Boiled Red Potatoes with Lemon, Garlic, and Dill
Photo: Bearas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Small red potatoes boiled in salted water with the skins on, then tossed with garlic warmed in olive oil, lemon, and dill. The lemon and the dill go on after the boil. Cook them and they fade.
Ingredients
- 2 lb small red potatoes
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 lemon
- A small bunch of fresh dill
- Black pepper
Instructions
Scrub the potatoes and leave the skins on. Halve any that are much larger than the rest so they finish together.
Put them in a pot and cover with cold water by about an inch. Salt the water until it tastes seasoned. Bring to a boil and cook until a knife slips through with no hard center, about 15 minutes. Pull them as soon as they are tender. Red potatoes go from done to mealy if they sit.
Drain and let them steam dry in the colander for a minute. Wet potatoes throw the dressing off.
While they drain, warm the olive oil and garlic in a small pan over low heat just until the garlic smells and turns pale. Do not brown it. Browned garlic goes bitter against the lemon.
Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the zest of the lemon and about half its juice.
Toss the hot potatoes with the oil, then most of the dill and some black pepper. Taste for salt. Add the rest of the lemon juice only if you want it sharper.
Scatter the remaining dill over the top. Serve warm.
Notes
Quantities are a starting point. More dill is almost always right. More lemon is not. Too much juice and they taste pickled.
Leave the skins on. That is the point of using red potatoes. If the only ones you have are large, quarter them and start checking at 12 minutes.
Dried dill is a poor swap. A teaspoon will do if that is all you have, but it will not taste like this.
The recipe is already fasting as written: olive oil, no dairy. Butter instead of the olive oil if you are not fasting. Do not brown it.
Goes with the oven-roasted chicken thighs, or with fish.