A few years back my big sister Sophie made a potato salad so glorious that it has lingered in my memory and dreams ever since.
It was a hot summer day in Vancouver and my Brother-In-Law had barbecued. We sat in the shade of their huge covered deck eating burgers and salad and sipping lemonade. It was one of those perfect, lazy summer days spent surrounded by family and good friends, with no rush, and no pressure, just laughter, love and good food. And good food is made all the better when tied up with moments like that. Bliss.
Apart from the magnificence of the day and lasting memories that it forged, key to the potato salad’s splendor was that it contained no mayonnaise, but rather consisted of beautiful soft new potatoes dressed with a tangy herby vinaigrette. It was the first time I’d had a non mayonnaise based potato salad, and it was a revelation. I’ve wanted to try and emulate that recipe for ages, so when the new potatoes suddenly arrived on the shelves a couple of weeks ago, the time had come.
While, to this day, I have no idea what Sophie’s recipe was for her magical potato salad, in my attempt to approximate it loveliness I turned to chimichurri, a lovely dressing which I felt would fit the bill nicely. Chimichurri is an Argentinian sauce made from parsley, garlic, oil, oregano, and vinegar, traditionally used to dress meat. As a bit of a parsley fanatic, for me it’s seriously delicious, and because of the parsley it’s also an immune boosting, kidney supporting, dose of wondrous nutrition.
These chimichurri new potatoes make for a gorgeous potato salad, nearly as good as my sister’s. And with the days getting warmer filling me with thoughts of outdoor dining and barbecues, I think this will be a staple this spring and summer. Maybe come fall the chimichurri will even make its way back indoors!
…Just a quick aside if, like me, you love words: According to Wikipedia, chimichurri loosely translates to “a mixture of several things in no particular order” … Makes me love it even more!!
- 500g new potatoes, washed and halved
- 30g or 1 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed with a bit of salt
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
- Juice of half a lemon
- Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water and a pinch of salt. Set it over medium high heat and bring it to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, to make the chimichurri, add all of the ingredients into a food processor, and pulse together until everything is finely chopped and well combined.
- Once the potatoes are cool, stir through the chimichurri and serve.