It's not quite barbecue weather, but spring is on the way, which means it’s time to ditch hearty stews and heavy casseroles for some lighter recipes. One dish, in particular, that signals the beginning of warmer, longer days is potato salad. Often served at barbecues and picnics, this delicious side dish has a tangy, savoury flavour and tastes particularly excellent alongside fish and meat. While supermarkets are full of tubs of potato salad, they never taste as good as homemade versions.

Poppy O’Toole, known as @poppycooks on social media, is known for her potato recipes. With more than 4.8million followers on TikTok and 1.2 million on Instagram, the Michelin-trained chef has become known as the 'potato queen'. In an interview with The Times, Poppy shared four recipes from her new book, The Potato Book, including a delicious herby potato salad.

Rather than using mayonnaise like in more traditional recipes, Poppy’s uses full-fat cream cheese, which is then blended with herbs, capers, and lemon juice to create a zingy, creamy potato salad.

Poppy O’Toole’s herby potato salad with parsley, mint, chives and capers

Serves four

Ingredients

• 500g baby potatoes
• 30g flat-leaf parsley, stalks removed
• 30g chives
• Four to five dill sprigs
• Four to five mint sprigs, leaves picked, plus extra to garnish (optional)
• One tbsp capers, drained
• Zest and juice of half a lemon
• Three tbsp full-fat cream cheese
• Two to three tbsp olive oil
• Two tbsp pine nuts, toasted
• 50g tin of anchovies, drained and roughly chopped
• Half a shallot, finely sliced
• Two spring onions, finely sliced
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Put the potatoes into a saucepan of cold, salted water. Place the pan over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Boil the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes until they fall off the tip of a knife. Drain them in a colander and leave them to completely cool.

2. Add all of the herbs, along with the capers, lemon zest, juice and cream cheese, to a blender and season with salt and pepper. Blend until smooth, and add a few dribbles of olive oil and a splash of water to loosen the mixture if necessary. Taste to season. Set aside.

3. Next, slice the potatoes into large chunks and put them into a large bowl with the pine nuts, anchovies, shallot and spring onions. Spoon over some of the dressing and toss it all together. For garnish, sprinkle on some chopped mint.