16 easy ways to make your potato salad even better using things you already have in your kitchen
- Potato salad is a popular Fourth of July cookout food, and there are simple ways to make it better.
- Adding things like avocado, pickles, and even blue cheese will take potato salad to the next level.
There's nothing quite like a heaping spoonful of homemade potato salad on the Fourth of July.
With grocery costs eating up more of our budgets than they have in decades, many families might be curious about how to elevate popular cookout foods with ingredients they already have in their kitchens.
And, while there are many recipes you can follow to make a crowd-pleasing potato salad, there are also a number of unique ingredients you can add to any standard potato salad to take it over the top — no trip to the grocery store required.
Here are 16 easy ways to make your potato salad even better using things you already have in your kitchen.
Roast or grill your potatoes instead of boiling them.
One easy way to elevate your potato salad is to roast the potatoes instead of boiling them. This will make your potatoes crispy and add an interesting texture to the dish.
Plus, roasting your potatoes with seasonings like garlic salt, cayenne pepper, or onion powder locks in extra flavor.
Or, follow the advice of some celebrity chefs and grill your potatoes first: Guy Fieri and Aarón Sánchez swear by this method.
You can also use sweet potatoes for a different taste.
You can use sweet potatoes instead of red or golden potatoes, making your potato salad taste slightly sweeter. You can also go a spicier or more savory route, depending on your seasonings.
Celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian grills sweet potatoes and then adds tangy elements such as capers for his recipe.
A splash of vinegar adds much-needed tang to potato salad.
Vinegar is a common addition to potato salads and you can use any kind, depending on the flavor profile of the dish: apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, red wine vinegar, or even some balsamic vinegar.
For example, Martha Stewart uses white wine vinegar in her six-ingredient recipe, while Alton Brown and Bobby Flay prefer apple cider vinegar.
Avocado adds extra creaminess to potato salad.
Avocado will add extra creaminess and flavor to your potato salad. Plus, if you're not a fan of mayonnaise, it can even serve as a substitute, like in this recipe from Damn Delicious.
Sour cream can also elevate a traditional mayonnaise-based salad.
When making potato salad, a base of two-parts mayonnaise, one-part sour cream ensures the dish will have the right balance of sour tang and creaminess.
Thousand Island dressing adds a creamy, tangy flavor.
Instead of sour cream, you can also add a dollop or two of Thousand Island dressing to add zesty flavor to your potato salad, like in this recipe from America's Test Kitchen.
Blue cheese is another great addition.
Blue cheese crumbles can also elevate the flavor profile of your potato salad while adding extra creaminess, like in this recipe for bacon and blue cheese potato salad.
Bacon goes well in everything, especially potato salad.
To add a salty, slightly fatty taste to potato salad, fry up some bacon and chop it up along with any other vegetables you want to add.
Chef Robert Irvine adds bacon — and eggs — to his recipe.
Pickles make a crunchy, sour addition.
Finely chopped-up pickles, like in this recipe from Taste of Home, add a sour, crunchy taste to classic potato salads, and mix well with dill and other vegetables.
Green and red onion are classic additions, but they are important to making potato salad the best it can be.
Red and green onion add much-needed flavor and crunch to potato salad — they're typical ingredients for a reason.
Some celebrity chefs add garlic to their potato salads.
"Iron Chef" host Alton Brown adds garlic to his potato salad recipe, among other interesting ingredients like sliced cornichons.
Dill is another more classic addition that's a must-have in many potato salad recipes.
Dill adds a herbaceous, fragrant, and fresh flavor to potato salad, and mixes well with other ingredients.
Potato chips add a crunchy texture.
If you're looking to up your potato-salad game, consider sprinkling potato chips or potato chip crumbs onto your potatoes. This will add some delicious crunch and, depending on the flavor of the chip you choose, extra flavor — for example, this Bon Appétit recipe calls for sour cream-and-onion chips.
Alternatively, barbecue or salt-and-vinegar chips can enhance the dish and add a surprising texture.
Sriracha adds extra spice to potato salad.
Another Sriracha shortage could be coming this summer, as The Washington Post reported, but if you can get your hands on a bottle, a drizzle adds a kick to potato salad and mixes well with mayonnaise.
Chipotle in adobo also brings up the heat.
Chipotle in adobo sauce is a great addition for a spicy potato salad: Blend one or two peppers and a spoonful of sauce, to taste, with your mayonnaise, sour cream, and vinegar in a food processor.
Whole-grain mustard is another great addition.
Mustard is a common addition to potato salad, but cooks often use Dijon or even honey mustard. However, the grainy texture of whole-grain mustard greatly enhances the overall taste, and each seed is bursting with flavor.
Ina Garten's recipe for an old-fashioned potato salad uses both Dijon and whole-grain mustard.
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