Kids Make New Potato Salad with Onion Scapes

The inspiration for this potato salad came from our recent garden cleanup. Where I wanted to plant okra, potatoes were growing, apparently from spuds I had missed during last year's harvest.

I dug up the new plants (hated to do it) and in the process gathered a bucket-full of potatoes. Could they possibly be edible? I put them on the stove in a pot of water. The result was not too bad at all, but I thought they looked a little long in the tooth. That was easily solved with a mayonnaise dressing. And for a bit of green, I tossed in a handful of chopped onion scapes, those being the long flower stems I had recently snipped from our onion bed.

My wife doesn't care for mayonnaise dressing or hard-boiled eggs in her potato salad, so this was not to her taste at all. And when I decided to bring the recipe to school for our "food appreciation" classes, I got the baby red potatoes at Whole Foods, making this more of a seasonal dish. If you don't happen to have onion or garlic scapes handy, use chives.

Kids are always eager to cut things like potatoes and celery. It's not easy with their plastic knives, but they were not deterred.

2 pounds small boiling potatoes

3 hard-boiled eggs

2 celery stalks, cleaned, trimmed and diced small

1/4 yellow onion, diced small

2 tablespoons chopped onion or garlic scapes (or substitute chopped chives)

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut the potatoes into bit-size pieces and cook until just tender in a large pot of salted water. Drain potatoes and chill in cold water. Drain potatoes again, then transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Peel the eggs and chop into bite-size pieces. Add eggs to potatoes, along with celery, onion and scapes (or chives). In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar and salt. Pour dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve at room temp.

The finished salad is a classic side dish for a barbecue or picnic. Many of the younger kids in our classes were put off by the idea of eggs and potatoes together, but the older kids wolfed it down and begged for seconds.