New potato salad with vinaigrette and fresh herbs
Barbecue season has started, as has picknick season, dinner in the garden season and enjoying long, leasurely late-night drinks outside season. Whether you jump at the chance of outdoor grilling, or, like me, you prefer bringing out completely prepared ahead dishes for outdoor enjoyment, this new potato salad makes the perfect side to anything you’ll be planning to cook. Not only is it fresh, herby and full-flavoured, it’s also light, nutritious and ready in minutes. Sounds good?
For this potato salad I’m using new potatoes, which are now in season and have a sweet flavour and a tender, edible skin. Quickly boiling them unpeeled makes them incredibly easy to work with, but also makes sure they keep all of their flavour and nutrients. They’re dressed in a simple vinaigrette, which makes this salad a fresh and light alternative to its mayonnaise-dressed sibling. I then toss it with a generous dose of some of my all-time favourite herbs: parsley, dill, tarragon and chervil. All of these have different levels of freshness and sweetness and combined, I think they are a match made in heaven with potatoes.
Some chopped spring onions for punch and capers for an acidic touch and you’re good to go. The flavours of this salad actually improve with keeping, which makes it a wonderful bring-along dish for picknicks and gatherings. But it’s also perfectly all right to just keep it for yourself and enjoy it on the couch…
Happy cooking!
New potato salad with vinaigrette and fresh herbs – serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 kg new potatoes, unpeeled
- 4 tbsp. olive oil or sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- small bunch (10 g) each of flat-leaf parsley, dill, tarragon and chervil, roughly chopped
- 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp. capers
Preparation
Bring a large pan of water to a boil. When boiling, tip in the potatoes. Cover and turn down the heat. Depending on their size, leave them to simmer for about 10 minutes until just tender. Drain well and leave uncovered, to steam for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk the oil, vinegar and mustard together to make the vinaigrette. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Halve the potatoes lengthwise. In a large bowl, toss them with the vinaigrette, spring onion slices, herbs and capers.
Serve warm, or leave to cool completely and store in an airtight container in the fridge. The salad will keep for two days in the fridge.
Enjoy!
