There’s nothing wrong with creamy, mayonnaisey potato salad. It’s filling and comes together in a flash, a potluck superstar ready to support picnics and BBQs and brunches. But here’s the thing, not everyone likes mayo. And, yes, I’m one of them. Now, I’m not going to “yuck” your “yum,” mayo lovers, but I am going to guide you to a less polarizing potato salad.
This recipe is a little more complex than the standard picnic go-to, contrasting tender new potatoes with the crispy crunch of celery, fennel, and radishes. A vinegary, mustardy dressing adds tang and a tiny punch of spice (but not overwhelmingly so). But don’t fret, it’s still just as easy to throw together as its velvety cousin.
This fresh take on potato salad comes from sisters Danielle and Laura Kosann’s new cookbook, Great Tastes. Organized into an ideal day of eating from early morning to late, late night, the book combines ambitious yet accessible recipes with funny anecdotes of running their popular online magazine, The New Potato. Below, they share how they’ve been inspired by the humble spud:
Why did you decide on the name The New Potato? At this point it’s a question we get asked more than our names. When we came up with the idea for the website, all we knew was we wanted it to be “The New . . . Something.” It wasn’t much to go on.
When somehow the phrase The New Potato came out during a brainstorm over coffee, we liked that it was both a play on the new black (as potatoes are a base staple in the world of food, just as the color black is in fashion), and that new potatoes are also an ingredient themselves. We liked that double meaning and decided to go with it.
At first, our relationship with our website name was a little like Ross and Rachel’s on Friends. We were on-again, off-again. Some days we loved each other, some days we hated each other, but in the end we were meant to end up together. Everyone else saw it, so why couldn’t we?
It took us a while to realize our brand name set us apart from other online magazines. The exact qualities that made us nervous about it were the very things people loved most about it. Its playfulness made us worry it wouldn’t be taken seriously. Its shabby chic nature made us worry it wouldn’t be highbrow enough. The infinite number of possible puns and spinoffs it allowed for would sometimes annoy us. And its originality made it a constant conversation piece, taking up valuable time that should have been spent talking about the brand mission.
But the thing we always loved about The New Potato—especially in the beginning—was that people didn’t forget it.
In a brave new world where millions of websites spring up each day and content is king, it helped us that people walked away from initial conversations chuckling about “the potato girls,” as we’ve come to be called by many. Whether they knew what the brand was or didn’t (yet), they didn’t forget the name, and sometimes that’s all it takes at first.
| 1 | pound baby potatoes |
| 2 | tablespoons apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar |
| 1 | teaspoon Dijon mustard |
| 3 | tablespoons sunflower or safflower oil |
| 1 | cup medium red radishes, halved and thinly sliced (about 4 radishes) |
| 1/2 | cup medium celery ribs, thinly sliced crosswise on the diagonal (about 3 stalks) |
| 1 | small fennel bulb, halved, cored, and cut into bite-size pieces |
| 1 | pinch kosher salt and freshly ground pepper |
| 2 | tablespoons chopped dill |
| 1 | pound baby potatoes |
| 2 | tablespoons apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar |
| 1 | teaspoon Dijon mustard |
| 3 | tablespoons sunflower or safflower oil |
| 1 | cup medium red radishes, halved and thinly sliced (about 4 radishes) |
| 1/2 | cup medium celery ribs, thinly sliced crosswise on the diagonal (about 3 stalks) |
| 1 | small fennel bulb, halved, cored, and cut into bite-size pieces |
| 1 | pinch kosher salt and freshly ground pepper |
| 2 | tablespoons chopped dill |
How do you like your potato salad? With or without the mayo?
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