Potato Salad with Dill and Walnuts

I am a huge dill fan.  In the summer it's perfect in a room-temperature potato salad - filling, crunchy, satisfying.  I wouldn't call it so much a recipe as a combination of ingredients. The recipe is evolving, since the arrival of bags of tri-color mini-potatoes.










~ 1 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes, or other small, new variety (mesh bag pictured is tri-colored small potatoes
Generous amount of dill, but less than what you buy as a "bunch" - say "half a bunch"
3 ribs celery or one peeled, seeded cucumber
~1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2 dollops* of low-fat mayonnaise (or sour cream or yogurt - or a combination of any of them)
mustard to taste
hard-boiled eggs (optional)
ripe avocado in chunks (optional)

1. Pick some dill, if you're lucky enough to live across from the Sterns garden, which boasts a huge dill plant.

2. Cover the potatoes and boil for about 10-12 minutes, until they're tender. (Less for the minis.) Some of them will burst open.  Let them cool a few minutes and then drain the water.  If you want to add more protein, you can hard boil eggs at the same time.  This was how my mom made potato salad.

3. In the meantime, pick out the tough stems and chop the dill fine.  Put it aside.

4. Take three ribs of celery (or the cucumber.)  Slice it into three long stripe, and then slice the three strips in half.  Then line up the six strips and start chopping away - this is the quickest way I know to chop celery. Put the celery into a large bowl - might as well be the one you'll serve it in.

5. No need to peel the potatoes.  Chop them into small pieces - for fingerlings, cut them into sixths. For minis, into halves. If you hard cooked the eggs, peel and chop them, too. One avocado on top, in chunks, is pretty and delicious. (Don't put it in the mixture, add it to the top.)

6. If the walnuts need chopping, the food processor does it very quickly.  When I was little, one of my favorite jobs was chopping the walnuts, but that was before food processors - they were new in the 70's. You put the nuts in the top, turned the handle which turned the blades, and the chopped nuts dropped down.

7.  Add the potatoes and walnuts to the bowl.  Add two dollops or so of mayonnaise, to taste. *Roughly, a dollop is a generous tablespoon.  You could mix mayo and yogurt if it's for a dairy meal. You can also add some dijon mustard. Reserve a little of the dill for garnishing the top; add the balance to the other ingredients. Stir all the ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste.

This salad tastes good at room temperature.
If you have extra dill, it's great in hummus.  Dill Hummus was my favorite flavor - I never could figure out why they took it off the market.
This is recipe is kosher for Passover, too.  A good way to use any dill left over from the matzah ball soup!
For vegans, omit eggs and be sure to use vegan mayo.