With colder temperatures and shorter days on the horizon, we’ve found ourselves desperately nostalgic for that mid-summer feeling. Luckily, we are just in time for potato harvest season, which can only mean one thing – potato salad! Potato salad is one of my all-time favorite summer dishes. It’s what I like to call the perfect “kitchen sink” dish, meaning you can throw essentially anything into it with a little mayo and it will be delicious! If you aren’t sure if what you’ve got in your kitchen sink is the right stuff, this recipe is easy and fool-proof.
Potatoes are one of those crops that take a long time to fully mature. As tubers, the actual potatoes grow underground. The best way to know when your potatoes are ready to harvest is their green foliage above ground becomes completely brown and dead. This may seem extremely counterintuitive, but it’s also a great indicator with no guessing games! The hardest part about growing potatoes – having patience!
This potato salad is scrumptious and simple. It pulls ingredients from the standard recipe your mom made you as a child as well as some unexpected items! Though it may be the end of the season, our garden is bountiful with potatoes, dill and red onions to bring in the classic potato salad ingredients. The combination of dijon mustard, chopped pickles and hot sauce brings an unusual yet wonderful tang to the dish. Try with your favorites and enjoy those last bites of summer!
The Recipe:
Potatoes – the amount you use for this recipe depends on how many servings you’d like to make! We used about 15 small and medium potatoes, probably equivalent to 3-5 large potatoes.
⅓ cup red onion – diced
¼ pickles – chopped (any pickle will do, whatever your preference is!)
¼ cup dill – chopped (although you really can’t go wrong with dill when it comes to potato salad!)
3 celery stalks – chopped
4 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
1-2 teaspoons hot sauce
To cook the potatoes, fill a medium to large pot with water. Add a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes for 10 minutes, or until fork tender.
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Though this recipe is simple, it’s important to taste test frequently to ensure the balance of the spice from the hot sauce, tang from the mustard and acidity from the lemon is balanced. Continue adding until you get the perfect bite. Bring to that end of summer BBQ and enjoy!
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