Pesto Potato Salad

Pesto lovers, this one’s for you! A twist on classic American potato salad, these potatoes are tossed with a creamy pesto dressing, instead. It's made with zesty basil, garlic, and lemon, bringing forward summer flavors like those straight from your garden. Plus, gold potatoes are plentiful at seasonal farmers markets, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. This potato salad can be enjoyed warm or chilled— In fact, it’s hard to stop and wait a couple hours for it to chill after throwing it all together: We won’t fault you for sneaking a forkful or two while it’s still warm! But, if you cook the potatoes and leave them to chill for awhile, some starches in the potatoes actually become resistant and therefore less likely to break down into glucose, which can lead to a spike in blood sugar— Eating cooked potatoes after they've cooled actually makes them easier to digest!

It’s as simple as briefly boiling baby gold potatoes then tossing them with a mix of homemade pesto and creamy mayonnaise. For this recipe, we definitely recommend whipping up your own batch of pesto. It’s really quite easy, and you probably have a few necessary ingredients on hand already! (If you don’t have pine nuts, grab a handful of walnuts instead.) And make a big batch, while you’re at it, for pesto pasta or other recipes later.

Pesto Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 2 lbs baby gold potatoes
• 2 packed cups fresh basil, plus more to top
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more to top
• ¼ cup pine nuts, plus more to top
• 1 tbsp lemon juice 
• 1 large clove garlic, pressed
• Salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise 

Instructions

1. Place the baby potatoes in a large pot full of cold salted water and bring to a boil. Boil over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are just fork tender. Drain well and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, to a food processor, add the basil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Pulse to break apart the ingredients until well combined but still chunky, about 15-30 seconds. Add the mayonnaise and pulse or use a whisk to combine, scraping down the sides of the food processor as necessary.
3. Place the cooked potatoes in a serving bowl and pour desired amount of pesto dressing over the potatoes. Toss to combine, coating the potatoes with the dressing.
4. Serve at room temperature or chilled with extra pine nuts, freshly torn basil, and grated parmesan cheese!