Potato Salad. It appears at nearly every BBQ or Christmas gathering in some form or another.
I have had to think outside the square with creating a Potato Salad my boys would eat as they don’t like mayonnaise.
Thankfully, this one is loved by them all. The ‘creaminess’ that you want in a good potato salad is achieved by using one of my favourite foods – avocado. Add a few other ingredients to it and you have a healthy way of adding flavour to your potatoes without all the nasties that store-bought mayo can have in it.
Crispy pancetta adds a crunchy saltiness that the dish needs, and then the tomatoes are just so yum and add colour too.
This is where you can play around. Use regular old bacon and fresh tomatoes if you prefer. Or leave out the pancetta altogether to make it a vegetarian meal. If you were to do that, I would add some toasted almonds to the top to add the crunch factor.
I think we have all eaten a BAD potato salad before. There are a few really simple rules to follow, no matter what type of potato salad you are making:
- Choose the right potato – look for a waxy potato like Desiree, Dutch Cream, Kipfler, Nadine or Nicola. They have less starch than other varieties and hold their shape nicely when they are boiled. There’s nothing worse than a mushy potato salad.
- Cook them in cold water that is brought to the boil, rather than adding them to boiling water. Also, be careful not to over cook them. You want them soft to eat but to still hold their shape.
- ‘Dress them’ with either a small amount of oil or vinegar when they are warm so they absorb some of that flavour.
- Potato Salad is almost always best eaten at room temperature. Cooked potatoes can go very hard once they have been in the fridge too long.
Happy Cooking!
