Potato Salad Recipes

A truly great potato salad doesn't come from a tub or boring grocery delivery. It comes from getting a few key details right. Forget mushy, bland salads — follow these rules for potato perfection.

• Use the Right Potato: This is the most important step when preparing potato recipes. Always choose a waxy potato, as they hold their shape when cooked and have a firm, creamy bite. Varieties like Kipfler, Dutch Cream, or other small salad potatoes work especially well.
• Avoid Floury Potatoes, such as Russet or other starchy baking varieties, as they tend to break down and can cause the salad to become mushy.
• Cook Them Correctly: Start your potatoes in cold, salted water, then bring them to a simmer. This ensures they cook evenly from the outside in. Simmer until just tender when pierced with a knife — do not overcook. You can also roast potatoes in the air fryer.
• Master Your Dressing Time: This is crucial and depends on your dressing.
• For Vinaigrette Salads: Dress the potatoes while they are still warm. The warm potatoes will absorb the zesty dressing, becoming incredibly flavourful.
• For Mayo Salads: Let the potatoes cool completely. Adding mayonnaise to hot potatoes can cause the dressing to split, become oily, or even (in the worst-case scenario) increase the risk of bacteria.
• Go Beyond the Potato: The best salads have texture and flavour from add-ins. Spring onions, fresh chives, dill, crispy bacon, or finely chopped gherkins or capers all add essential crunch and sharp flavour to cut through the richness.

This is a fantastic, reliable base for a classic creamy potato salad with mayonnaise. It's balanced, tangy, and ready in minutes.

Potato salad ingredients:

• 150g mayonnaise
• 75g Greek yoghurt or soured cream
• 1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or the pickle juice from a jar of gherkins)
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh chives or dill, finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Potato salad dressing steps:

1. In a large bowl (the one you'll add the potatoes to), mix the mayonnaise, Greek yoghurt, Dijon mustard, and vinegar.
2. Stir in the finely sliced spring onions and fresh herbs.
3. Add a generous pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.
4. This is the most important step! Give it a taste. Does it need more salt? A little more tang from some lemon juice? Adjust it now before you add the potatoes.
5. Gently fold in your completely cooled cooked new potatoes until they are all coated. It's even better if left in the fridge for 30 minutes for the flavours to meld.