Potato Salad – the Taste of Summer!
Finally… summer is officially here! Today is Memorial Day… the starting of beach days and spaghetti tops and sangrias and salads! A season embodied by that Nat King Cole song I love… ‘Those lazy crazy hazy days of summer… of soda and pretzels and beer…’. And of course disagree with the last line, ‘You wish that summer will always be here…’ I’m sure no one would give summer a second thought if it was always here! Okay, okay, I digress, that is topic for another post. 🙂
So talking about summers and salads, what would you consider the most basic salad? For me, it is potato salad. I can never get tired of it, especially as it can be prepared in many many variations. In fact, I’m sure each person will have their own favourite version of it.
Generally, I do not like mayo in my salads as it feels a bit heavy. So for potato salads, I prefer a mix of sour cream and lime juice. And a spot of melted butter to give it a bit more creaminess. Of course, the butter can be totally omitted without any noticeable impact, and most often I do so.
As a rule, I use red potatoes for making a salad. Even though the potatoes are peeled, I like to leave one or two unpeeled so that you get a glimpse of the red skin here and there. Looks pretty!
And I do have a secret ingredient which gives the potato salad a very nice tingly bite… celery seeds! Just a pinch is sufficient to give the salad that added taste of freshness. And of course, if you want to give it some additional kick, you can always go with finely minced pickled jalapenos!
Potato salad looks very pretty served on lettuce leaves. My favourite for this purpose is iceberg lettuce. The leaves sure add a delicious crunch to the salad. And don’t forget that lemony sangria to complete the lovely summer feeling!
~Ria
- 8 red potatoes
- 3 spring onions
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 2 tbsp butter, optional
- 1 tsp dill weed
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp celery seeds
- 4 ribs celery
- 1 orange and 1 yellow bell peppers
- 1 cup sour cream
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Peel 6 of the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into ½ inch cubes, two of them with skin on.
- Boil the potatoes in salted water, till done. Drain and keep aside.
- Thinly slice the spring onions, white and green parts,
- Finely chop the celery.
- Cut the bell peppers into very small cubes.
- Mix together the boiled potato pieces, spring onions, lime juice, butter (if using), dill, sugar and celery seeds. Cover and keep aside till time to serve.
- To serve, add the celery, bell peppers and sour cream to the potato mixture and mix well.
- Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Ready to serve!