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Festive Potato Salad

In post soviet countries mayo heavy “salat olivye” potato salad is a must for new year’s celebration table. In the Czech Republic, they eat potato salad for Christmas Eve. It is usually boring, featuring some potatoes and sad cooked veggies slathered in tons of mayo. Let’s reinvent this guilty pleasure and add more bright flavours. Don’t be afraid to experiment and use veggies (cooked, pickled or raw) and herbs you like.
I attempted to make a dressing lighter and brighter by adding some yoghurt to mayo.
Feel free to change the proportions according to your taste and have some festive fun! Make this a day ahead allowing flavours to mingle and develop.
Course: Appetizer, Salad
Cuisine: russian
Keyword: mayo, potatoes, salad dressing
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 700 g potatoes, boiled whole with a skin on cooked till soft but not falling apart
  • 100 g pickles/dill gherkins (about 5 small pickles)
  • 400 g 1 can of peas, corn, carrot mix or peas only and add the boiled carrot separately
  • 2-3 tbsp finely chopped chives
  • 10 g dill
  • 100 g 100 g Vegan ham (optional)
  • 200 g Vegan mayonnaise
  • 140 g  unsweetened soy yoghurt  1 cup
  • 1.5 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2-3 tbsp pickling liquid/brine from the pickle jar
  • ½ tsp each garlic and onion powder
  • salt black pepper to taste
  • Optional additions: cooked diced celeriac, cooked diced beetroot, finely chopped shallot, capers, olives, marinated bell peppers, finely chopped parsley, sunflower seeds

Instructions

  • Cool down your potatoes (and other veggies if using boiled ones), peel and roughly dice them (can use dicer/cuber tool if you have one). If you use cooked carrots, beetroots do the same with them.
  • Rinse your can of peas or peas, carrot & corn mix and add to the big mixing bowl together with potatoes. If you have baby carrots in the can not the diced carrot chop or dice them first.
  • Dice your pickles and add to the rest of veggies. I highly recommend using hard vinegar/dill pickles and pick the smaller ones, they are usually tastier.
  • Finely chop chives, dill and other herbs if using, add to the veggie mixture.
  • If using ham or any other salad components chop/dice them and add to the bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.
  • Prepare the dressing - in a small bowl mix your mayo, yoghurt, mustard, olive oil, pickling liquid/brine from the jar, good pinch of salt. Combine well, taste and adjust if needed - add more pickle liquid for sourness, more mustard for sharpness, salt & pepper etc. If you’d like to increase the volume of your dressing for the more moist salad add more mayo and olive oil.
  • Mix the dressing with the salad, add more black pepper to taste. Leave for a couple of hours in the fridge for flavours to combine.

Notes

The salad will keep well in the fridge for 2-3 days and will taste the best next day.
If you can’t find a vegan mayo you can actually make your own, there are many recipes online using soy milk, aquafaba or red lentils.
Pick smaller potatoes for the salad to make sure they’ll cook through evenly.