Paleo Potato Salad and Homemade Mayonnaise

My apologies for taking so long to post.  The end of the semester always lends itself to a lot of stress and very little free time.  Add in a few days of travel, and cooking often goes out the window, as well.  But I am back for the time being, and I hope that with summer quickly approaching I will have more than enough time to keep the recipes and posts coming.

And speaking of free time, what better way to spend a free Saturday or Sunday than by having a picnic?  Of course, one of the first foods that comes to mind after I hear the word “picnic” is potato salad, and since potatoes are a paleo no-no, I was prepared to kiss this picnic staple goodbye.  That is, until I decided to make some tweaks by using sweet potatoes and turnips in place of regular potatoes.  Replace store-bought mayo with homemade mayo, and you’ve got yourself a perfect picnic side-dish.  Now all I have to do is come up with some alternatives to baked beans and BLT sandwiches, and we’ll have ourselves one successful paleo picnic menu.

Paleo Potato Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 large turnips
• ½ cup mayonnaise (recipe follows)
• 5 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 Tablespoons capers, roughly chopped
• 1 Tablespoon of the caper juice
• ½ red onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  
2. While the water is heating up, peel and chop the sweet potatoes and turnips into quarters, and add them to the boiling water.  Cook until soft when poked with a knife (about 20-25 minutes depending on how big the chunks are).  Drain the potatoes and turnips and put them in the refrigerator to cool for about 20 minutes. (This is a good time to chop and prepare all other ingredients and make your mayonnaise.)
3. When cooled, chop the turnips and sweet potatoes into bite-sized chunks.  Add all ingredient to a large mixing bowl and stir it up!

Homemade Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 1 egg (MUST be at room temperature)
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon dry mustard
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients except for the olive oil to a food processor or blender.
2. Begin blending, and sloooooowwwwwwly drizzle the olive oil into the blender/food processor in a thin, steady stream until all of the oil is incorporated and the mayo is light and fluffy (this should take at least 5 minutes).

What are some of your favorite picnic foods?