Early potato harvest yields just-right salad

Just in time for Memorial Day picnicking, my garden yielded a bevy of baby Yukon Gold potatoes. I could have left them in their raised bed longer, but I needed the space to plant tomatoes.

So, baby potato salad, it is!

Most potato salad recipes use full-size potatoes and offer no directions for using pint-size spuds. My baby Yukon Golds were each about 2 inches in diameter, what’s referred to by marketers as “two-bite” size.

This recipe uses 1 pound of these little gems; that’s about 11 or 12 two-biters.

An advantage of using baby potatoes in a salad: No peeling necessary. And they boil very quickly; mine reached the fork-tender stage in less than 20 minutes.

That little bit of sugar helps to balance the sharper flavors of Dijon mustard, onion and pickles. It’s not much (and optional for those cooks who avoid any added sugar), but just enough to make this potato salad just right.

Baby potato salad

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound baby or “two-bite” Yukon Gold potatoes or similar

3 eggs, hard boiled and chopped

½ cup onion, chopped

½ cup celery, chopped

½ cup bread and butter pickles, chopped

¼ cup black olives, sliced

Dressing:

½ cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning or similar seasoning salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley or 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

½ teaspoon sugar (optional)

Paprika for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

Prepare potatoes. Boil with skin on in salted water until just fork tender. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, lightly toss chopped hard-boiled eggs, onion, celery, pickles and olives.

Make the dressing. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, celery seed, Old Bay seasoning, black pepper, parsley and sugar, if desired.

Add dressing to egg mixture; toss to coat.

Cut potatoes into eighths. Gently toss potatoes with egg-dressing mixture. Adjust seasoning if needed.

Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.

Sprinkle servings with paprika, if desired.