- Pickles add just the right tang to creamy potato salad, making it brighter and more exciting to eat.
- Different kinds of pickles—like dill or bread-and-butter—each bring their own special flavor to the mix.
- A splash of pickle juice in the dressing can boost the flavor without adding extra fat or calories.
I didn’t grow up in a potato salad family. In fact, a lot of American staples passed me by. Despite that I’m a career restaurant critic who’s eaten all over the world, I didn’t sample my first PB&J until I was almost 40. The festive summer meals that I remember from my childhood in Connecticut include my dad grilling up long-marinated Central Asian shashlik and my mom making fresh salads from the colorful rare breeds of tomatoes that she grew in her garden. I guess potato salad fell into the category of all-American fare that didn’t interest my quirky parents.
When I finally tried potato salad in my twenties, I wasn’t impressed. Mayo was not enough to elevate starchy spuds, I thought. But what if there was an ingredient that could convince me to give mayo-based dressing another try? Though I’m not the kind of pickle lover who swigs brine like water, I realized that the acid in pickles might be the ideal way to add the zing that I was craving to the mayonnaise salads that I found so uninspiring.
The Search for the Perfect Potato Salad Upgrade
I started searching for EatingWell recipes that fit that profile. I’m always enchanted with the work of culinary historian Jessica B. Harris. I figured her recipe, Jessica’s Potato Salad, would be a good entry point. Her take on her mom’s summery dish isn’t fancy; picture a basic potato-and-mayo salad spruced up with stalks of celery, hard-boiled eggs and sweet pickle relish. It’s brilliantly simple. But ultimately, I found that the sweet pickles in the relish weren’t exactly what I was seeking. I needed more of a tangy zip.
I found it with another, even more vivid recipe, Beet & Potato Salad. The Scandinavian-inspired dish also features potatoes and mayo, but once I tried it, I didn’t hold that against it. That’s because there’s so much more to the rainbow of flavors. Using pre-packaged beets that dyed everything else in the salad (and my fingers) a snazzy pink hue, the salad has a combination of earthy and bright flavors. The dressing melds the mayonnaise with sour cream, fresh dill, white-wine vinegar and Dijon mustard, but the pickles—in this case chopped bread-and-butters—still make an impact.
But then I landed on the ultimate pickle-and-potato salad recipe. Dill-Pickle Cauliflower & Potato Salad won me over because it doesn’t just use the pickles to add a bit of briny crunch; it actually uses the pickle juice in the dressing too. Even better, I get the nutrition (and appealing bite) of cauliflower along with the potatoes.
Instead of sour cream, this recipe uses Greek yogurt to enhance the silkiness of the mayo-based dressing. It only takes a tablespoon of pickle brine to make an impact, along with whole-grain mustard and chopped parsley. Mixed in with the potatoes and cauliflower are chopped dill pickles, along with hard-boiled eggs, sweet onion and celery. The salad doesn’t taste like a pickle, but it definitely benefits from the suggestion thereof. Another asset? It’s only 126 calories per serving. Finally, I found a potato salad that makes me want another helping.
The Bottom Line
There’s little question left in my mind: The best way to eat a classic American potato salad is to go beyond the basics. And that means spiking it with pickles. Other inclusions prevent the briny beauties from overpowering the salad, including hard-boiled eggs and additional vegetables such as cauliflower or beets. Indeed, the best way to start your own potato salad tradition is to go outside the box and create your own perfect mix of ingredients. As long as it includes potatoes and pickles, you’ll be on the right track. I’m ready to start improvising, and you should be, too.
