What I did not inherit from my mother:

her green thumb

What I did:

her very low tolerance for mayonnaise

My mother’s potato salad has taken on varying forms over the years, but rarely did they include mayonnaise in the description. She’s also a woman whose many recipes that she is “known” for aren’t exactly written down. She throws things in and tastes her way through her summer classics like her tabbouleh salad, her bean salad, corn & peppers, and blackberry sauce.

Her potato salad is no different and this July 4th’s variation was simply every herb she had growing in the garden and some lemon juice and oil. The other trick she had up her sleeve was this: I noticed that the potatoes were cooking on the stove for what seemed like an awfully long time. I thought she had forgotten about them but after I reminded her about them, she rather lackadaisically (IMO) got off the couch and ran them under cold water. She then chopped them up carefully and folded them into the other ingredients carefully, tasted her way through it carefully, and then threw it into the fridge to meld overnight for the party the next day. From my point of view, forgetting about the potatoes seemed now very, very on purpose.

By any other standards, she for sure overcooked her potatoes, but for the sake of the recipe, I fully believe she gets away with the lack of mayo because of this. The potatoes' mushy texture creates a creaminess you would not have otherwise. You just have to be careful with mixing it together so you don’t end up with mashed potatoes.

She’s pretty genius, my mother...which I hope I inherited from her too…

Herby Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 pounds yukon gold potatoes

2 garlic scapes, sliced small

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped dill

juice of one lemon

¼ cup olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot, cover the potatoes with cold water and over high heat bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and cook potatoes until very soft when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and rinse under cold running water for a few minutes. Set aside.

Throw all your chopped herbs together in a large bowl. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch chunks and while they’re still a touch warm on the inside, toss them together very gently with the herbs, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning. Put in fridge to chill for a few hours or overnight. Serve cold.

Like most picnic salads, potato salad is better the next day. And according to my cousin Evelyn, tossing it while warm allows for the flavors to really integrate into the potato chunks and because Evelyn’s potato salad is hella awesome, I have to believe her.

Serve 6 to 8

So you bought a bunch of garlic scapes. Now what?

Um, I have no idea…I’m in the same boat! Oops. It seems that garlic scapes are rarely the star of the show. I want to believe they’re okay with that, because I’ve mostly been blending them into things. A lot of suggestions for scapes are to make pesto, but I’ve already done that. I’ve read that you can pickle them and then they actually taste a bit like green beans?…Weird, right? Lest we forget last summer when I made this frittata with them and I burned the shit out of it. It was great regardless of the burning, and I made it again, not burnt, and it was still great. Maybe I should take a new photo. I also added them to a lot of veggie stir-frys. They keep really well wrapped up in the crisper. So, basically what I’m saying is, help! Any ideas for garlic scapes, send them my way! (I fully understand that I should probably be the one telling you what to do with them...see below for some of that.)

This green goddess dressing has been pinned to my Food52 collection board for awhile now and as I was desperately trying to come up with ways to use up these garlic scapes, it came to mind. I could easily swap out the garlic for some slinky green scapes. They would for sure add to the “green” in “green goddess dressing”. It also reminded me that lurking deep in the back of one of my cabinets, was a small tin of anchovies that I bought in a moment of fierce courage even though I had no plan for them yet. I felt accomplished as a I placed them in my basket, as though I had made it through a foodie rite of passage. I knew that people sing their praises as umami filled flavor boosters --- they just make everything taste better. But then they went up into a cabinet for a few months to be forgotten/avoided because I needed an excuse for another fierce moment of courage. Green Goddess dressing it was!

As a fish-phobic individual, I had my doubts of their apparent flavor magic and was convinced that upon tasting the dressing I would immediately know that anchovies were present and decide, no thank you. Opening the can, I prepared to be walloped in face by FISH. But no, that wasn’t the case. I took the little critters and quickly diced them up and threw them in with the other ingredients and they looked just like little bacon bits. They had finally met their destiny, or I guess two of them had, because shit I have a whole can of anchovies to use up...now what?

I was not brave enough to slurp up one on its own. But I think I will continue to mush them into things and pretend they’re not there, enjoying the punchiness I’m assured they lend to dishes. Take it from me, anchovy-phobes, it’s probably time. Time to use up some of those garlic scapes and those little fishies hiding in your cupboard to make this dreamy dressing.

You’ll want to dunk all of the raw vegetables in it, spread it on all of the sandwiches, possibly bathe in it and emerge like the summery goddess we are all becoming with this warm, veggie-friendly weather. I’m dreaming of tomatoes sitting in puddles of it, their insides oozing out and scooping up all that goodness with a spoon. I thought it wouldn’t be half bad as a dressing for chicken salad. Dolloped on raw baby carrots and snap peas was a pretty good start.

Green Goddess Dressing

adapted from this Food 52 recipe

Ingredients:

½ of a ripe avocado

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

3 garlic scapes diced small

2 oil packed anchovies, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon honey

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ cup olive oil, add a bit additional if needed

¼ cup buttermilk (can sub heavy cream)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh carrot greens

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Add avocado, vinegar, garlic scapes, anchovies, honey and lemon juice into a blender. Blitz until all is combined. Since I have a nutribullet, I added all of the olive oil at this point and blitzed until fully incorporated. If you have a regular blender, with the top on, run the blender at a low speed and slowly drizzle the olive oil in through the hole in the top. Blitz until incorporated.

Transfer this mixture to a medium sized bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk.

Whisk in the chopped herbs next. Season dressing to taste.

Best after chilled for a few hours, however let it sit for a few minutes at first for the oil to come back to its liquid state.

Makes about 1 ½ cups. Keeps for about 3 days.