Potato salad is a summer staple.
As good as potato salad is, the Accidental Locavore is not a huge fan of potato salad with either mayo or hard-boiled eggs. When I saw this from the NY Times, it looked like a nice change from my go-to French potato salad. Serves 4:
Potato Salad With Lemon and Mint Recipe
- 2 pounds small waxy white or yellow potatoes, roughly about the same size
- Juice of 1 lemon, more for serving
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, more as needed
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup thinly sliced scallions, white and light green parts, more for serving
- ¼ cup torn mint leaves, more for serving
- ¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper, more for serving
Cut the potatoes in half, or quarters if they’re large. Put potatoes in a large pot with enough salted water to cover by 1″. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes.
In a bowl, whisk together lemon juice, salt and olive oil.
Transfer hot potatoes to a large bowl and toss with dressing, scallions, mint and Turkish pepper. Let cool to room temperature. Just before serving, top with additional lemon juice, scallions, mint and Aleppo pepper.
My verdict:
Easy and good! Will they take the place of the French potato salad? Probably not, but how can you compete with bacon (and bacon fat)???
If you don’t have Aleppo, or ¼ teaspoon of some exotic pepper (because it’s soooo worth it to go out for 1/4 teaspoon of anything), just use freshly ground black pepper.
Other herbs to consider would have to include sage, rosemary and tarragon — essentially anything fresh.
I always cut the potatoes before boiling. It saves time, both in cooking and in waiting for them to cool enough to cut. However, you must start the potatoes in cool water. Otherwise they’ll never cook evenly all the way through and especially with potato salad, you don’t want them mushy on the outside.
What’s your favorite potato salad?
YUM!