Beet, Pickled Herring, and Potato Salad

Roasted beets and blue potatoes from the farm share, mixed with pickled herring chunks and red onion in a potato salad perhaps only a Scandinavian would love.

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My family Christmas Eve tradition is a Scandinavian style smorgasbord reflecting our Norwegian and Swedish heritage with Danish and Finnish influences and the occasional Icelandic cheese. It is not an official competition, but you get bonus points for all the various ways you can serve herring at your table. [None of the ways involve dessert, ease your mind.]

When I got blue potatoes in the last Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share of the year, I thought it would be fun to add another herring dish to the spread by making a beet & potato salad with pickled herring. I already know beets and pickled herring go well together from my Quick Pickled Beet and Herring Salad. I've enjoyed a shockingly pink sildesalat which combines smoked herring, potatoes and beets. So this combination is not a stretch--if you're used to the above--which is why I thought it appropriate to serve at my family celebration last year. With so many herring lovers around the table alongside me, my spouse and kids were in the minority and the salad was seen as a normal addition, not something far out.

Irish Cheddar Chicken Potato Leek Pizza

Chicken, blue potatoes, and leeks under a blanket of Irish cheddar cheese. Irish pizza? Cockaleekie pizza? Colorful pizza with chicken, leeks and potatoes? You choose the name that works.

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A community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share is not typically a source of exotic produce. Although turnips, kohlrabi and celeriac were novel and exotic to me--and Swiss chard may be new to some--these crops have been around.

When we got purple potatoes in the share last year it was a surprise and a delight. I've played with blue potatoes from Costco before, and it's also fun to make colorful food straight out of the farm share box. For this pizza I wanted to punch up the color of a chicken, leek, and potato pizza. Yes, that's practically cockaleekie pizza, but according to Google Trends no one searches for that. So you get a boring-yet-descriptive name. I've got a Corned Beef & Cabbage Pizza coming up, but to help mentally shift gears from Valentine's day/Mardi Gras/Chinese New Year to St. Patrick's Day I'd like to share this pizza now.

Why am I sharing St Patrick's Day recipes when I'm Scandinavian/Scottish, not Irish? Advertising, folks . . . it works on me. Cabbage goes on sale shortly after I've finished up the farm share veggies and had my fling with mushrooms from the store. We like corned beef and potatoes and eat them despite not being kissable due to our heritage. Shoot, we eat a bunch more seafood because it's also on sale. Speaking of ads, I'm playing around with Amazon ads in my sidebars. Please let me know if they are intrusive, thanks.

For another Irish-themed pizza, please check out my Tremendously Green Pizza (talk about a non-SEO friendly title!) that has bacon, cabbage, and potatoes. You can find other pizzas for your Friday Night Pizza Night at my Visual Pizza Recipe Index.