Super Simple Potato Salad

Although spring has not sprung in many parts of the country, we are certainly feeling some spring fever here in Charlotte! I don’t want to tell my family how warm it was here today (over 70 degrees! – shh!). We certainly took full advantage of the great weather and planned an easy meal – burgers on the grill accompanied by potato salad and baked beans. Delicious!

Preparing the potatoes: 

This potato salad is so easy! To save time later, I cooked the potatoes while the kids were eating lunch so they would be cooled and ready to turn into a quick salad at dinner time.

Cooking potatoes for potato salad does not take too long and if you have eager helpers, hand them a peeler and let them do the “hard work.” I roughly peeled the last of my local potatoes using a knife (I didn’t bother with a veggie peeler today) and chopped the potatoes into large chunks. Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water until the water is about two inches higher than the potatoes. Estimate one potato per person to gauge the amount of potatoes you need to prepare – we used six. Bring the water to a boil and cook on high for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender. (Can you easily poke it with a fork?) Remove from the heat and drain in a colander. Set aside to cool until you are ready to prepare your potato salad.  (If you don’t have enough time to cool your potatoes, warm potato salad tastes great, too!)

Additional Ingredients:  

Garlic and onion in our garden

2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Handful of chopped scallions or onion and garlic greens from your garden
1 stalk celery, diced (optional)
1 or 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (optional)
2 slices bacon, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions: 

1. Place cooled potatoes in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add mustard and mayonnaise and gently toss potatoes to evenly coat.
3. Add additional ingredients – my family loves chopped egg, celery, and onion greens snipped fresh from the garden. And, since everything is better with bacon, if you have some on hand, add it in! 

The great part about this recipe is that it is very easy to adapt – do you like your potato salad creamier? Add more mayo! Love more crunch? Add another stalk of celery! Enjoy!