For the salad
Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Cook the potatoes in water with a little salt until al dente. Wash and clean the sugar snap peas, cut into diamond-shape pieces, and spread out on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes.
The author recommends using waxy potatoes.
To save time, you can go on to the next recipe step while the potatoes and sugar snap peas are cooking.
For the dressing
Wash and clean the scallions and cut into fine rings. Wash the chives and mint. Cut the chives into small pieces and coarsely chop the mint. Juice the lime.
We have chosen to use Moroccan mint (see Notes).
Purée the scallions, soy yogurt, oil, and lime juice in a blender. Add the chives and mint, and blend again for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
The original recipe for 8 servings contains 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt. Decide for yourself how much you need (see Tips for more information).
Assembling the potato salad
Cut the potatoes with the peel into pieces and mix together with the sugar snap peas. Pour the dressing on top and mix well.
Coarsely chop the cashews, roast in a nonstick skillet, and then sprinkle over the salad.
Detailed Nutritional Information per Person for this Recipe
The majority of the nutritional information comes from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture). This means that the information for natural products is often incomplete or only given within broader categories, whereas in most cases products made from these have more complete information displayed.
If we take flaxseed, for example, the important essential amino acid ALA (omega-3) is only included in an overarching category whereas for flaxseed oil ALA is listed specifically. In time, we will be able to change this, but it will require a lot of work. An “i” appears behind ingredients that have been adjusted and an explanation appears when you hover over this symbol.
For Erb Muesli, the original calculations resulted in 48 % of the daily requirement of ALA — but with the correction, we see that the muesli actually covers >100 % of the necessary recommendation for the omega-3 fatty acid ALA. Our goal is to eventually be able to compare the nutritional value of our recipes with those that are used in conventional western lifestyles.
This party potato salad with sugar snap peas, fresh mint, soy yogurt, and cashews is a refreshing alternative and rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
Nutritional profile: A serving of this recipe provides more than 75 % of the recommended daily requirement of alpha-linolenic acid, and, depending on the amount of lemon juice used, almost 50 % of the daily recommended requirement for vitamin C. This recipe has a very good ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids as it does not exceed the recommendation of 5:1.
Sugar snap peas: Sugar snap peas are a pea variety in the legume family. You can eat the entire pod and don’t have to shell them. The flavor is similar to that of peas, but they are slightly sweeter and juicier. In addition to adding sugar snap peas to stir-fries or curries, they can also be eaten raw in salads as they don’t contain any phasin, which causes damage to blood cells and the intestinal wall when consumed in large quantities. Some sugar snap peas have tough “strings” running along the top of the pod from base to tip that have to be removed before cooking or eating raw. Simply snap off the ends of the peas and pull the strings off. Since fresh sugar snap peas don’t keep for that long, they should be eaten within a few days. Alternatively, they can be blanched and frozen.
Mint: Moroccan mint is a cultivar of spearmint. It has a milder flavor than peppermint and is well suited for use in a wide variety of recipes. Moroccan mint has a mild peppery flavor and a sweet, minty fresh aroma. It contains less menthol compared to other mints, especially peppermint, but has a nice minty scent (a reason why we have chosen this variety of mint).
Soy yogurt: Soy yogurt is made by adding live bacteria cultures to fermented soy milk. We do not regard soy milk and soy yogurt as raw foods since the soybeans are heated during the production process.
Cashews: Cashews sold at the grocery store are not actually raw. Their shells contain a toxic nut shell liquid (cardol) that has to be deactivated by roasting or steaming. Cashews are a good source of minerals such as magnesium, which is good for bone health, as well as iron, which is an important component of hemoglobin and red blood cells. Since vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron, the lime juice (containing ascorbic acid) that this recipe calls for has benefits both in terms of health and taste.
Flaxseed oil: Flaxseed oil, also known as linseed oil, is obtained from the seeds of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum). Cold-pressed flaxseed oil has a distinctive flavor that is crisp, clean, and mildly nutty. It is golden yellow in color. Cold-pressed flaxseed oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, but it oxidizes quickly and can only be stored for a very short time. The ratio of linoleic acid (omega-6 fatty acids) to alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3 fatty acids) in flaxseed oil is about 1:3–1:4.
Tips
Potato varieties: It is best to use waxy potatoes for this recipe so that they will keep their shape in the salad.
Reducing the salt: It’s worth it to reduce your overall salt intake. A total of 2.5 g of table salt (1 g of sodium) per day is optimal, especially if you have high blood pressure. The lethal dose for an adult is about ten tablespoons of pure table salt (click on salt in the ingredient list for more info). Since the amount of salt we need to season food varies, try it out for yourself and see where and by how much you can reduce your salt intake. For more information on the topic, we would encourage you to read the book Salt, Sugar, Fat.
