Perfect (vegan) potato salad?
When I was a kid, one of my favourite sandwich fillings was potato salad. Not just any potato salad, mind, but the cheapest supermarket own-brand stuff, where all the potato pieces were in the most oddly perfect cubes imaginable and there was no identifiable taste, bar a faint whiff of an onion trapped in plastic long enough that it had come to resemble the odour of stale human sweat.
While I may have stopped putting potato salad between two slices of Mighty White and wolfing it down in front of Thundercats a good few years ago, I have never stopped loving it, and as I went from omnivore to veggie to vegan, I still stayed loyal.
But I've never quite managed to make a decent spud salad at home. Try as I might, there was always something missing - some vinegary background note, some depth of flavour present in restaurant versions that I just couldn't recreate at home.
Handily, Felicity Cloake's 'How to cook the perfect...' series on The Guardian website has sorted me out with its recent go-over of potato salad.
If you're not a regular reader, it works like this: Cloake takes a popular dish, tests out several different recipes for it, picks the best elements from each, and mashes them together to create the perfect version of the dish in question.
And it was through Cloake's examination of potato salad that I learnt the all important secret to potato salad: there are two dressings! Two! While the spuds are still warm, you put on an oil and vinegar type one, which soaks in as it cools, then add the mayonnaisey one later.
And with that, the light of knowledge was upon me, and my potato salad could well now bring all the boys to the yard, whatever that means.
Behold, the results of said knowledge above - using Plamil tarragon vegan mayonnaise. Delicious.
While I may have stopped putting potato salad between two slices of Mighty White and wolfing it down in front of Thundercats a good few years ago, I have never stopped loving it, and as I went from omnivore to veggie to vegan, I still stayed loyal.
But I've never quite managed to make a decent spud salad at home. Try as I might, there was always something missing - some vinegary background note, some depth of flavour present in restaurant versions that I just couldn't recreate at home.
Handily, Felicity Cloake's 'How to cook the perfect...' series on The Guardian website has sorted me out with its recent go-over of potato salad.
If you're not a regular reader, it works like this: Cloake takes a popular dish, tests out several different recipes for it, picks the best elements from each, and mashes them together to create the perfect version of the dish in question.
And it was through Cloake's examination of potato salad that I learnt the all important secret to potato salad: there are two dressings! Two! While the spuds are still warm, you put on an oil and vinegar type one, which soaks in as it cools, then add the mayonnaisey one later.
And with that, the light of knowledge was upon me, and my potato salad could well now bring all the boys to the yard, whatever that means.
Behold, the results of said knowledge above - using Plamil tarragon vegan mayonnaise. Delicious.
I'm very interested to try out this method as I can be picky when it comes to potato salads. Your spuds look fantastic! :)
ReplyDeleteYum!! Your potato salad looks delish with all those herbs on top.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of adding vinegar and oil to the warm potatoes to let them absorb it sounds brilliant!
it really does make a difference - give it a go!
ReplyDelete