Wintry Mix – Potato Salad with a Twist
First appeared in the CAFE newsletter and edited by Ellie Sharp
In the middle of the Winter, sometimes you dream of Summer: the grill, fresh corn, sliced tomatoes, potato salad…the Southern fixin’s of a Summer BBQ meal. But then you remember it’s February. And there’s buckets of rain outside. So you make do with seasonal ingredients and make a Winter BBQ meal happen. White spring potatoes are replaced with sweet potatoes in storage and broccoli from the garden. You can add all sorts of things to this base – apples, pecans, but I implore you to use balsamic vinegar in the dressing – a must!

Ingredients:
3-4 sweet potatoes, diced into ½ inch pieces
Oil for roasting vegetables
Salt & pepper
1 head broccoli, 3-4 cups broken into bite sized pieces
2-3 slices of bacon
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
½ small red onion, minced
1 garlic clove
1 apple, chopped (Fuji, pink lady, honeycrisp preferred, but Granny Smith would work!)
Directions:
- Preheat oven 425.
- On a half sheet pan, combine sweet potatoes, oil, salt and pepper. Mix and spread into one layer. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Pull out potatoes and flip. Layer broccoli pieces right on top and season those with a bit more oil and salt. Roast for another 10-15 minutes until broccoli is crisped and potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and cool.
- Chop bacon and cook until crispy. Drain oil, set aside.
- In your serving bowl, make the dressing. Combine mayo, vinegar, onion. Grate or add minced clove of garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk ingredients together.
- Assemble. Place sweet potato and broccoli mixture on top of dressing. Add apple. Gently toss to combine being careful not to mash potatoes. Top with crispy bacon!


