Recipe: Low-cal Faux Potato Salad
What’s football season without the game day snacks? Except when you’re watching your calories even closer than you’re watching the game. We can’t cut the calories from all your favorites (we’re looking at you, BBQ ribs) but we have done a deep dive into Google’s appetizer recipes and think we’ve come up with some winners. Like our Faux Potato Salad, which we’ve adapted from a low-carb recipe to make even lower calorie with one easy substitution. Feel free to skip directly to the recipe below or just keep reading to pick up a few of our tips on creating this creamy, satisfying side dish.
First, the ingredients. You’ll notice there are no potatoes in this potato salad because cauliflower provides the texture and slight crunch you’d expect from potato. Hard-boiled egg and a plain Greek yogurt base favored with table mustard and garlic powder keep the salad as creamy and flavorable as your favorite real potato salad.
Making this faux potato salad is quick and easy. Start by hard boiling the eggs, which may be a skill you’ve perfected but can also be made easier by a nifty gadget I’ve recently started using. Look for it in the photo below. You keep it in the fridge with your eggs, drop it into your water at the same time you add your eggs, and wait for the color to change on the egg timer to the line indicating the hardness you want. These timers are easy to find at Amazon and some of them will even sing for you when they hit the right temp!
Pro Tip: do a few tests to make sure your timer is accurate. If not, add or subtract a minute or two as needed for future success.
While your eggs are boiling, remove the cabbage outer leaves, trim away the tough stem, and chop the head into small pieces. Once your eggs are done, remove them with a slotted spoon, drop the cabbage pieces into the still boiling water and cook until they’re tender, about 5 minutes. While they’re boiling, peel and chop your boiled eggs and prepare an ice bath in a large bowl, then once your cabbage is tender, quickly drain the cabbage in a sieve and submerge it into your cold water to cool quickly.
Next dice your celery and blend some yellow mustard and garlic powder into a half cup Greek yogurt.
Pro Tip: Adding strong flavors into the creamy yogurt instead of directly to your salad helps the flavors spread evenly and avoids someone getting a spoonful of pure mustard.
Next toss your cooled cabbage, chopped eggs, diced celery and yogurt into a large bowl and gently stir it all together. Salt and pepper to taste and garnish with paprika and parsley. Then go enjoy the pregame while your salad chills for at least one hour.
Substitution Suggestions: Our calorie count is based on four servings with the ingredients listed, but you may prefer to make the recipe with low-fat mayonnaise instead of non-fat plain Greek yogurt. Or you can use low-fat Greek yogurt, but be careful that you choose only plain yogurt and not a package with added flavor. Your calorie and fat count may change depending on your substitution choice.
