Rib-tato Salad to the Rescue!

Rescuing what, you ask? Rescuing you from getting stuck in a boring recipe rut for your next picnic or BBQ.

I was recently hosting a big birthday cookout for Rob in our backyard and obviously meat was the #1 priority on the menu. Fortunately I had two racks of succulent dry seasoned pork spareribs from Smithfield on hand and I couldn’t wait to show off their deliciousness to all our friends. We smoked ’em on the grill for a couple hours and the smell had everyone at the party drooling.

We devoured some of the ribs as-is, straight off the serving board, but I wanted to do something a little more creative with the rest of the meat. I knew these smoky, sweet ribs would be such a great complement to traditional picnic sides…

A thought dawned on me. I was about to throw together a potato salad. What if I just mixed the rib meat into the potato salad itself? A little sweet, a little salty, a little smoky, a little chewy…. yeah, it was basically the best idea ever. To really play up the sweet and smoky, I added some sweet potatoes into the mix and garnished with BBQ sauce. It was a hit and I have an inkling I’ll be making this dish for plenty of upcoming potluck parties.

 

Rib-tato (Rib + Potato) Salad

First you’ll need a half rack of cooked Smithfield St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs (whichever type you like best, I used Kansas City style ribs for this recipe), removed from bone and roughly shredded – should equal about 1 cup of meat

Then for the rest of the ingredients:

Salad:
3 white potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1″ cubes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1″ cubes
1 sweet yellow onion, diced
1 cup chopped raw purple cabbage
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup roughly chopped green onions, for garnish
1 tablespoon of your favorite BBQ sauce, for garnish (optional)

Dressing:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey or agave
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Add potato chunks to a large pot of boiling water and boil until cooked through but not mushy – about 20-25 minutes. Set them aside to cool for 10 minutes. Once cooled, combine all the potato salad ingredients besides the shredded rib meat and the green onions. You’ll gently toss the veggies with the paprika and garlic powder to coat them with flavorful goodness.

Vigorously shake all the dressing ingredients together in a big mason jar and do a little taste test before dressing the potato salad mixture. Add more honey, and/or S&P to taste… and don’t hold back on adding more mayo if you’d like a creamier dressing, or more lemon and vinegar if you’d like a thinner, tangier dressing. Once the taste and consistency are to your liking, pour over the potato salad and toss to coat.

Gently fold in the shredded rib meat. Drizzle with a small ribbon of BBQ sauce. Garnish with green onions and, if you’re feeling daring, an additional rib. Chow down!

This sponsored post is part of Endless Simmer’s 2016 series as a Blogger Ambassador for Smithfield Marinated Fresh Pork.