German Potato Salad

I first made this recipe back at home in beautiful Portland, Oregon. My brother and his girlfriend at the time, who was authentically German, were coming over for dinner and I wanted forge my best attempt at German cuisine. My boyfriend and I went to Edelweiss Deli (coincidentally the same name as the resort I work for now in Germany) and picked up some of the essentials: weisswurst, sauerkraut, german seeded bread, stone ground mustard and curry ketchup. Since most of the items were imported from Germany, the bill came to almost $40.00! Expensive.

Luckily the recipe I had decided on as a side dish was low-cost and yielded a lot, so we had leftovers for the next few days. After some googling earlier in the day I found what I was looking for on allrecipes.com. The dish calls for bacon, and since I had chosen to exile myself from meat island I decided on using Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips instead. At dinner, we enjoyed a meal of weisswurst (I had a soy sausage), sauerkraut, bread and the potato salad. I asked my brother's German counterpart if she enjoyed the meal and we got a thumbs up and an enthusiastic "ja wohl!" She said that the potato salad reminded her of home and she couldn't even tell the difference with the fake bacon (facon).

Since that meal I've made it on a few other occasions and I've gotten rave reviews every time. So without further ado, here is the recipe for a vegetarian (gasp!) hot German potato salad: (gasp!) hot German potato salad:

Potato salad + Claire's "caprese" salad = delicious meal

Hot German Potato Salad

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 9 potatoes, peeled
• 6 slices veggie bacon
• 3/4 cup chopped onions
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 30 minutes. Drain, cool and slice thin.
• Place veggie bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly "browned", about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat, crumble and set aside.
• Saute onions in skillet with a little olive oil until golden-brown and translucent.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper. Add to sauteed onions and cook until bubbly, then remove from heat.
• Stir in water and vinegar, then return skillet to stove and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for one minute.
• Carefully stir in veggie bacon crumbles and sliced potatoes into the skillet mixture, continuing to fold and stir until potatoes are heated through.

Sources

http://allrecipes.com