Pesto Potato Salad with Fava Beans

Our amazing recipe developer Elyse Kopecky is back from maternity leave with her delicious Foodist Approved recipes. Please join me in welcoming her back and congratulating her on her new baby girl!   -Darya

I’m back in the kitchen and now with a baby on board! On June 19th I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. It’s been a life-changing experience that’s even altered my approach to cooking.

With a whole new appreciation of busy, I can finally understand why many parents revert to frozen foods and takeout. To avoid falling into an unhealthy rut, I now double or triple recipes so that I will have leftovers when I’m in a time crunch. It’s especially helpful to make big batches of things like salad dressing, pesto and sauces, which can be used to quickly turn the mundane into deliciousness.

This week’s recipe was inspired by my latest weekly delivery from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which included freshly dug baby new potatoes, giant fava beans and a hearty bunch of floral basil.

This is the first year I’ve been a member of a farm share and it’s been the best thing ever for insuring I don’t get in a rut of buying always the same produce. Even though I went to culinary school, I still have vegetables show up in my share that I’ve never cooked before.

If you haven’t tried my pesto recipe from a couple months ago now’s your chance to make a big batch of it. It’s great slathered on just about anything.
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Kale Hazelnut Pesto

Now that I’m in the homestretch of pregnancy, I’ve had a lot less desire to spend my evenings standing in the kitchen, chopping onions. Lucky for me my husband, Andy, has stepped up to don the apron. And lucky for him I stockpiled the freezer with homemade pesto.

Pesto is a bright accompaniment to many dishes. It’s quick and easy to make, and it stores well for dishes at a later date. Of course, this recipe isn’t for your average, run-of-the-mill pesto. I’ve upped the health factor by packing in nuts, basil, kale and miso.

Miso in pesto might sound odd (any Italian would definitely freak out), but it adds that fabulous salty, cheesy flavor that you want in a pesto. In fact, to make this recipe vegan you could leave out the parmesan entirely and add a little more miso to taste.

The recipe below makes enough to indulge in now, and plenty more to freeze for later. The possibilities are endless: serve on top of vegetables, chicken or fish. Spread on crostini or toss into pasta or oven-roasted potatoes. In the coming weeks, I’ll share with you more inspiration for pesto, so go ahead and make a double batch!
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Shiso Pesto With Shrimp

The first time I had shiso I was at a sushi bar in San Francisco. At the time it was the best sushi I’d ever had, but it wasn’t just about the fish. Every now and then a new flavor, one I had never tasted before, would fill my mouth with happiness. It was a fresh flavor, almost like mint, but richer, more earthy and, at the same time, ethereal.

I asked the chef what I was tasting and he explained it was a Japanese herb called shiso (also called green perilla). Ever since that day I had been on a mission to find a place to buy it so I could use it at home. Occasionally I’d find shiso at a Japanese market, but always in small quantities and often at steep prices. Not an ideal situation for a shiso fiend.

I’d always wanted to have a more regular supply of shiso, and this year I finally had the opportunity when I started my first garden. To my delight our shiso plant thrived. Or more accurately: exploded.

Shiso Leaves

For the last few weeks I’ve had shiso coming out my ears and have been using it in salads, stir fries and everything else I could think of. It’s been awesome, but I still had barely dented the towering shiso bush that was taking over my garden. I needed to figure out a way to use a huge bunch of it so it wouldn’t go bad. And fast.

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