Ana, cook: “The best potato salad in autumn doesn't have potatoes, but 8 zucchini, garlic and 2 egg yolks”
Diners: 4
- Egg yolks, 2 units
- Mustard, 1 tablespoon
- Sunflower or mild olive oil, 200 ml
- Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon
- Salt, ¼ teaspoon
- Ground black pepper, ¼ teaspoon
- Medium zucchini, 8 units
- Garlic, 2 heads
- Mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Red onion, ½ unit
- Tomato, 1 out
- Fresh dill, 1 tablespoon chopped
- Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon
- Toasted bread, 6 slices
- Step 1: Place the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Whisk together, gradually adding the oil in a thin stream while continuing to whisk until the mayonnaise emulsifies. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Step 2 Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wash the zucchini and cut them in half lengthwise. Make a few cuts in the flesh, without reaching the skin.
- Step 3 Place the zucchini on a baking tray with the cuts facing up, along with the 2 whole heads of garlic. Roast for about 45 minutes, until well browned.
- Step 4 We scoop out the zucchini pulp with a spoon and let it drain in a colander for 20 minutes.
- Step 5 Remove the roasted garlic cloves, place them in a mortar with ½ teaspoon of salt and crush them into a paste. Set aside.
- Step 6: Chop the zucchini pulp and place it in a bowl with the roasted garlic paste and 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise. Mix and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 7: Chop the red onion and tomato. Serve the salad with the onion, tomato, and dill on top, finish with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and serve with toasted bread.
If you think potato salad can only be made with potatoes, carrots, tuna, and mayonnaise, stick around, because you've definitely never seen one like this.
This super-easy zucchini salad is one of those recipes you won't be able to stop making once you start, and it only requires a few ingredients. It can be served as an appetizer or as a side dish with meat or fish.
The proposal comes from Ana Mateoni, a cook of Romanian origin based in Almería who publishes her recipes on @la_cocinadeani, her Instagram profile with 544,000 followers.
Ana is also an expert in vegetables and an agricultural entrepreneur who owns Rociani, a company based in Roquetas de Mar dedicated to the cultivation and distribution of vegetables, including zucchini.
Therefore, he works with a product he knows firsthand and which, according to the Price and Market Observatory of the Junta de Andalucía, in the 2024/2025 campaign, Almería greenhouses dedicated 7,538 hectares to zucchini and produced 460.7 million kilos.
Two tricks and a scandalous recipe
In a traditional potato salad, the ingredients are cooked in water. In this much more special potato salad, the zucchini are cooked in the oven until golden brown, and we all know that browned food always tastes better.
"This caramelized point is key to making the potato salad very tasty," Ana explains.
Ana's second trick is to make mayonnaise using only egg yolks. "For me, it's the best in the world," she says, explaining that a touch of mustard gives it "an incredible flavor."
For the mayonnaise
- Ground black pepper, ⅛ teaspoon.
