Cookout Basics: Potato Salad
A potato salad recipe that will feed all of your hungry party guests
What every cookout host needs in their recipe box: a versatile potato salad recipe that yields enough to feed a crowd.
With the weather getting warmer, thoughts are turning to outdoor parties, casual gatherings, and fun, picnic-style food. Cookouts are summertime staples, and with good reason! The heady smell of grilled goodies combined with summer sunshine and get-togethers with friends and family are the things memories are made of.
No matter what's going on the grill, a generous selection of side dishes is vital to your cookout spread. Potato salad holds appeal for almost everyone, and makes a perfect accompaniment to everything from grilled steak to hot dogs.
With one basic recipe for a great potato salad, you can change it up and add different flavors and textures to create something new when you're feeling daring, or stick with the tried and true when you want good old-fashioned comfort food. A hearty potato salad is also quite portable, and makes a welcome addition to a potluck.
Here's my favorite potato salad recipe, along with a few variations that I've tried and been successful with. (Yes, there have been failures, but that's what happens when you have two young children whose palates haven't yet embraced the flavor of blue cheese.) The recipe can be doubled for an even bigger batch.
Potato Salad for a Crowd
- 20 medium potatoes (I like to use red-skinned potatoes, but go with your own preference)
- 16 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, diced or thinly sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 1/4 cup relish
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup yellow mustard
- 2 1/2 cups mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette
Wash potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces. You don't have to peel the potatoes, but you can if that's your preference.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add potatoes and cook until just tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and rinse potatoes with cold water; place them in a clean cooking pot or very large bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine relish, garlic, mustard, mayonnaise, and vinaigrette; mix well. Pour mixture over potatoes; add eggs, celery, and bell peppers and stir gently but thoroughly to mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired.
Refrigerate salad, covered, for at least four hours before serving. This potato salad tastes even better the next day, when the flavors have had a chance to mingle. Making it the day before you need it will save time and give you a better-tasting dish.
*Makes 20 servings.
You can use less mayo or omit the vinaigrette for a less creamy version if you'd like, or substitute carrots, onions, or other crunchy vegetables for the celery and bell pepper. Dill relish or chopped dill pickle can replace all or part of the sweet relish for a more tangy flavor. Chopped olives are a good choice as well.
Variations:
Bacon Ranch Potato Salad - Omit vinaigrette. Reduce mayonnaise to 1 1/2 cups, and add 1 1/4 cup ranch salad dressing. Just before serving, stir in 12 slices of cooked, chopped bacon, or 1/3 - 1/2 cup packaged bacon bits.
Very Veggie - Add 1/4 cup diced radishes, 1/4 cup grated carrot, and a small chopped onion.
Sweet Potato Salad - Reduce potatoes to 16, and add 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, chopped and boiled.
The possibilities are endless with this recipe - just make sure you try out a small batch for yourself and your family first before serving your original creations to guests!
If you're looking for something a little different, Seasonal Cooking writer Devorah Stone has a great potato salad recipe, and she uses the potato water (spiked with tarragon) to make rolls. Genius!
