All you need is four ingredients for this simple potato salad recipe: scallions, mayonnaise, white-wine vinegar, and Yukon gold potatoes. While the potatoes are steaming, mix the vinegar with scallions, and season with salt and pepper. Tossing the cooked potatoes in this tangy mixture while they are still hot allows them to absorb the flavors. After they cool, stir in the mayonnaise and more scallions, and you’re ready to serve.
You can make this potato salad up to two days ahead.
The Potatoes
For this potato salad recipe, we use Yukon Gold potatoes, our favorite all-purpose variety because of their creamy texture and flavor. They are widely available and well-suited to all kinds of potato dishes, from mashed to scalloped. As an alternative, use a waxy type of potato, such as Red Bliss. Waxy potatoes are low in starch and high in moisture, so they hold their shape well in a potato salad. Do not use starchy russet potatoes—the kind best suited for baked potatoes—as they will fall apart in your salad.
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The Technique
Our foolproof method produces an easy potato salad every time. Here are the steps that set our recipe apart:
Leaving the Skins on the Potatoes
Perhaps the most controversial thing about our easy potato salad is that we leave the skins on the potatoes. There are several reasons for this: ease (one less prep step), look (we like the pop of color that the skins offer in the potato salad), and they add texture.
Cutting the Potatoes
Aside from choosing the right potato variety, the most important step for making a good basic potato salad is cutting the pieces into uniformly sized pieces so they cook evenly. If you have a mix of sizes, smaller pieces will be overcooked or start to fall apart, while the larger pieces will not be cooked through.
Steaming Rather Than Boiling the Potatoes
Many simple potato salad recipes call for boiling the potatoes. Depending on the potato used, the size of the pieces of potato, and how long they are cooked for, boiling can result in overcooked, watery potatoes, which results in a mushy potato salad. Steaming gives you more control and keeps the pieces intact, which is what you want for potato salad.
Making Ahead
Potato salad can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to two days. Some people say potato salad tastes better the next day. Even if you’re not in that camp, you need to allow about one hour for the potatoes to cool before adding the mayonnaise.
