Everyone loves a potato salad. It’s the mainstay of every BBQ, picnic and summer get-together. However, often it sits on the end of the table, claggy, beige, and let’s be real – boring. It’s often plonked there merely as the supporting role for the main star, accompanying the more exciting main dishes, getting forgotten whilst you soak up the rosé like it’s going out of fashion. Until now. We’re here to tell you that summer 2023 is all about the humble potato salad, and it’s time to give it the love that it deserves. Here’s exactly how you should be making your potato salad, so it’s promoted from bland NPC to main squeeze.
Use the right potatoes
You might be thinking, “a potato’s a potato, right?’ Wrong. Generally speaking, there are two very different kinds of potatoes: floury and waxy. When you’re making fluffed up potatoes for the crispiest roasties, floury potatoes like Maris Pipers, Russets and King Edwards are your friends. When it comes to epic potato salads, you’ll need to look for waxier varieties like Charlotte or Jersey Royals. This type of potato won’t fall apart when you cook it and hold their shape when cooled. They also have a much firmer bite than a floury potato, which is nice and fluffy when roasted.
Brush up on your knife skills
It might seem obvious but take the time to make sure all your potato chunks are the same size. If you’ve got varying sizes of potato then some will cook more quickly than others, resulting in a mishmash of under and over cooked potatoes, which does not make for a tasty potato salad.
Cook them to perfection
When cooking other veggies, they’re often thrown them into boiling water to cook them quickly, especially when blanching greens to keep their vibrant colour. However, with potatoes, it’s important to always start them in cold water. This is because chucking them straight into boiling water may result in the outsides cooking way more quicker than the insides, resulting in an unevenly boiled potato. Instead, start them in cold salted water, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
Switch up the dressing
Once you’ve chosen the very best potato for the job, cut it perfectly and cooked it in salted water until tender, you can start thinking about all the ways to turn them into a delicious salad. A classic potato salad dressing usually consists of mayonnaise (making your own is SO worth it for the creaminess alone, and a lot easier than you think) and tangy ingredients like white wine vinegar, capers or gherkins. This is where it gets fun. Switch out mayo for yoghurt, lime and coriander for a potato salad to go with spiced meat or dress simply in olive oil, lemon, capers and cornichons for a potato salad that pairs perfectly with fish.
Alliums are your BFFs
Every good potato salad should have a lovely allium element to counteract all the richness of the potatoes and creamy dressings. You could go for a garnish of fresh chopped spring onions, a finely chopped shallot in a vinaigrette or some lovely pink pickled red onions for a tangy garnish. If you’re a total garlic fiend, a clove or two crushed into an olive oil dressing with chopped Kalamata olives, parsley, feta and cherry tomatoes for the tastiest Greek salad take on the potato classic.
Add fun textures
The key to any good salad is texture, especially when it’s a little crunchy element. Think roasted and crushed peanuts on a potato salad laden with crispy chilli oil and coriander, homemade dhukka on a creamy tahini dressed potato salad, or some toasted pine nuts on a pesto version. You could also add crunch by using chopped cucumber, cherry tomatoes, radishes or shredded cabbage or carrots.
Make it colourful
A big old bowl of white and brown potato salad won’t be catching anyone’s eye on the BBQ spread. You can easily inject a little colour with chopped fresh soft herbs like parsley, mint, and coriander for a garnish, bright pink sliced radishes, sliced fresh red or green chillies, or even a pink of curry powder or turmeric in the dressing to give your potatoes a golden hue.
Consider the theme
Are you bringing a potato salad to a themed get-together? Perhaps it’s a Yakitori-style BBQ that calls for a Kewpie Mayo and spring onion dressing. If it’s a Great British picnic vibe, then a Coronation-themed dressing with sultanas and curry powder might be in order.
Basically, there are so many ways to amp up a standard potato salad that you’ll be bringing one to every event!
Louella is Delish UK's writer, and has years of experience writing about food and wine, but began her career working front of house at Salon restaurant in Brixton, London, where she developed a real passion for food, wine, and hospitality.
Outside of the office, you can usually find Louella in the kitchen cooking for friends, performing very badly in pub quizzes, or shaking up a margarita or two.
