Potato-Green Bean Salad {Portion Fix/21 Day Fix}

Potato-Green Bean Salad has been around for a long time but I had never made it for my Hubby before this.  I love a creamy potato salad with plenty of mayo dressing and sweet pickles. Like this recipe.

But he is not a mayo fan at all.  When I make my mayo slaw he asks for “the vinegar one”. So when I asked him if he would try a vinegar-based potato salad he said “Sure.”  That was all I needed and broke out my OLD recipe and gave it a “makeover”!

What kind of potatoes can you use for Potato-Green Bean Salad?

Traditional Potato-Green Bean Salad uses a waxy potato like red or yellow potatoes. I personally like the little yellow ones.

I usually boil them whole, cool them enough to handle, and then chunk them up. Since this is a warm potato salad, chilling them is not necessary. 

The soft waxy yellow skins add some flavor to the dish. 

Sometimes I add a layer of flavor to this dish by roasting my potatoes instead of boiling them. 

In these times it can be hard to find a specific kind of potatoes and so I have made this recipe with EVERY kind I could find. A cubed cooked potato of any kind will work. These were russet potatoes. The skin was a little tough so the next time I used them I will peel them. 

Back to the recipe…

After you settle on a potato to use it is time to assemble the rest of the ingredients.

A can of low/no salt green beans. If you can’t find those just take a regular can of green beans and rinse them really good like I did.  I heat them in the microwave usually. Sometimes in the summer I make this with green beans from the garden and add them to the hot potatoes that I kept warm.

Turkey bacon, your favorite brand will do. I have started doing a new “thing”. Been taking 1/4 cup of olive oil and cook a 1/2 package of turkey bacon in it. I drain and blot and drain and blot my bacon dry of the oil, but I am left with 1/4 cup of bacon “flavored” oil to use in recipes like this one! Sometimes I do it with garlic and get garlic-flavored oil too. I store any leftover in a small jar in the fridge.

I chop the bacon up while it is hot and add it to the rest of the hot ingredients. Then save the bacon-flavored oil for the vinegar dressing.

A sweet yellow or red onion works perfectly. Sometimes I like to use fresh green onions in it too. Leaving it raw gives the salad a little bit of crunch but sometimes I add them to the green beans when I microwave/warm them and cook them a tiny bit.

The Vinegar Dressing

A cooked vinegarette tops it off. I thickened just a little so that it will stick to the ingredients better. Kind of like a German Potato Salad.  The “sweet and sour” flavor of it is one of my favorites!

I count this dressing as 1 oil teaspoon and 1 sweet teaspoon, the rest of the ingredients are free. 

I determined the serving size by counting how many containers I put in.  As I served it to myself I decided I wanted to make sure I divide it up correctly, making sure not to overload the potatoes in my serving. A very generous 1 1/2 cup size serving. Split it in half sometimes, so I don’t have to use a whole yellow.

I like a vinegar-ed meat dish to pair it with. I like that vinegar-vinegar thing that goes on! This one is the one I like best, Balsamic Chicken and Zucchini Skewers over at Confessions of a Fit Foodie.

I deconstruct the kabobs a little for an easier meal to throw together.

I make sure to warm my leftovers for just a few seconds to take the chill off of them out of the fridge. And for get-togethers, it is able to stay out a little longer than mayo-based potato salad does.