Potato salad can be a great summertime picnic food, a nice lunch for a hot day or even a tasty side dish with dinner. But to make it extra delicious, one extra ingredient will add a creamy taste – and the staple dish becomes ‘spectacular’.
A chef has shared her mum’s ‘famous’ recipe for a tasty homemade potato salad which will satisfy the hungriest. It’s easy to make with just four main ingredients – and you can make it in bulk if you’re catering for several hungry mouths. Chef Molly Adams describes her mum’s potato salad recipe hack as so simple, but there’s one crucial ‘delicious upgrade’.
Alongside the regular ingredients for this traditional salad – potato, mayonnaise, and onion – the expert likes to add bacon.
Chef Molly admits she ‘hates everything’ about mayonnaise, as a rule, but wonders ‘how on earth’ she can love this mayonnaise-based potato salad ‘so much’.
Well, it could be down to the crispy bacon in this recipe – and here’s why.
“My mom cooks a full pound of bacon for her potato salad and reserves the fat” Molly explains on the Simply Recipes website.
Molly explained how her mum has adapted the potato salad recipe: “When the potatoes are tender, she tosses them in a few tablespoons of the bacon fat and allows them to absorb all the flavour and richness.”
In this recipe for potato salad, the crispy bacon bits and a ‘small amount’ of diced white onions are added after potatoes have been tossed in the bacon fat.
The mayonnaise is then added ‘by eye’, so that the salad is all brought together ‘without weighing everything down’.
Molly explained that by adding the bacon fat in this way, you can ‘get away with using way less mayonnaise than a traditional potato salad’.
This method guarantees a ‘perfect texture’ Molly said, as long as you take note of one thing.
You need to toss the potatoes in the bacon fat while the spuds are still warm
This is ‘key’ as they ‘soak up the fat’, whereas if you wait until the potatoes cool down you could end up with a greasy salad.
Other tips for making Molly’s mom’s ‘upgraded potato salad’ include making sure the salad is ‘perfectly seasoned’.
Molly said: “I cook the potatoes in lightly salted water, but hold off on adding more salt until I’ve mixed everything together.
“Since different bacon brands can vary in saltiness, it’s important to taste the salad before seasoning.”
And finally, adding a generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper will ‘bring this dish together’.