatoes, mashing and combining. Remove the potato skins from the oven and load the potatoes with the mixture, top with a little cheese and place back into the oven until cooked through and the cheese on top has melted, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, making sure your cheese does not brown. Garnish with sliced green onions and chopped bacon.

Popular – Creamy and Buttery Mashed Potatoes with Fried Shallots

January 30, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Ooh! These mashed potatoes are delicious! They are always the perfect side dish and a must for fried chicken… like my Southern Fried Chicken: https://the2spoons.com/finger-licking-southern-fried-chicken/

Mashed Potatoes just make everything better! They are creamy and buttery and I quickly fried a few shallot strings to top these with which makes them even more delicious!

Popular – Creamy and Buttery Mashed Potatoes with Fried Shallots

Heres a link that will give you a little history of mashed potatoes: http://thefederalist.com/2016/12/01/enjoy-delicious-mashed-potatoes-read-origin-story/

So, here’s my recipe! Enjoy!

Creamy and Buttery Mashed Potatoes with Fried Shallots

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Total Time 35

Course easy side dish, vegetable, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 4 servngs

Ingredients

4 Russet large potatoes (add more if you want extras, but usually one potato per person)
water to cover
salt and pepper
1/2-2/3 whole milk, half and half, or heavy cream warmed
4 tbsp butter, or more if needed, melted and heated with the milk, cream or half and half
1 small shallot, sliced Optional

Instructions

Dice the potatoes in uniform pieces and add to a pot large enough for the potatoes to be completely covered by water. Add a little salt to the water. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Very important, because if you undercook your mashed potatoes will be lumpy.
Drain the potatoes and return to the pan. With the heat still on let the potatoes cook on low to medium until the water has evaporated.
Heat the butter and 1/2 to 2/3 cup hot milk, half & half, or cream. I like to mash my potatoes in my stand mixer or with a hand mixer, but you can use a potato masher or better yet a ricer. Regardless, start mashing the potatoes, then add the butter and milk a little at a time. It’s hard to say exactly how much liquid, that’s why you want to add a little at a time to your desired consistency. Continue beating, adding the butter/liquid mixture as needed, until lumps are gone. Sometimes I use a ricer and this takes this step away. You’d just rice your potatoes, add the butter and liquid, then season to taste.
After your desired consistency is reached add salt and pepper to taste. You added a little salt to the water so be sure not to over salt. Add additional butter and combine if desired, or top the final potatoes with a few pats of butter.
Heat a little oil and quickly fry the shallot rings until browned, turning about 1 minute.
Bon Appetite! Serve with my green onion cream gravy and Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce Southern Fried Chicken!

Keyword mashed potatoes, potatoes, easy side dish, side dish

Creamy and Buttery Mashed Potatoes with Fried Shallots

Lovely Garlicky Sautéed Spinach & Red Pepper Flakes

January 24, 2019 by Becky Spoon

This spinach is sautéed with garlic in a little extra virgin olive oil and it is the easiest and most delicious side dish. Add a few red pepper flakes for a little kick!

Not only is sautéed spinach an easy side dish but it is so nutritious. Click the link for the nutritional information. https://www.nutrition-and-you.com/spinach.html

Here is the easy recipe that I bet you’ll make very often! Enjoy!

Garlic Sauteed Spinach

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Course easy side dish, vegetable

Cuisine American

Servings 2 Servings

Ingredients

1 8 -10 oz package fresh spinach
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes Optional

Instructions

Heat the olive oil to medium in a skillet and add the garlic. Immediately add the spinach and start tossing with tongs or a spoon or spatula to prevent the garlic from burning. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with almost anything or perfect for a snack or lunch!

Keyword spinach, eash, side dish,

Perfect Green Beans with Garlic and Lemon in Browned Butter

January 22, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Green beans are probably the most used vegetable than any other. Green bean casserole, country style with pork slow cooked until almost falling apart, wrapped in bacon, in a Niçoise salad, in a soup….so many uses.

Great Beans — Perfect Browned Butter and Garlic Green Beans

I love green beans. They are that vegetable that you have in the pantry even if you don’t have fresh and with a little seasoning, some bacon, onions, garlic, and salt and pepper, even the canned turn out to be a delicious side dish.

I par cooked these fresh green beans, then quickly sautéed them with chopped garlic in brown butter until heated through and tender, with still a little crunch, and finished them with lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice!

Below is Information I found on the internet. The link is at the bottom!

Fresh green beans are very low in calories (31 calories per 100 g of raw bean pods) and contain no saturated fat. Nevertheless, these lean pod vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and plant derived micronutrients.
The beans are a very rich source of dietary fiber (9% per 100g RDA) which acts as a bulk laxative. Fiber helps to protect colon mucosa by decreasing its exposure time to toxic substances as well as by binding to cancer-causing chemicals in the gut. An adequate amount of fiber in the diet has also been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels by decreasing reabsorption of cholesterol-binding bile acids in the colon.
Green beans contain excellent levels of vitamin-A, and health promoting flavonoid poly phenolic antioxidants such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and β -carotene in right amounts. These compounds help act as protective scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a role in aging and various disease processes.
Zea-xanthin, an important dietary carotenoid in the beans, selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea in the eyes where it thought to provide antioxidant and protective UV-light filtering functions. It is, therefore, green beans offer some protection in the prevention of age-related macular disease(ARMD) in the older adults.
Snap beans are an excellent source of folates. 100 g fresh beans provide 37 µg or 9% of folates. Folate along with vitamin B-12 is one of the essential components of DNA synthesis and cell division. A good folate diet, when given during preconception periods and pregnancy, may help prevent neural-tube defects in the newborn babies.
Green beans also carry good amounts of vitamin-B6 (pyridoxine), thiamin (vitamin B-1), and vitamin-C. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin-C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful oxygen-free radicals.
Moreover, green beans contain healthy amounts of minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium, which very essential for body metabolism. Manganese is a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase, which is a very potent free radical scavenger. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Sourcehttps://www.nutrition-and-you.com/green_beans.html

This recipe is easy and fast and you’re not cooking all the nutrients out; just the opposite, retaining them with the quick cook!

Enjoy!

Perfect Green Beans with Garlic and Lemon in Browned Butter

These green beans are the perfect side dish for all most any main course!

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Course dinner, easy side dish, vegetable

Cuisine American

Servings 4 Servings

Ingredients

1 Lb Fresh green beans with stem removed
Water for blanching
Salt
2 Tsp Unsalted butter
1/2 Tsp Garlic
Zest of a lemon
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Fill a saucepan with water and generously add salt. Bring to a boil and add the green beans. Cook for about 5 minutes.
Remove the beans from the pan and immediately sub merge in ice water.
Heat the butter in a saucepa. When the butter starts to brown just a little add the garlic and immediately add the green beans.
Toss the beans a couple of times until heated through. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. Add a pinch of a salt and fresh ground pepper.

Keyword vegetable, side dish, easy side dish, greeb beans

Try Sunday Pot Roast! These green beans will be the perfect side dish https://the2spoons.com/sunday-pot-roast/