They’re delicious treated simply: boiled or steamed until tender, served with butter and maybe some mint. But why not vary the flavours? Here are a few other ideas for what to do when the new potatoes hit the shops.

The quintessential new potatoes are Jersey Royals. Delicious when simply boiled, but here’s a different idea: incorporated into tartlets with asparagus and goats cheese. A delicious spring treat that’s vegetarian too. Using ready-made filo pastry means maximum results with minimum effort.  

I love the flavours in this recipe, especially the aniseed flavours from fennel and peppery rocket. The grain mustard dressing sounds like it would pull everything together nicely into a dish that would be ideal to serve on a spring-time table.

Salt potatoes—where the tubers are boiled in a strong brine—are a specialty of Syracuse, New York State. Developed by salt miners in the early 19th century, the salt prevents the potatoes becoming waterlogged and gives a light, fluffy and creamy texture. This recipe is optimised for an electric pressure cooker, making for a quick way to cook a batch of these treats. Serve with melted butter and enjoy!

Time for a bit of fun. Spiral cut new potatoes, coated in oil and roasted, these look amazing. Just the thing for the kids, but it would be a shame not to let everybody in on the fun. The extra surface area from cutting the potatoes would, I think, result in a deliciously crispy result!

Here’s a dish to serve as the main part of a meal, and not as a side-dish. An easy potato-based curry with a sauce made with coconut milk for Asian flavours. Filling and delicious!

Hasselback potatoes, called “hedgehog potatoes” by some, are a firm favourite for many. Here’s a recipe for a delightful variation, using new potatoes and topping them with garlic and cheese. The small size is perfect for kids, but it would be a shame not to let everybody in on the taste.

A potato salad with an umami-rich miso dressing. Once you start using miso paste, you’ll find all sorts of uses for this versatile ingredient. It’s a great way of adding umami—savouryness—to all sorts of dishes, as shown by this salad. As always with a potato salad, if available, a waxy variety gives the best results.

Salt and vinegar are a great traditional flavour combination with potatoes: I love it when the vinegar is really sharp. This recipe takes inspiration from the crisp flavour, but instead roasts new potatoes and adds vinegar for a delicious side dish.

In my opinion, dill is a very Eastern European herb. Commonly used in a dill sauce to serve with gravadlax cured salmon, here’s a recipe from Poland for new potatoes with a dill and spring onion cream sauce. I can imagine that the hint of heat from the onions contrasts well with fluffy potatoes.

Helen Best-Shaw, is a freelance food & travel writer, recipe developer & photographer. She has been blogging at Fuss Free Flavours for over ten years.