Comedian Ron White has this really funny monologue where he says that he once gave an alias to a cop by telling him that “They call me “Tater Salad”. Well today’s recipe is ‘Tater Salad” but they still don’t call me that—I’m just the “Cheap Bastid”.
You can make a quick and easy potato salad from stuff you’ve got on hand—assuming that the “stuff” includes potatoes, of course. There’s nothing magic about it, just go into the “crisper drawers” in your fridge and see what you can chop up and add to potato salad.
That’s one of the things I like about cooking. Most recipes are “guidelines” rather than absolute rules for making a particular dish. I like making ‘tater salad—especially in the summer when I can boil up the potatoes early in the day so as not to get the kitchen too hot and then get it cooled down and the flavors “married” together well before dinner. Most of the time it’s just the two of us so I don’t make a huge batch just enough for us which usually means there’s some leftovers for a lunch or another dinner.
I don’t make a big deal out of the potatoes. No Yukon Gold for Cheap Bastid! I just keep a 10 lb sack on hand of whatever is on special at Fraizers—usually russets. This quick and easy potato salad recipe only takes about 20 minutes to make so get out your ‘taters and let’s go!
Recipe: Quick and Easy Potato Salad
Summary: You can make potato salad quick, easy, cheap and tasty. Here’s how.
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium potatoes (russets or reds)
- 2 tbsp Salt for cooking potatoes
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 2/3 cup other fresh chopped vegetables—whatever you have: celery, bell pepper, jalapeno, zucchini, carrots
- 2 tbsp finely diced pickle (dill or sweet—your choice)
- 2-3 tbsp mayonnaise or “salad dressing”
- 2 tsp mustard
- Seasonings—salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder
Instructions
- Get out a large bowl, cutting board, chef’s knife, colander and big pot for the potatoes.
- Rinse potatoes well, blot dry and cut to
about ¾ inch or so pieces. (Potatoes peeled or unpeeled, your choice). - Fill pot with enough water for the potatoes to cook without being crowded and add salt to the water. Dump in the cut potatoes and turn burner to medium high (about 2 o’clock).
- Chop onion and any other vegetables you’re using. Put into the bowl. Dice the pickle and add it.
- Put colander in sink. When potatoes are just fork tender, turn off heat, remove pan and dump potatoes into the colander. Then rinse with cold water and thoroughly shake them in the colander to drain.
- (You’re shocking the potatoes—reducing the temperature to stop cooking). Let potatoes sit for a minute to drain then add to the bowl.
- Add 2 tbsp “mayo”, 1 tsp mustard, salt, pepper, cumin and garlic powder (plus I like a bit of dried dill too) and mix thoroughly. Taste it! If it’s a bit dry add another tbsp of mayo. If it’s too “bland” add another squirt of mustard. Do all this to taste.
- Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and put in the fridge. When ready to serve taste it again! Sometimes it get “dry” sitting in
the fridge as the potatoes absorb some of the moisture from the mayo. Add a bit more of whatever you think it needs and taste again.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 15 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
My rating 5 stars: ★★★★★ 1 review(s)
It’s actually pretty easy. Just a little of this and a little of that and all of a sudden you’ve got potato salad. Serve it with pretty much any summertime meal—from chicken to steaks to hot dogs or burgers. Make a big batch for a picnic. Remember though, you can use whatever blend of spices you like or as much or little mayo and mustard as you like. And by the way, some people like to add a hardboiled egg or 2 to this. If you want to do that—go for it!
The Cheap Bastid Test: This is pretty inexpensive to make. You’re going to be using about $.50 worth of potatoes and other veggies and maybe another $.50 in other vegetables and let’s say about $.25 of everything else. So for $1.25 you’ve got potato salad for dinner. That’s pretty inexpensive.
That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!
Potato salad is a spring and summer stand by here. Good recipe! Recently I had a bag of mixed small potatoes. They included some blue colored ones. We had some left over from a dinner so I diced them up, included some onions, celery, small sweet peppers and put in a diced dill pickle too. Tossing in a mayo with a bit of homemade balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing, it turned out to be very gourmet! Tasted great chilled another day too. You brought a good memory to mind with this, and hey, I think I might have some red potato leftovers in there as we speak!