I wasn’t a fan of Potato Salad for most of my life. My Mom made hers with potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and celery, all tossed in Miracle Whip. It led to a lifelong aversion to hard-boiled eggs (still going strong!) and a severe distrust of mayo in all forms, because I never knew the difference between Miracle Whip (disgusting) and mayo (delicious). Because of this I also avoided any potato salad that came in a tub or bucket from the grocery store (still do).
Like so many other things in my culinary life, I realized what I was missing out on from watching Barefoot Contessa and reading her cookbooks. Look at this recipe for Old-Fashioned Potato Salad from Barefoot at Home: potatoes, mayo, two kinds of mustard, fresh dill, celery and red onion. Flavour explosion! Plus no hard boiled eggs! It was like a whole new world opened up to me. Then I started reading Smitten Kitchen, and made this recipe which is very similar, but with chopped pickles! Bliss!
As much as I grew to love these recipes, Potato Salad is still not something I’m whipping up on the reg in my kitchen, so I’ve never documented anything here. But like a bunch of other things I’ve finally had time to blog about during this pandemic, I’ve decided to make it official with my new favourite recipe. This is originally a Jalapeno Popper Potato Salad from Pioneer Woman, although I’ve left out the jalapenos, as well as the hard-boiled eggs (of course), and the yellow mustard (so overpowering!). What you’re left with is basically like a loaded baked potato, in Potato Salad form: cheddar, bacon, green onions, plus the excellent addition of pickles! When I made this the first time I also had pickled red onions in the fridge, so they went in as well. It was fantastic.
I feel like Potato Salad is such a controversial topic, so I took to my IG Stories to see what people had to say about it:
- 84% of voters like it // 16% take a pass
- 78% say “Yes Please” to mayo in it // 22% think it’s gross
- 66% like hard-boiled eggs in it // 34% say “GAG”
I also asked what other stuff people like to add in, and here are the answers:
- green onion, bacon, cheese, sometimes radish
- a Caesar Potato Salad with green onion, bacon and Renee’s Caesar dressing (I feel like I would LOVE this)
- green onion, pickles, my mom adds radishes
- caramelized onions
- bacon, chives, apple cider vinegar
- beets and some sort of crunch – crispy onions
- you MUST ADD DILL PICKLE JUICE it will change your life (agreed!)
- bacon, chives, paprika, dill, dill pickles
- pickles, green onion, bacon, celery
- celery seed adds a nice flavour! or even just teeny pieces of celery.
- sour pickles, mustard, egg, celery and chives on top
- green onion, bacon, I don’t mind a hard-boiled egg chopped up in the mix
- pickles are amazing! my family makes it with potato, red onion, olive oil and lemon
- capers!
I loved reading about all these variations! Definitely have to get some radish in the mix next year!
Loaded Potato Salad
Source: Pioneer Woman (with a few changes)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs russet potatoes (about five medium sized potatoes) scrubbed and cut into 1″ cubes
- 1 cup mayo
- 2 tbsp pickle juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 6 slices bacon, cooked until crispy and chopped
- 4 green onions (both white and green parts), chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped pickles (dill or bread & butter, whatever you have/like)
- 2 cups grated cheddar
Directions
- Add the potatoes to a gigantic pot and cover them with water by 1″. Salt the water. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat and cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
- Drain the potatoes, and add to a big bowl. Mash them up just a little bit, so there’s a mixture of different size chunks.
- Add the mayo, pickle juice, salt and pepper and stir together gently (so the potatoes stay chunky!).
- Fold in the bacon, green onions and pickles. I usually let it cool a bit here (so the cheese doesn’t immediately start to melt), then fold in the cheese.
- Let cool, then serve at room temperature, or chill in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.
Leave a Comment