Potato/Root Salad With Lima Beans

This recipe was very broadly adapted from the Kingsolver book, Animal Vegetable Miracle. I wanted to create a potato salad without mayonnaise for a picnic, so that any leftovers would keep well enough for future lunches. For potatoes I recommend Yukon Golds, and I recommend that the lima (butter) beans be fresh. Celeriac is also known as celery root. Depending on what is available, turnips would work as well as celeriac. (For the photo, the beans are a mix of lima and cranberry beans.)

• Ready In: 1 hr 30 mins
• Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 5  potatoes
• 1  sweet potato
• 1⁄2 celeriac
• 2  shallots
• 1  cup lima beans, shelled
• 3  garlic cloves
• 2  teaspoons olive oil or 2  teaspoons  enough to coat  root vegetables
•  mixed Italian herbs
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1⁄2 stalk celery
•  fresh dill
•  fresh basil
•  salt
•  pepper
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil, extra virgin (optional)
• 1 -3  tablespoon  balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions

1. Peel the celeriac and the sweet potato and the shallots. Unless you prefer, leave skins on the regular potatoes (removing eyes and other blemishes, of course).
2. Cut the root vegetables into approximately one inch chunks (cut the celeriac smaller as it otherwise takes longer to cook than the others). Slice the shallots to about ¼ inch. Chop up the garlic and mix with the root vegetables in a roasting pan.
3. Add enough olive oil to coat the vegetables, and add in all the seasonings except the fresh basil. Mix by hand, and spread out as possible in your pan.
4. Bake in 450 F preheated oven for 20-30 minutes. If you couldn’t spread the vegetables out, toss them after 20 minutes, and return to oven for 8-12 more minutes. Remove from oven.
5. Transfer to a bowl, and with a fork, lightly break up the vegetables, but do not mash them.
6. Boil the lima beans for approximately 30 minutes (you can do this while the rest of the food is roasting), drain, and add to the bowl after breaking up the root vegetables.
7. Chop the basil and finely dice the celery, and mix inches
8. For the dressing: mix the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar together in a suitable vessel which can be shaken prior to use by those wishing some.
9. Refrigerate/chill before serving.
10. (Optional: Pan-fry 5 slices of bacon, drain and allow to cool. Crumble and serve on the side as an option. You can also add it directly to the serving bowl, but since I am not always aware of guests' dietary restrictions or preferences, I would prefer to leave this as an optional condiment for the salad.).