A fresh and light, summer potato salad with Quebec fava beans

I love potatoes and potato salad. However, creamy potato salads can be heavy; delicious, but heavy, not to mention unhealthy. I love to test out new potato salad recipes that combine ingredients that complement the potato, without weighing it down and/or masking it completely. This is my take on the recipe for "Summer beans with new potatoes, hazelnuts, feta, basil and mint" from the July 2010 issue of Delicious magazine from the UK (different from the Australian one). This recipe, like so many others, is simple, yummy, and full of fresh ingredients. This recipe is one of the many reasons that I don't mind investing in the magazine "imports"  that are quite a bit more expensive than the American and Canadian magazines that I also purchase on a monthly basis. See how I justify my addiction!

Quebec-grown fava beans are in season now, so I was really happy to find another recipe to use them in. I prepared and cooked the fava beans a day in advance. This was convenient with my busy schedule, but, much to my dismay, the vibrant green of the favas mellowed upon storage. Oh well. The salad was still great. Since it is also the height of tomato-season in Canada, I decided to add a couple to the dish. I used some "Tom-blaka" tomatoes from Ontario, which are a deep red with unusual forest green highlights, as you can see in the photo (ignore the scattering of herbs on my cutting board, please).





Summer potato salad with Quebec fava beans

Serves 6

1 large shallot, finely diced
cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup EVOO
1/8 cup cider vinegar
salt and pepper
200 g green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces
300 g new potatoes, cut into 1?2-cm slices
200 g prepared fava beans (i.e. removed from the pod, blanched and shelled?you will need a good 600 g fava beans to get 200 g of prepared fava beans)
200 g tomatoes, chopped
200g feta, cubed
1 handful of basil and mint leaves, roughly chopped
For the vinaigrette: 

In a small fry pan, heat the oil on medium. Add the shallots and garlic, and cook them until the shallots are translucent.


For the salad:

Boil the new potatoes for about 5?7 minutes, until just cooked through (do not overcook!). Drain and set aside
Add the cider vinegar and stir to deglaze the pan. Remove from the heat. Salt and pepper to taste.
Blanch the green beans so that the green is vibrant, but they are still crispy.
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, green beans, fava beans, tomatoes, feta, and herbs. 
Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and toss.
Enjoy!
The nice thing about this salad is that the shallots and garlic are cooked so that the vinaigrette is flavored with them, but you are not left with a "lasting impression" from them for an entire day. If you can't find fava beans, you can use edamame instead.





This will be my next submission to Magazine Mondays, which Tina is graciously hosting this week since Ivonne is on vacation. Special thanks to Tia for hosting last week's edition.



P.S. I omitted the hazelnuts due to an annoying allergy. I chose not to replace them with another nut, and was happy with the result. I don't think the hazelnuts were really necessary.