Perfect your picnic with Martha's potato salad

Recipe: Basic Potato Salad

Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3 pounds waxy potatoes (such as Yukon gold or new), scrubbed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1/3 cup white-wine vinegar
• 4 scallions, white part minced, green part thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup light mayonnaise

Preparation

Tips

• For a potato salad that doesn't end up mushy, use waxy potatoes, which keep their shape better than starchy baking potatoes.
• For even cooking, make sure the potatoes are cut into uniform pieces.
• For a hint of sweetness, add a pinch of sugar to the vinegar mixture. For extra tang, sub in sour cream for some of the mayonnaise.
• For warm-weather picnics, make a no-mayo version: replace the mayo in my basic recipe with 1/2 cup olive oil whisked with 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard.
• For balanced flavor, keep your mix-ins simple (but still be creative). I like celery and hard-cooked egg. Take it easy on salty and acidic ingredients (combining, say, pickles, capers, and olives would be too much).

Mix-and-Match Mix-Ins (add after salad cools)
Sliced celery
Diced red onion
Sweet pickle relish
Chopped pickles
Slivered green olives
Capers
Chopped herbs
Chopped hard-cooked eggs
Crumbled bacon

Serving Size