Potato Salad with Pickles

prep time: 30 minutes cook time: 7,5 minutes + cool-down + marinate overnightservings: 8 - 10 portions

With summer just around the corner, we thought we'd share the recipe of one of our personal favourite side dishes for the BBQ season: potato salad. This is one of our go-to dishes! It's great to prep ahead of time, it keeps well in the fridge, and it is a great dish to bring to BBQs or get-togethers with friends and family.

Each country and even region has its own take on potato salad. The German potato salad my mom makes uses a light yogurt sauce and contains apple pieces, whereas the Luxembourgish version is often made with a heavy, Mayonnaise-based vinaigrette and adds hard-boiled eggs to the mix. Another version can be found in Bavaria, often times served in beer gardens, which uses a lot of vegetable broth and is served lukewarm. So, we've come up with a combo of the versions we grew up eating and created a cross-over potato salad with the best of both worlds. We try to avoid using too much Mayonnaise and brighten things up by using fresh herbs and a hint of lime. This potato salad really is the perfect example of a dish where Chris and I have combined our different family traditions to create our own family recipe.

Just a disclaimer upfront, if you do not like pickles, this is not going to be the recipe for you. We not only use the pickles themselves but also the pickle juice from the jar, which actually is an essential ingredient in this recipe.

It is important to use waxy potatoes. You might also be able to get away with all-purpose potatoes but make sure to avoid floury potatoes. They will not hold up well and the whole salad is going to end up soggy and lumpy.

First, start off by peeling about 1.25 kg of waxy potatoes and cut them into even, bite-sized pieces. You wanna end up with about 1 kg of peeled potatoes. Then, soak the potato pieces in cold water for at least 30 minutes, drain the water and rinse them with fresh water.

We have tried different methods of prepping the potatoes: cooking them whole vs peeling and cutting them before cooking, as well as playing around with the cooking times. Over the years we have tweaked this recipe time and time again until we were finally happy with the result. We've found that peeling and cutting the potatoes before cooking is the best way, for a couple of reasons:

We've tried many cooking times and 7 minutes and 30 seconds is the perfect time for us. The potatoes come out firm but are fully cooked through and no longer raw in the middle. Feel free to adjust the cooking time, but we don't recommend going over the 8-minute mark in order for the potatoes to retain their texture. You can also cook them for a shorter amount of time, but please be aware that you will end up with crunchier potatoes.

After your potatoes are cooked, strain the water and spread them out in a single layer on a baking tray to let them cool down to room temperature.

We make our dressing from scratch most of the time. If that scares you, or you're simply too lazy (hey, no judgment here), there is an easy fix: French Dressing Mix. This powdered mix is usually readily available in supermarkets. The most widely known probably is "Knorr Salatkrönung Französische Art" but feel free to use any brand you want! Just follow the preparation instructions on the back of the package and add the Mayonnaise and chopped shallots. We also use this method when we are short on time.

However, it is quite easy to make the dressing from scratch. Start off by grinding mustard seeds in a mortar until you get a finely milled powder. Repeat with a dried salad herb mix. This is something you will find in the spice section of your supermarket, and it's a mix of different dried herbs and seasoning. We use an organic one from Alnatura, simply called "Salat Kräuter Gewürzmischung". Put both powders into a small mixing bowl and add oil, water, and vinegar as well as the sugar and salt and whisk well until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add the Mayonnaise and whisk. Finely chop the shallots, add them to the mix and your dressing is done.

Make sure to use a neutral vegetable or grapeseed oil. Sunflower oil works well . Stronger flavoured oils, such as olive or avocado oil, will change the flavour of the dressing too much.

Finely chop your fresh parsley and slice your pickles into about half a centimetre thick slices. We prefer the more mildly-flavoured curly parsley, but flat parsley works too. In a large bowl (make sure that it is big enough), add your cooled-down potatoes, parsley, pickles, dump in the sauce, and mix well. If you have a small food processor, feel free to use it for chopping the shallots and the parsley, it will make your life easier, but we don't recommend using it for the pickles as the pieces will be too small.

To finish it off, add the lime juice for some brightness as well as the pickle juice. In the beginning, it might look like the salad has become too saucy and some liquid will accumulate in the bottom of the bowl, but no worries, the potatoes will absorb a lot of the liquid overnight, making it incredibly delicious. This salad is definitely one of those things that taste better the longer you let it sit, so we highly recommend you leave the salad to marinate overnight in the fridge before serving. It will keep for about a week and makes about 8 to 10 portions, when served as a side dish. You can also easily half the ingredients and make a smaller batch. Should your salad ever become slightly dry, go ahead and just add a little more of the pickle brine, that will bring it right back to life. In case you want to eat the salad right away, cut down on the pickle juice by about half to avoid the salad being too saucy.

It is very important to take the potato salad out of the fridge at least 1 hour before serving so that it can warm up a little. Believe us, ice-cold potato salad really is not very tasty, and it might be uncomfortable for people with sensitive teeth. Make sure to taste the salad again at this point, as it might need some more seasoning after absorbing the sauce overnight. Another splash of pickle juice and a bit more salt usually does the trick.

Potato salad is one of the most popular side dishes for BBQs during the summer, but there is also a German tradition to serve potato salad on the 24th of December with some Vienna sausages. This is one of the traditions in my parents' house that has actually prevailed until this day.

The tradition of serving potato salad on Christmas Eve comes from the fact that lent used to last until the 24th of December in Germany before people were able to enjoy a hearty feast on the 25th to celebrate Christmas. The potato was so popular because it was cheap and filling at the same time. Moreover, a lot of people were still working on the 24th or were preparing for the holidays, and a potato salad could be easily prepped in advance.

Inexpensive, filling, and easy to prepare, this tradition is still honoured by many German households. When I was young, all we kids cared about on Christmas Eve was opening presents and playing with our new toys. Back then, it would have been impossible to get all of us to sit around the dinner table for a three-course meal, so it had to be a quick and easy dinner. Nowadays, we absolutely cherish this tradition and my mom is forbidden to make anything else than potato salad and sausages on the 24th of December. (For my vegan sister, she makes a vegan version of the salad and some falafel.)

If I had free rein, I would add apple pieces to this potato salad, but Chris vetoed that, and I vetoed boiled eggs. However, if you like either of them, feel free to add them to your potato salad, this one is just the compromise that we have found that works for us. The apples will give your salad a nice fresh crunch and the boiled eggs will make the salad richer and creamier.

For the BBQ season, we love to eat the salad with some grilled cheese sausages from our local butcher and during the colder months, Vienna sausages, heated up in a water bath. I like to add a bit of ketchup on the side, whereas Chris prefers mustard, and of course, a beer always goes well with this dish. We like to enjoy our potato salad with a Battin Gambrinus, which is slightly bitter and balances the sweetness and tanginess of the salad perfectly.