Most home cooks who began their cooking careers when I did know how to make potato salad. It was a summer dish we were expected to have in our repertoire. But that’s not a bad thing.
Every year my husband and I will hit a day in early summer when one of us says, “It feels like a potato salad day.” I don’t know if it’s something in the air, but it happens every year.
I’d like to tell you how I make my potato salad but if you’re looking for a recipe, I don’t have one. The best potato salads I’ve tasted are made by cooks who put a little bit of this and that in a bowl. So here is my list of this and that:
- Potatoes: I buy the freshest red potatoes available. For my most recent salad I had five about the size of tennis balls. I scrub them clean and place in a pot. I cover them with water, sprinkle a little salt over the top. I bring them to a boil and lower the heat so they don’t boil over. Cook until a fork goes through them easily. I like mine a little soft – almost falling apart. I take them out of the pot and let them cool slightly on a rack until I can stand to pick them up. Sometimes I use a hotpad or paper towels. I like to peel mine when they are still very warm.
- Cut up the peeled potatoes and – this is my secret ingredient – pour Thousand Island Dressing over the top of the chopped potatoes. I don’t pour too much, just enough to make a light glaze over the top of the potatoes. With a spatula, I fold the dressing over the potatoes, but I’m careful not to smash them. I salt and pepper the potatoes and then allow them to cool a bit – 15 minutes or so.
Now I get out my chopping board and go to it. As I chop each ingredient I just throw them on top of the potatoes.
- Celery: I like the crunchiness of celery but I don’t like bit chunks. I generally use two to three stalks and cut them as fine as I can.
- Onion: I prefer red onion but I’ve used other varieties. I finely chop one medium sized onion.
- Radishes: I usually use five or six good sized radishes and chop them into small chunks. Fresh from the garden radishes with a little zing to them are the best. My husband likes white radishes but red ones work well too.
- Pickle Relish: I add about one big glob off my tablespoon. I usually have sweet relish on hand but if you have dill pickle relish, that works well too. If I don’t have either, I chop up pickles.
- Boiled Eggs: I generally chop up two to three eggs. If I’m also serving deviled eggs, I may just use one or two.
- Dressing: In a small bowl I plop a big spoonful of Miracle Whip (mayonnaise is okay). I haven’t measured but I’d say it’s about 1/3 cup. On top of that squeeze a bit of mustard till it’s about the diameter of a quarter. Add about half a teaspoon of paprika and then stir until the mustard and paprika are mixed in. If I’m feeling in a garlicky mood I may add a little garlic powder to the mixture.
When the potatoes have cooled they will be a little firmer, not so delicate. That’s when I add the Miracle Whip mixture. Carefully mix everything together with a spatula. I usually take a forkful to taste and give another forkful to my husband. (We love that first warm taste.) Then I adjust for salt, pepper and occasionally I have to add more Miracle Whip/Mustard/Paprika to it.
I serve my salad in a pretty bowl and sprinkle paprika over the top. Sometimes I slice more boiled eggs and place them around the top.
Potato Salad is not normally a pretty, colorful salad as you can see in my picture above. Last week I received a new idea for potato salad from Pillsbury that is very attractive. You can see it in the picture on the left. Pillsbury stuffed their potato salad in little tomato cups. Very cute. You can find Potato Salad Bites, including a real recipe, at Pillsbury’s Website.
I hope you will try my way of making Potato Salad. If you do, let me know. Or – perhaps you have you own way of making it and you’d like to share?
Talking about food is a regular feature on my blog and other blogs as well. Visit Beth Fish Reads for other bloggers who are participating in Weekend Cooking.
I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and thought through how I make potato salad! The dressing is a great idea. I cool my potatoes in a bowl of chicken broth; it adds some great flavor. Drain and pat dry before adding mayo. Other than that, I use what’s in the house and no two batches are ever the same.
Yum! When I first started cooking, I remember reading that every good cook has her own signature potato salad recipe in her repertoire. My dad used to say that he’d be happy to go to a potluck picnic where everybody brought potato salad. He enjoyed trying the different varieties. Ours is pretty much like yours, but oil and rice vinegar mixture for the warm potatoes, never radishes and always dill pickles.
I think I only mae potato salad once in my life and I am sure it didn’t turn out as delicious as yours sounds.
I’m not a fan of potato salad, but my husband is. I’ve yet to find a way to make it that he’s crazy about. He wants it the way his mom makes it. Well, I just recently found out she doesn’t make it – she buys potato salad and egg salad in the grocery store and combines them!
That is so true, that there are definitely days that are clearly identifiable as potato salad days! I’m way lazier than I used to be, but homemade potato salad always was better than the store bought kind I’m apt to get now!
Oh my….as I read this post I could taste the potato salad my mom used to make. I do believe she used the exact same ingredients (although I do not remember radishes) and the potatos were more mashed than cubed. Otherwise, it was the same and you just took me back to the back porch in Houston, Texas about 40 years ago
Potato Salad is one of my all time favorite summer dishes! Yours sounds and looks delicious!!
Yummy! I love potato salad – way too much I think. When my husband and I first married, we discovered that his expectations for potato salad (his mom’s way) and mine were two different things. My mom was not much of a cook and I made it like hers – mashed potato salad. His mom, a fabulous cook, had lumpy potato salad. I had to go watch his mom make it and discovered a few things – not to cook the potatos to the point of severe mushiness and also to combine all the ingredients but the potatoes and add those last. I do it by guess and judgment now and have for many years. A little of this, a little of that. I’ve never added radishes and won’t (hubby hates them), but just toss in this and that. More mustard I think though. And mayo not Miracle Whip, even though that is the mayo of the South for a lot of people. Thanks for sharing, Margot!
I love potato salad and my husband loves thousand island dressing… but I’ve never heard of it in potato salad. Bet it’s delicious! I also love the idea of serving it in pretty little bowls or the tomato cups. Seems like we always have our potato salad in a giant (usually unattractive) serving bowl.
I just started cooking myself a year or two ago, so I’m still coming around to all these recipes that I *should* have in my repertoire but don’t. Like potato salad! I’ve never been a fan of my mom’s potato salad, so I kind of just avoided it all together. I found out I do really enjoy German potato salads and then I was watching Paula Deen and saw a roasted potato salad. Roasting the potatoes is AMAZING. I highly recommend it. You just cut up the potatoes and roast them in a pan with the garlic (if you’re including garlic). It’s amazing and adds a whole other level to the dish. The recipe had too much fat in it for my liking and I will probably cut a lot of it out next time, but other than that, it made me love potato salad again!
Your potato salad sounds delicious! I’ll have to try that 1000 Island dressing tip! Thanks!
I make potato salad in several ways, but say potato salad to my husband and he’ll laugh. The reason? I can never make just a small amount of it; we always end up with enough for a small army!
Your salad sound kind of similar to mine–but the 1000 Island Dressing is different and a tip I will try next time. I like firmer potatoes, and always use diced dill pickles, but like you everything needs to be diced up small. Oh, the other difference is that I use Mayonnaise–Miracle Whip is like death to me!
Thanks for sharing your special ingredient tip with us!
*smiles*
I use mayo…but add vinegar which sort of equals Miracle Whip. But I add the vinegar to the warm potatoes, before I making the dressing. Adds a lot more flavor to the potatoes that way I think.
I love potato salad!! I’ve never tried making it like that, but will give it a go!
My mother makes the best potato salad ever….now I find myself yearning for a bowl!!
I have never made potato salad and probably won’t since Jason is not a fan, but I love eating it!
I love the salad in a potato cup (I’m pretty sure those are potatoes and not tomoatoes) I have served different kinds of cups in a tomato or pepper shell. You’ve made me want to try it, maybe when I’m home with my mom
Lu I am the same way. I am adding things to my cooking that I should have…but dont.
I dont handle Mayo well So I am always trying to find subsitutes for things.