If I owned a cafe, this salad is definitely something I would have on my menu. My dream is to one day open up a bakery and cafe that caters to people with allergies and those who choose to eat non-mainstream diets. People can go to pretty much any restaurant and find an entree suitable for Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Take-Your-Pick-Of-The-Next-Fad-Diet, but finding something vegan, gluten-free, etc. is really difficult sometimes. My cafe would be vegan and would feature a good selection of gluten and soy free options. I would also specialize in custom vegan cakes. One day…

This is a vegan nicoise-esque type salad. I served it on a large platter with the salad greens piled up in the center, with tomatoes, cannellini beans, blanched green beans, olives and dilly potato salad on the side. The greens and tomatoes were dressed with this dressing, except I only used about 1/4 the amount of oil and used a little water and agave to cut the harshness of the lemon juice. The dressing recipe made way more dressing than I needed for this salad (it was only enough to serve 2), but I enjoyed the leftovers on salads throughout the week.

I’ve made the dilly potato salad several different ways and I always wing-it with whatever I’ve got in the fridge. For the dressing, I sometimes use Vegenaise, other times I use Tofutti cream cheese, Tofutti sour cream, plain So Delicious coconut milk yogurt, or a combination of all of the above. Add a squeeze of lemon, a few tablespoons of chopped fresh dill, chopped red onion and celery, S&P and you’re good to go. The “recipe” (I suppose it’s more of a method than a proper recipe) is very versatile and foolproof; serve it warm or cold, both ways taste great.