Radish and Potato Salad--Into Spring

After reading the recipe below, someone may wonder why, of all the ingredients, just radish is on the front picture. The answer is because radish was the reason why I came up with this salad. I bought a fresh bunch of it, smooth and beautifully purple, just one more time to convince myself that my kids do not like it.

To me, radish brings the sweetest childhood memories of spring when I watched it grow in our garden, to pull it later from the soil, once it got suddenly big enough, often times overnight. Then we washed it, sliced it, and ate. Sometimes it was just radish on bread with butter and salt on top. Sometimes it was sliced over a spread of cream cheese or added to cottage cheese, together with English cucumber and chives. It was incredibly crunchy, peppery and gently spicy, but somewhat spicier than the one I am buying now--when I ate the radish from my garden, I could feel a slight pinch on the tip of the tongue.

I still like radish a lot and use it eagerly in salads, especially in the early spring. I came up with this salad by adding almost every crunchy vegetable that I could find in my refrigerator. It came out very crunchy, but the young baby potatoes I added gave it nice softness in mild contrast to the radish and the rest of it. I make this salad quite often these days and eat for lunch.

Radish and Potato Salad
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 bunch of radish, cut into small cubes,
1 cup yellow bell pepper (it is important for it to be yellow as I find it more delicate), cut in small square pieces,
1 cup of cucumber, cut into cubes,
3-4 celery sticks cut into thin slices,
half a bunch onion spring chopped,
1/4 cup fresh dill chopped,
2 cups cooked baby potatoes cut in half, or bigger potatoes cut into cubes.

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp mustard,
1 tsp sugar,
2 tbsp white wine vinegar,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Place all the vegetable cut into small, similar size cubes in a large bowl.
2. Make dressing in a small bowl by stirring all ingredients until they form a smooth, thick sauce.
3. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, mix, let it infuse for 30 minutes and serve.