June 23

This week, when we went to the grocery store, we bought some mini potatoes and mini bananas because they were too cute to pass up. Does anyone else do this? I often buy things because they’re cute or their colours are so vibrant, it’s hard to resist. I get an insane amount of pleasure looking at beautiful produce, which is probably why markets are one of my favourite places in the world. Either way, after buying food based on how it looks, without a dish in mind, it’s time to get creative. While I absolutely love plain, simply roasted potatoes, I thought I would jazz these little guys up and make a roasted potato salad instead.


I’ve always grown up with potato salad that was built off of boiled potatoes and a mayonnaise-based dressing. In fact, my grandmother’s potato salad was probably one of my favourite foods growing up. When I first tasted an oil and mustard based potato salad, I was pretty surprised. Like many other new dishes, I tasted that potato salad when my boyfriend was working at the German bakery/restaurant. It was surprisingly delicious and before then, I had literally never conceived of a potato salad without creamy dressing. So, this time around, instead of making a classic (in my mind) zingy, mayo based dressing I decided to go the oil/mustard route.


The salad ended up being delicious. It is acidic from the vinegar, full of freshness from the herbs, and crunchy from the radishes and crispy potatoes. It’s such a nice, hearty side dish for the summer. Even though the potatoes are roasted, there’s a certain amount of freshness to the dish that makes it feel appropriate for warmer weather. It may be because I prefer to eat this at room temperature or cold, not hot. I find the dressing gets soaked up by the potatoes when they’re tossed with the dressing straight from the oven, and it tastes even better as it sits. If you, like me, have only ever had more of a creamy potato salad, try this out, it’s a really nice change.