Herb-Happy Potato Salad
By Leslie Brenner
Why eat inside when you can eat outside? That’s my philosophy anytime the weather’s fine. And whether you’re vegan, or you like to eat plant-based sometimes or much of the time, it just feels nice to keep things light and clean when you’re being outdoorsy and maybe a hike or nature walk is in the picture.
To that end, here are a dozen vegan treats to pack in a basket. They’re mostly simple to put together, and many can be made the night before and kept chilled till you’re ready to roll.
Classic Tabbouleh
Minty, fragrant and portable, classic tabbouleh is a perfect picnic food that satisfies summer tomato cravings. Our recipe, adapted from Anissa Helou’s Feast: Food of the Islamic World, calls for romaine leaves for scooping it up; lately we’ve been loving it with organic little gems.
Giant White Beans with Lemon Zest and Olive Oil
This dish came to us through a cookbook we love — La Buvette: Recipes and Wine Notes from Paris, by Camille Fourmont and Kate Leahy. The book is about Fourmont’s Paris wine bar, and this super simple prep was one of the first things she started serving there. No formal recipe required: Open a can of gigante beans or butter beans, rinse and drain them well, drizzle with great olive oil and finish with citrus zest and flaky salt, such as Maldon. Fourmont changes up her zest choice according to the season (mandarin! bergamot!), but we find it irresistible with lemon. If you want to be really fancy, you can bring the zest and Maldon salt separately, and finish it after you’ve given the beans a quick toss to recoat them in olive oil at the picnic.
Fragrant Dressed Tofu
We fell for this dish recently as we tested recipes from Hannah Che’s inspiring The Vegan Chinese Kitchen for a review. Meant to be eaten room-temp or chilled, it’s ideal picnic fare.
Spinach with Sesame Dressing
This classic Japanese starter or side — served at room temp — will be vegan if you make it with vegan dashi. To make vegan dashi, soak a piece of kombu (about 4 inches square) in filtered water at room temperature for 3 to 10 hours, then drain.
Charred Summer Salad
Designed to be served warm, this beautiful toss is also great at room-temp. Leave off the optional cheese for the vegan version.
Quinoa, Pea and Mint Tabbouleh
This spin on classic tabbouleh — swapping quinoa for bulghur wheat and peas for chick peas and doing without tomatoes — is one of our all-time favorite picnic foods. We always make a double batch, it’s so good.
Sweet Home Café’s Spicy Pickled Okra
Quite simply the best pickled okra we’ve ever tasted, these are adapted from a recipe in Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook. (Sweet Home Cafe is the restaurant in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.) The pickles are crispy and tangy — with just a touch of sugar.
RECIPE: Sweet Home Café’s Spicy Pickled Okra
Herb-Happy Potato Salad
Shown in the photo at the top of this story, this is riffable potato salad is elegant, pretty and delicious. For a picnic, bring the herbs along in a separate container and scatter them on top at the picnic table.
Baba Ganoush
We love this classic baba ganoush with homemade pita bread, but for a picnic, we’ll pick up pita at the supermarket or a Lebanese bakery.
Hummus, dressed as you like
Preternaturally smooth hummus can be yours, whether you want to start from dried chick peas or open a can of garbanzos. Either way, it’s always at home at a picnic — especially if you picked up that pita bread. Dress it with olive oil and sumac, or make it fancy by dropping a handful of fresh herbs and sliced radishes on top.
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Here’s another eminently riffable dish that travels well. This version is adapted from The Vegan Chinese Kitchen.
Minted Fruit Salad
This fruit dessert is so basic, you don’t need a recipe — just toss whatever cut-up fruit you like with mint and a little Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (or orange juice). In case you’d like a roadmap (or want to learn how to cut orange supremes), here’s a recipe:
RECIPE: Minted Fruit Salad