Summer is here! I’m sure many of you are getting ready to fire up the grill and have a barbecue with your family. I’ve got the perfect complement to your ribs, sausage, and chicken: my simple potato salad recipe!
This potato salad needs very few ingredients and doesn’t take long to whip up. There is minimal prep, and little cleanup. While this won’t take much effort, the results will be fantastic. It is also a great addition to an easy Sunday dinner.
Ingredient
- 4-6 potatoes
- 1/2 cup of mayo
- 1/4 cup of sweet pickle relish
- 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard
- salt and pepper
Prepping My Simple Potato Salad Recipe
When I said there was minimal prep, I wasn’t kidding. Our prep work involves peeling and dicing the potatoes. That’s it. You want the pieces to be about a 1/4 inch. We are going to be mashing the potatoes, so the size isn’t too crucial, but the smaller the pieces the faster the potatoes will cook.
How To Cook Potato Salad
Once the potatoes are diced, throw them into a saucepan. Next, cover them completely with water. Finally, place them on the stove and turn the heat up to high.
As soon as your water begins to boil, turn the heat down to medium-high. Season the water with salt. Let the potatoes cook for about 20 minutes. We want them to be fork-tender. What that means is that when you stick a potato with a fork, it easily goes right through it.
Once the potatoes are fork-tender, remove them from the heat. Carefully drain all of the water and dump the potatoes into a good-sized mixing bowl.
It should be noted that there are other ways you can cook potatoes. You can bake them, but that takes about an hour to an hour and a half in a 450-degree oven. That’s a bit too long for me.
Another method involves cooking them in a pressure cooker. With today’s electric pressure cookers, this is not nearly the headache it once was. If you are in the market for a new pressure cooker, check out my GoWise USA pressure cooker review.
Preparing The Tater Salad
Now that the potatoes are cooked, it’s time to mix this tater salad. Start by mashing the potatoes. We don’t want them to be fully mashed, but I don’t like too many chunks of potato leftover. The potatoes will mash a little further once we start mixing in the other ingredients, so to start I’d mash them about halfway.
Check out this nifty steel wire masher by Kitchen Aid!
A quick note: I always try and mash the potatoes while they are still hot. They are much more malleable and mix better with the mayo when they are hot.
Next up we will season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Toss in the relish, mustard, and mayo. The order is not particularly important. Once you have all of the ingredients in place, give them a good mix. Just don’t overdo it, or you’ll end up with whipped potatoes!
This is one of those recipes you really need to taste while you mix. The key is the right mix between the sweetness of the relish and the tang of the mustard. You want enough salt to really make those flavors stand out. The measurements I gave in the ingredients list are good starts, but you might need to adjust them to get it just right.
Give it a try! I think this simple potato salad recipe will make a great addition to your holiday barbecue. Check back for more barbecue topics all week as we prepare for the holiday weekend!
Easy Potato Salad recipe
Ingredients
- 6 potatoes
- ½ cup mayo
- ¼ cup sweet pickle relish
- 2 tbsp mustard
- ½ tsp salt to taste
- ½ tsp pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel and dice potatoes.
- Boil potatoes until fork tender, usually about 20 minutes.
- Strain the potatoes, and then give them a quick mashing, leaving some lumps.
- Season the mash with salt and pepper.
- Add in the mustard, mayo, relish, and mix well. Adjust to get the right balance if necessary.
