Colorful potato salad with cucumber and pepper to steak or veggie patty. A family favorite food to eat under 500 calories.

"We could eat the delicious potato salad again very urgently", the teenage child says to me recently. Great idea! A huge bowl of grandma's potato salad with mayo, gürkchen and meat sausage appears auspiciously glowing in front of my mental buffet eye ... and zerploppt immediately afterwards in many small thought bubbles. The child and I are looking critically. "You take off," the child says to me. "You do not eat meat," I say to the child who has not eaten food from animals since January 2 for lifestyle and puberty reasons. We both nod regretfully. That will be difficult. Grandma's potato salad will probably have to do without us until further notice. And we on him. Unfortunately, Mayo and Wurst do not suit us right now. But the carrot salad thing will not let me go. Something has to go anyway? I go to the kitchen.

Since the beginning of the year, the cooking process in our mini-kitchen with two hotplates has become a little bit more complicated. I have always liked to use the floor to help put dishes and pots, hot sheets and pans in between. Meanwhile, I have brought it with this rotating system on a world champion level. Granted - not all dinners for the family have to be prepared separately and in double the number of cookware. There are still a lot of stews, casseroles, vegetable pans and Co. we can all eat together. But often I do different things twice. Because the man and I just do not want to live completely as a vegetarian. And because I just prefer not to eat chips, husband and child but very urgent which desired. It's a constant all-should-be-happy-kitchen juggling with hot containers on the stove and on the floor. It's also called family life.

I'm getting used to these new challenges. Recently, I've been increasingly trying to find a main component that everyone can and wants to eat. And therefore to knit more things that respond to different needs. Which brings us back to the potato salad. It is actually perfect as a favorite food for all - as long as it is low in calories, vegetarian and spicy-tasty.

10 minutes later I have boiled potatoes, fresh cucumber, the lonely bell pepper from the windowsill and some red Onion thrown into a bowl. The chives also have to go away ... on the stove is simmering a dressing based on vegetable stock with more onions. That's how our friends in the South do their potato salad, right? The salad is doused with the hot dressing and allowed to pull through briefly. Meanwhile I fry two steaks for the man and myself and a vegetarian patty for the child. What will the rest of the nuclear family say?

First, the man and the child look a bit suspicious. The potato salad in the bowl does not look quite the way they used to like it so far - with mayo or other white sauce. But they try him. And then they love him. The child even goes twice and expressly explains how delicious the food is. And that we have to eat it more often now. The man nods in agreement, his mouth full. O food, glorious food!

Today I make the potato salad for the third time in 10 days. And I know that he will be a hit again. Living with loved ones can be so easy. Or what do you say?

Have it!Halve the cucumber lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a small spoon. Cut the cucumber into approx. 0.5 thick slices. Clean the peppers and cut into small cubes. Peel a red onion and cut into rings. Peel the second red onion and finely chop. Cut the chives in rolls. Put the vegetables with the onion rings and the herbs in a bowl.

Bring the vegetable stock together with the chopped onions in a small saucepan and simmer for 3 minutes. Then remove from heat, add mustard, vinegar and stevia and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the warm dressing over the potato salad and mix thoroughly. Let it pass through briefly.

Heat one (or two) frying pan (s) on a medium to high level. Melt the butter in it and fry the steaks and/or patties 3-5 minutes from each side, depending on the thickness and desired cooking level. Let the meat rest briefly and then season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the steaks and/or patties on plates with the salad and serve.