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Dad's Potato Salad Recipe

Filed under Quick, Salad, Seasonal Favorites: Summer, Side Dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

Dad's Potato Salad

A month ago or so I made some potato salad. I love potato salad and was well pleased with this one. Then the next week my father made his version of potato salad. It was great! Better than mine. The difference? Pickle juice and mustard. Also he throws in a hard boiled egg once in a while too. Note that getting the recipe out of my parents generated the usual recipe banter. Dad: "Use Russets." Mom: "I've been making this recipe for years with all kinds of potatoes." Dad: "Use Russets." We're using Russets in this recipe, which is why it is called, "Dad's" potato salad.

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Dad's Potato Salad Recipe

Ingredients

3 or 4 mid sized Russet potatoes
4 Tbsp juice from Kosher dill pickles
3 Tbsp finely chopped dill pickles
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 or 2 chopped scallions
1-2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (optional)

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1 Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes (skins on). Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from pot. Let cool enough to handle, but still warm. Remove skins. Cut potatoes into inch sized cubes.

2 Put potatoes in to a large bowl. Add the juice from the Kosher dill pickles. Add the finely chopped pickles themselves. Add parsley, onions, celery, scallions and (optional) hard boiled egg.

3 In a separate small bowl, mix mayonnaise with mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the dressing with the potato mixture. Again, salt and pepper to taste.

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Posted by Elise on Sep 3, 2005 and indexed Picnic Salad, Potato, Potato Salad, Salad

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Comments

Hi Elise -- Loved the idea of pickle juice so included your Dad's recipe as a Post of the Week over at the Veggie Venture! Thanks for sharing it! AK

Posted by: Alanna on September 4, 2005 8:20 PM

This sounds yummy! I like the idea of pickle juice--never heard of that one.

Posted by: Lady Amalthea on September 5, 2005 3:40 PM

this is similar to the potato salad that I learned to make from my mother. the difference is that she used sweet pickles and yellow mustard. It is good that way too. Sometimes we add pimentos. yum

Posted by: Anonymous on September 5, 2005 3:49 PM

Found your blog a week or so ago, and I guess I had no idea so many food blogs were out there! This is so neat! We love potato salad at our house and make a similar recipe using pickle juice. My mom always creamed her potatoes though, and you don't find many folks who do that. So that's the way we like potato salad.

But...glad I happened to check back today. I had signed up to be notified when another recipe was posted but never received an email from Bloglet. So now I'm catching up today on your posts. Keep up the great job. I'll keep checking back.

Posted by: Deb on September 6, 2005 4:55 AM

My grandmother made potato salad with pickles, but the secret ingredient was an apple or two diced up. That way you get a balance of tart and sweet.

Posted by: george on October 6, 2005 1:38 PM

I learned this trick from a friend while preparing potato salad for her daughter's wedding:

After boiling, skinning, and cubing the potatoes, marinate them in a little vinaigrette for a few hours before adding the mayonnaise and other ingredients. This gives the potato salad a whole new depth. Use white vinegar or rice vinegar or white balsamic vinegar to keep from darkening the potatoes, and good olive oil.

Posted by: Anna on February 28, 2006 6:14 AM

For a different twist on this favorite salad, I bake the potatoes instead of boiling. When cool enough to handle, peel skins, then dice and toss with a good virgin olive oil. Mix mayo with sour cream [ half & half ]and a dollop of mustard. Add pickle relish of choice, followed with the usual celery, onions, hard boiled eggs, fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground white peppercorns. Enjoy

Posted by: Francille on April 18, 2006 4:14 PM

Elise, this was delicious! Made it for a Labor Day party and got compliments. I couldn't resist adding stuff, which is a bad habit of mine. To your terrific base recipe, I added some roasted corn and to the dressing, I added some buttermilk, since I had it out for a cake and was really loving that tangy taste. With the buttermilk, I ended up adding a bit more mustard.

Love your blog!

Posted by: Paul on September 6, 2006 12:09 PM

How lovely that your father cooks. My dad is quite satisfied with himself for making toast, and I seem to have married another one like him in that respect. Parents, teach your sons to cook! I'm going to teach mine.

Posted by: FrancoFile on October 20, 2006 12:22 PM

Ever tried some sliced apples in your potato salad - DEEEEElicious !

Posted by: Michael Kirkwood on February 9, 2007 11:00 AM

Tried the recipe just as written....delicious....obviously in terms of pickle preference, some prefer dill, some prefer sweet & some prefer none. I personally can't stand "sweet" potato salad. To me it's a very country flavor. As for adding apples, corn, etc...to my way of thinking.....that's not even potato salad anymore. Some things just don't belong in potato salad!

Posted by: frenchy1007 on March 2, 2007 1:14 PM

My mom always put dill pickle juice in her potato salad. It is almost the same recipe..cept mom always used good ole' ball park mustard and sometimes some sliced green olives.

Posted by: Melody Elliott-Koontz on April 11, 2007 9:41 AM

I made this recipe for memorial day and everyone loved it. I varied the ingredients a bit. I added garlic and chopped green olives to it and subtracted the scallions. It was a hit! Thanks!

Posted by: mark on June 5, 2007 12:53 PM

Thanks for the comments, y'all. I've been making this with Kosher Dill pickles & the juice for lots of years. Tonight I was wondering if there were recipes for this in cyberspace or did I just make it up and enjoying this alone? :-) Makes me wonder...Has anyone reading this ever try POLISH DILL PICKLE SOUP? Has a very similar flavor only its a creamy soup version...CHECK IT OUT....YUM!

Posted by: Daya on August 5, 2007 8:44 PM

I tried this recipe for something different and at first my family wasn't sure they would like it. Once they tasted the potato salad, it disappeared faster than any standard potato salad.

Great flavor, great food! Perfect for a picnic or in the middle of winter.

Posted by: Jan on August 6, 2007 3:36 PM

Love the banter between your parents!!! It reminds me of my hubby's grandparents!!! they always cracked me up!

Posted by: Liz on August 12, 2007 10:21 AM

Made this tonight to go with Elise's pulled pork recipe. I thought it was really good. I used regular european mustard, increasing the amt. since I like a mustardy potato salad, and used cornichons since we don't get dill pickles here. Used green onion instead of scallions. I thought it was really delicious.

Posted by: sls on November 12, 2007 1:03 PM

One of the things I always add to my potato salad is Tabasco--enough to give it a healthy zip. I also use the combination of egg and pickle juice, but haven't used pickles in the salad lately.
I also typically use Russetts (Cooks Illustrated recommends them as the best for holding up), but my last batch, I only had Yukon Golds, and the flavor was distinctly different--good, but just different from the Russetts.

Posted by: KJO on March 12, 2008 9:17 AM

Parsley is used quite often in many recipes. However, a replacement for parsley that you might want to try is fresh cilantro. This adds a real great taste the potato salad. We try to rip off just the leaves and use them only. It may take a moment of your time, but is well worth it. Many of our friends are wowed at the unique taste.

Posted by: Ricardo on April 29, 2008 12:53 PM

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