Parsley Smashed New Potatoes...

As a side for tonight's dinner (which happened to be leftovers), I prepared this Parsley Smashed New Potatoes since we picked up a pack of baby reds at the farmers' market.

I didn't actually know what I was going to do with them, but seeing as how they looked freshly dug, I knew we would find a way to work them in! Certainly any smaller red potato would be fine if you don't have access to the creamier baby ones - however, I do think they are worth seeking out, especially if you've never tried them fresh from the garden!

Instead of boiling these beauties, we tossed them whole into one of our steamer baskets and set them on top of a pot of boiling water. Do try and ensure the potatoes are roughly the same size - if any of them are larger than 2", it is worth halving or quartering them so they all cook at the same time. If your pot won't hold much water with the basket, don't forget to keep an eye on the water level - if it looks like it is getting low, you'll want to add more hot water so the pot doesn't go dry... speaking from experience! I had that happen once while we were cooking tamales - since they usually take quite a while to cook, I completely forgot about it. Oops! One ruined pot that I'll never live down - hee hee!

While those were off working, we got the add-ins together - thick, Greek-style yogurt (though I imagine any plain yogurt you can get your hands on would be fine), sliced scallions, parsley, a couple knobs of butter and of course, salt and fresh ground black pepper. As the potatoes are so tender already, we didn't even bother with a mixer or potato masher to have at them - all it took was a fork to coarsely break them up and combine with the creamy yogurt mixture.

Besides adding a wonderful tang like one would get from buttermilk, the yogurt added a decadent body to the potatoes without the need for too much butter - it uses just enough for flavor. With being steamed, the potatoes didn't have the luxury of being cooked in seasoned water, so don't be too shy with the salt - absolutely taste as you go, but potatoes love salt to make them pop. With it's short ingredient list, these smashed potatoes had plenty of texture going on and were quite light with a snappy zip - one satisfying side dish for sure!

Recipes
Parsley Smashed New Potatoes