Nugget Potato Salad

I absolutely LOVE potato salad but it doesn't love me or my figure.  I rarely eat or make it these days.  However, when new baby nugget taters are in season, I will indulge in spuds more frequently.

After heating the oven and my house up in this really hot weather last night, I decided to BBQ outside and make this salad as the side for dinner.  My son doesn't like mayo so I thought this would let him enjoy this by using a vinaigrette. 

• 1 & ½ lbs new nugget potatoes
• ½ cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 cup green onions, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 shallot, diced finely
• Vinaigrette (below)
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
• Sweet paprika, for garnish

Vinaigrette:

• 1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons brine from a jar of pickles
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 
• 1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Kosher salt & fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

I sliced the nuggets in half and rinsed them a couple of times.

I seasoned with fresh cracked coarse kosher salt and brought to a boil and cooked them until just tender (20 minutes, though I should have done it 15 minutes as a couple were mushy).  I drained, tossed with a touch of olive oil and fresh cracked S&P.  The recipe said to rinse with cold water but I didn't read that until after I had already seasoned them so I missed that step.  I set aside and let cool down.  I kept wondering if rinsing them would have made them less mushy?

When they were warm, I added in the chopped ingredients, the dressing and more S&P.  I bought this new set of great T-Fal Ingenio sauce/frying pans.  They came with lids and covers so the sauce pans can go directly from stove to the fridge like a bowl and the handles remove on all of the set.  You can also use them like casserole dishes.  I like them a lot.  I have had great luck with T-Fal products.  I've always used them for my non-stick frying pan(s).

I plated with a garnish of a little shake of Hungarian sweet paprika.  I just automatically have to do that when making potato salad as that's what my family did while I was growing up.  It needed nothing though.  Those potatoes need nothing to make them taste wonderful, so these simple ingredients highlighted how scrumptious they were.  That being said, I would have liked ALL the potatoes to be whole and not mushy (75% were whole), but it still tasted great.  It was luke warm when I served and I'm sure it will be as good when it's cold.  Summer screams "Potato Salad" doesn't it?