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When you have a marathoner in the family (um…not me), you have to plan to include some sort of carbs into each meal. Five mornings each week, my husband heads out to run anywhere from 7 to 21 miles and, on the other two days, he does strengthening workouts. The man burns some serious calories. Despite the fact that I run four days per week, my calorie burn total is like that of a sloth in comparison. That might have something to do with the fact that I run half the speed and distance as our resident Speedy Gonzales. This fact, however, does not stop me from trying to keep up with his massive consumption of food.
While we typically try to fill our plates with whole grain carbs, such as Ginger, Jalapeno & Coconut Brown Rice and Quinoa with Black Beans, Corn & Chipotle Peppers, occasionally we are tempted by other types of carbs. When I found these baby Yukon gold potatoes, freshly dug that morning, at my favorite farm stand, I knew they were destined for our dinner plates. Considering my husband’s dislike for mayonnaise and a fortuitous leftover bowl of Lemon & Almond Basil Pesto in the fridge, this salad fit our taste buds and time constraints.
Prepare 2 pounds of baby potatoes (Yukon Gold or red-skinned) by scrubbing an cutting the larger ones into bite-sized pieces. Place the potato pieces in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork, but not falling apart. Drain the potatoes and run them under cold water to stop further cooking.
Place the potatoes in a serving bowl and gently toss with 1/3 cup Lemon & Almond Basil Pesto or your favorite basil pesto until well combined.
Cut 6 ounces grape or cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. Cut 3 ounces fresh mozzarella into thin strips. Gently toss tomatoes and mozzarella with the potatoes. Season with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste. Serve or refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
Other potato salad recipes with pesto:
Bitchin’ Camero’s Pesto & Smoked Salmon Potato Salad
Dani Spies’ Rustic Pesto Potato Salad
Coconut & Lime’s Radish Pesto Potato Salad
The Not So Skinny Kitchen’s Pesto Potato Salad
Pesto Potato, Tomato & Fresh Mozzarella Salad
2 lbs. baby potatoes (Yukon or red-skinned), scrubbed and cut in bite-sized pieces
Salt for the water
1/3 cup Lemon & Almond Basil Pesto, or your favorite pesto
6 oz. grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
3 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into thin strips
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Place the potato pieces in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork, but not falling apart. Drain the potatoes and run them under cold water to stop further cooking.
Place the potatoes in a serving bowl and gently toss with pesto until well combined. Gently toss with tomatoes and mozzarella with the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve or refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
Serves 6.
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
CC…love this potato salad with lots of fresh mozarella …yummyummm and I am salivating and hungry now
What a great new side dish for me love this one! all the perfect flavors in one dish lovely!
Maybe is a guy thing for disliking mayo. Even though potato salad (with mayo) is my favourite, I don't think it keeps well under room temperature as a picnic dish.
Hence this recipe is perfect and overcome the shortfall of mayo. Plus, I like the idea of adding mozzarella to it.
Caprese potato salad! What a great idea! I feel guilty about my lack of exercise reading about you two!
I just love your baby Yukons in this salad.
Oh yum! Trying to get enough calories; now there's a good problem to have!
Your recipe looks lovely, can't wait to try it out on the family, thanks for sharing the pesto recipe.
this looks so fresh and tasty! i love the flavor combo! my mother is a runner and astonishes me with her strength.
I hate mayo so I am loving this salad! Fantastic Dara!
Hate mayo…love this!
Great salad, makes me wanna go to a market and buy these tiny delicious potatoes.
LOVE Yukons! They are hands down our favorite potato. I'll be a few little reds every now and then for green beans, but 99% it is the Yukon that wins at our house – even for baked potatoes! This looks delicious and a great diversion from regular mustard potato salad (which we love, too).
Sloths UNITE!
This is something I could eat everyday! I wish I could run like that! Thanks for sharing!
-Gina-
I am not really a big potato fan, but this looks so delicious and would love to give them a try!
Great change from the usual mayo potato salad! Thanks, I'll give this a try.
Oh Dara – How wonderful to actually eat a postatoe salad with freshpesto and mozza and those lovely tomatoes. And what a lucky man Speedy Gonzales is!
I doubt there is anyone out there who is enjoying your summer bounty posts as much as me
Ciao, Devaki @ weavethousandflavors
I have been thinking about doing a pesto potato salad for a while. The tomatoes and mozzarella would be perfect in it!
Thanks you for all of your kind comments. It is nice to have a mayo-free option for potato salad in my repertoire.
I just made a fresh batch of pesto today and can't wait to try this!
Beautiful salad! I love pesto and your lemon, almond and basil version sounds perfect with tomatoes and potatoes
I have to give this a try when I can get my hands on some good basil!!
Time to make myself some pesto too! Your dish is tempting me.
YUM! What a great idea! This is a must try!
Dara, you are right, this is a great carbo loading meal perfect for a marathoner. My marathon days are over, but thankfully I still burn a lot of calories and would sure love this recipe! xo
That looks lovely, such nice combination of yummy flavors. And the picture looks beautiful.
You and your husband sound like me and my husband except that we cycle instead of run. We always have carbs because we're always hungry!
I don't eat a lot of potatoes but when I do, I like to dress them up like you did here. Pesto is a wonderful addition; I think this is great, especially with the tomato and mozzarella. Yum!
Very original potato salad. I love the contrast in color. Need to forward this to hubby: the salad might help so he can get inspired and start being a marathoner as well. ;^)
fabulous summer combo — we've been making quite a bit of pesto from the herbs growing like crazy and a salad is the perfect way to enjoy that flavor.
This potato salad looks so good. Maybe if I made it I'd be able to run 20+ miles – hum!
Oh, my goodness, that looks great. I'm planning on roasting a chicken just to have this side dish to go with it!
I'm a big fan of homemade pestoes, but I can't have almonds – do you have anymore pesto recipes? I have a classic basil, paremsan and pinenut one but I see all sorts of things on the shelves in stores, just don't always know how to realise them in my own kitchen?
Your husband is marathoner wow I understand how much carbs are needed at your family.
You burn more kcals/fat running slowly than quick
This Italian recipe is very comforting and yummy!
Cheers,
Gera
Mmmmm carbs! This sounds really good. I am in slight awe of your husband. I just started running a couple of months ago and am doing around 3 miles – I can't imagine running over 10! Maybe someday…
Fantastic dish
wow, you guys really know how to stay in shape with running! i just recently started getting back on my treadmill, but i'm not anywhere close to your stamina. but burning that many calories really make you hungry. these potatoes will surely do the job of filling up your man! i'm a sucker for fresh mozarella cheese and tomatoes. mmm mmm good.
Pesto makes it such a better and healthier choice!
Wonderful salad and a great way to get in more carbs!
Oh baby this looks so good! LOVE potatoes….and everything else in this gorgeous salad!!
Thanks again for all of your comments.
Gera, slow is better, huh? I'm going to feel good about my running pace, then!
GreedyRosie, I don't have any other pesto recipes on this site, but I would try something like macadamia nuts or cashews in place of the almonds or pine nuts. Cilantro pestos with cashews turn out really nicely, too.
OMG, I love this potato salad! The pesto is gorgeous and I love fresh mozzarella.
I love everything in this potato salad. Will definitely be making this!
Wonderful seasonal salad recipe featuring one of my favorite herbs, looks like a nice picnic dish:-)
Those colours look wonderful! I love the idea of a pesto potato salad. I have some beautiful tiny local potatoes and this looks like such a great way to use them up. Thanks!
This is a very refreshing dish that you have here! I love it.