Loaded Baked Potato Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make potato salad Martha Stewart? ›

Forgetting To Salt The Water

Just as you would with pasta, seasoning the water is the only way to flavor the potatoes themselves. The vegetable absorbs the water it's cooked in, so if you just boil them in unseasoned water, you'll end up with tasteless taters that no amount of mayo, herbs, or bacon bits can help.

If it's too runny, add some more potato; if it's too thick, add more brine. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more vinegar, oil, salt and pepper as needed.

You've got two options. The first option is to cook more potatoes and make more potato salad, adding more of every ingredient except mustard. Doing so will get the mustard content in equilibrium with the rest of the flavors in the salad. Your other option is to adjust the seasonings to compliment the…

But the truth is, mayonnaise isn't your main concern when it comes to spoilage. The actual culprit is the potatoes. Yes, it's true! The humble, reliable potato is a hotbed for bacterial growth if improperly stored after cooking.

Some people say potato salad tastes better the next day. Even if you're not in that camp, you need to allow about one hour for the potatoes to cool before adding the mayonnaise.

Unpeeled potatoes.

The thin skins are usually tender after cooking and add color to the potato salad. Dice unpeeled potatoes into uniformly-sized pieces. Place in cold water, bring to a boil, then simmer until tender.

Undercooking or overcooking the potatoes.

Don't let them cook long enough, and you'll be left with firm, crunchy potatoes — not a texture potatoes should ever take on in this dish. Cook them too long, and you'll have mushy potatoes. → Follow this tip: The potatoes should be cooked so they're soft, tender, and creamy.

Use pickle juice, buttermilk, and additional vinegar to freshen up a heavy dressing. A squeeze of lemon never hurt, either. If you have fresh herbs or scallion greens around, chop and toss them into the potato salad for some additional crunch and call it a green goddess potato salad.

The starch in potatoes is held together by pectin. When that pectin breaks down too quickly in the boiling process, mushy potatoes result. Adding vinegar to the water fixes that problem because, as López-Alt explains, “pectin breaks down much more slowly in acidic environments.”

What cancels out mustard taste? ›

Add sweetness to your dish. Honey or maple syrup are great choices for counterbalancing mustard, but even just a spoonful of sugar will help.

Neutralize It A 15-minute soak in a solution of baking soda and water tames the pungent taste of sliced or chopped raw onions.

To make potato salad thicker, you can add more ingredients like extra diced potatoes or hard-boiled eggs. Alternatively, you can mix in a bit more mayonnaise or a thickening agent like sour cream or Greek yogurt until you achieve the desired consistency.

Yes, if your potato salad is a cold salad, as most are, allow the cooked potatoes to cool to room temperature before adding the dressing and other ingredients.

Yes, potato salad gets even better if left to sit overnight in the fridge. The flavors combine and the potatoes absorb more of the seasoning/dressing, making for a more flavorful experience.

There's no reason at all, so my advice is to leave the skins on. The skin on a potato adds a nice texture and flavor to the potato salad and it's also the healthiest part.