Summertime Potato Salad

 

Everybody knows a potato salad and I think most people love it. It is a good salad, complimentary to many dishes. Lots of different cuisines have lots of different types of potato salad. In America, they make it with mayonnaise for instance. In Turkish home-cooking, a potato salad generally consists of potatoes, spring onions or white onions and parsley. This summer I made many different potato salads using fresh potatoes. Today's recipe is the one that I call 'Summertime Potato Salad' because it has got nice summer peppers, full red juicy tomatoes in it. A bit of fresh mint with fresh lemon juice and there you have it -perfect summer taste!

Ingredients:
Serves for 4

2 big potatoes
2 medium size tomatoes
A handful of fresh mint leaves
1 medium size onion
2 medium size sweet red peppers
2 medium size sweet banana peppers
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil (As always!)
Salt, pepper
A clove of garlic

How to:
1. Peel and wash the potatoes, chop them into chunks and put them in a pot to boil.
2. Meanwhile, wash and chop the peppers, tomatoes, fresh mint leaves and put them in a salad bowl. Add the chopped onions on top and leave aside.
3. Squeeze the juice of one lemon into a small bowl, then grate a clove of garlic in it. You can also chop the garlic but I tend not to use the garlic crusher as I want the crunchiness of the garlic without the flavor being too strong. Add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and mix well. This is our salad dressing. 
4. Once the potatoes are cooked (check with a toothpick or a knife), chop them into smaller pieces and add to the salad mixture in the bowl. Pour over the dressing and mix well. Our salad is ready. Yum!

 

I like to decorate it with a sprinkle of dry mint before I serve.