Potato-Radish Salad with Green Olive Tapenade

Our friend Randy just came back from Germany with a few pictures of spring restaurant dishes that he shared with me. One was a fabulous looking white radish salad served with a couple of slices of crusty country bread that looked inspiring. Of course I immediately headed to the  market here in Kelowna and my fridge right now looks like a radish patch. I bought radishes of all kinds and colours, lots of them, including a black radish that I don’t often find. The radishes are so beautiful, crisp  and pungent-sweet. I did make a radish salad (still experimenting, recipe to come) but I also had to use the radishes up so I have been incorporating them into different salads all week, sautéed them in butter and roasted them with other beautiful vegetables. They can’t complain that I ignore them.

Here is a good salad of yellow fleshed potatoes and radishes tossed with olive tapenade (olive spread, like a pesto) that I purchase at a new local Italian deli Zia, on Kent Road just off Springfield for those of you who live or visit here (great gelato by the way, try the pistachio flavour). I used the yellow fleshed potatoes and cut them into wedges but any waxy potato variety would do and cut them accordingly. Try it with fingerling potatoes if you have them, cutting them in half lengthwise. Measurements are approximate. Use as many potatoes as you need for the occasion and add the remaining ingredients in proportion so the salad looks and tastes fab. This is a good salad for a buffet style entertaining as it improves as it sits, up to a point. If you make this early, leave the chopped parsley out and refrigerate or set aside. Bring back to room temperature and toss with the parsley before serving (the lemon juice will fade the bright green colour of the parsley if sitting too long). Enjoy and let me know your thoughts (comment form below).

Ingredients:

1 lb yellow flesh or other waxy potatoes (white or red skinned, not brown)

1/4 cup green olive tapenade, purchased or homemade (see note above)

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 radishes, thinly sliced on a mandolin

2 shallots, sliced, or 1/2 small red onion, sliced

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Freshly ground black pepper

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (or more)

1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

Directions:

Steam potatoes, unpeeled, in a steamer basket until cooked through. Test by plunging a thin knife into them. If the knife goes through easily without resistance than they are done. Do not over cook the potatoes though, they shouldn’t fall apart.

Let the potatoes cool and then peel them and cut into thin wedges (about 6 wedges per potato).

Add the tapenade to the still warm potatoes and mix gently to coat them with the tapenade.

Slice the radishes on a mandolin and add to the potatoes along with the sliced shallots or red onion, tossing gently.

Drizzle the olive oil over the salad and mix.

Season with salt and pepper. The tapenade is already salty so taste and just add enough to achieve a full flavour.

Squeeze half a lemon over the salad and mix. If you serve immediately then add the parsley and toss. If you plan to refrigerate and serve later don’t add the parsley now.as it will lose it bright green colour if you let it sit with the lemon juice. Set the parsley aside and add it just before serving.

Potato-Radish Salad with Green olive Tapenade

Spring radishes

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