You know you’ve got a good recipe when people ask you to make it. Well, Grandma’s Awesome Potato Salad is one of those recipes! The perfect dish to take to one of the many cookouts you are bound to go to this summer.
My grandmother lived until she was 100, and she spent many of those years cooking simple, and delicious, food for her family. At holidays and cookouts grandma could always be found in the kitchen whipping something up – always without a recipe. She was famous in our extended family for her potato salad. She made it and we gobbled it up. I’m sure I saw her make it hundreds of times which is how I learned her “recipe”.
A few years ago I took grandma’s awesome potato salad to a friend’s house for a cookout. They really liked it and I have been asked to make it on many more occasions. I’ve shared the recipe over the years, and whenever I do people can’t believe how few ingredients are required. The most difficult part is honestly having the patience to wait for the potatoes to cool so you can take the skins off – without burning yourself;). Oh, and waiting to eat it!
Try the recipe below out for your next gathering. Let me know what you think.
Grandma’s Awesome Potato Salad Recipe:
- 5 pound bag of yukon gold potatoes
- 4 stalks of fresh celery diced into small pieces
- 2 cups of Hellman's Light Mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons of celery salt
- About 10 grinds of pepper from a pepper mill.
- Fill a large pot, that will fit all the potatoes, with cold water. You can salt the water with a teaspoon of table salt or kosher salt if you wish.
- Put all the potatoes into the pot, making sure the potatoes are entirely covered, and turn the heat up until it boils. Turn the heat down to between medium and high so that it boils without making the potatoes bounce around;). Set the timer for 15 minutes.
- At 15 minutes check and see if you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork. If yes, they are done. Shut the heat off and remove the potatoes from the water and put them onto a large plate or in a large bowl or colander and let them cool. If you cannot pierce them easily, they are not done. Let them boil a little longer, but don't let them get too soft. (NOTE: Even if the larger ones are not done, I usually check the smaller potatoes, because they will cook more quickly. If the smaller ones are done, take them out and leave the larger one's to cook longer.
- When the potatoes are cool enough to handle just use a sharp knife and start taking the skin off. It will be super thin and will peel if you start it with the knife. Try not to cut much of the potato off, just the skin.
- When all potatoes have been cooled and skinned, cut them into bite sized pieces and add them to a large bowl - or two if you need to divide them into two bowls.
- Wash, dry and dice 4 stalks of fresh celery into very small pieces and sprinkle them over the potatoes in the bowl(s).
- Put two cups of Hellman's light Mayonnaise into a medium size bowl and add the two teaspoons of celery salt. Using a whisk, whisk the two ingredients together until they are smooth about 30 seconds, and put the mayo into the bowl with the potatoes and celery and mix gently with a spoon until all the potatoes and celery is covered. Use a pepper mill and grind some fresh pepper over the top.
- Voila! Grandma's Awesome Potato Salad!
