JAPANESE POTATO SALAD
ポテトサラダ
Japanese potato salad is a creamy, flavourful twist on the Western version. Made with mashed and chunky potatoes, crisp vegetables like cucumber and carrot, and a touch of tangy Japanese mayonnaise, this dish offers a perfect balance of texture and taste.
Simple to make and endlessly customizable, this potato salad is both nostalgic and refreshingly light.
INGREDIENTS
Potato Salad
2 large potatoes (about 500g)
2 eggs
carrot (2 inches, 1/4 cup)
1 medium cucumber (1/2 large)
½ tsp salt (for removing moisture from the cucumber and carrot)
¼ cup canned corn
2 slices ham
Optional: fried onions for plating
Seasonings
1 Tbsp Japanese sushi / rice vinegar*
Finely ground black pepper (to taste)
4 Tbsp Kewpie mayonnaise
*Make your own Japanese style vinegar
3/4 Tbsp White vinegar
1/4 Tsp Sugar of your choice
1/4 Tsp water (dilute to taste)
PREPARE THE VEGETABLES
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Wash and peel the carrot.
PRO TIP: You might only need to use 2 or 3 inches of the carrot for the recipe but keep the carrot whole to make slicing easier and safer.
Wash and peel the cucumber.
PRO TIP: Taste your cucumber and decide how much skin you need to peel.
For Japanese style cucumber cuts, peel small, spaced out strips.
If your cucumber skin is tough to chew, just peel the entire cucumber.
Slice the cucumber and carrot into very thin discs, I use a mandolin slicer.
Salt the carrot and cucumber with 1 tsp of salt, squeezing them gently to distribute the salt, and leave them in a colander or drainable container for 10/15 minutes.
COOK THE POTATOES
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Peel and chop the potatoes into rough cubes and put into a pot with COLD salted water.
PRO TIP: If the water doesn’t taste salty, add more salt. Think ocean water salty.
Bring the potato’s to a boil. Once the pans starts to boiling set a timer for 12 minutes.
PRO TIP: This cold-to-boiling method allows the potatoes to cook evenly. If you boil the water first and then put the potatoes in, the outside of the potato cooks faster than the inside, resulting in an uneven texture.
Lightly mash the potatoes using a spoon, we want both smooth and chunky textures.
After 12 minutes, poke a potato piece with a knife or chopstick to see if it is soft enough.
Add the vinegar while the potatoes are still hot. Start with 1 tsp, mix, and then taste. Add up to 1 tbsp of vinegar.
Once the potato’s are soft enough to mash, drain the water, and put the potatoes back into the same pot with a lid. Give them a nice shaky shake to help remove extra moisture, and to keep the potato’s from sticking.
Let the potatoes cool down in a big mixing bowl while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
BOIL & MASH THE EGGS
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Add 1-2 eggs into a pot of cold water with a lid. Bring to a boil and without removing the lid, turn off the heat.
PRO TIP: Cooking the eggs using this method helps keep the yoke from becoming chalky and dry.
Let the eggs cook in the pot for 12 minutes. When they are ready to be cooled, take out the eggs and put them into a jug of ice water, the colder the better!
Once eggs feel cold to touch, peel the eggs.
Gently mash to desired consistency.
PRO TIP: Remember that you will also be mixing the egg into the potato salad mix, so you can always make the size of your egg smaller when you assemble everything.
PREP HAM & CORN
Slice 2-3 slices of ham into thin strips, and remove any tough edges. I’m using Black Forest ham, a classic deli sandwich ham.
Drain and rinse the canned corn, and set aside.
ASSEMBLE POTATO SALAD
Add the eggs to the potatoes, and gently mix in. At this point you can mash the egg to the desired consistency
Add the cucumber, carrots, corn, and ham to the mixture and gentle fold the ingredients together.
Add a sprinkle of finely ground pepper and a sprinkle of salt, then add the kewpie mayo.
Start with 4 tbsp, mix gently, and then add more to taste.
Continue to fold mixture until all ingredients are evenly distributed and test for your desired texture and taste.
TIPS & TRICKS
Additional toppings
Once you’ve created your potato salad, adding dry toppings such as dried onions or katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna) can add a nice extra crunch to the dish.
Keep it consistent
Try not to over mayo your potato salad, the consistency should be creamy enough that all the ingredients can hold together on a spoon, but not so drenched in mayo that it tastes too rich and wet.
Storage life
You can make your potato salad the day before you plan to eat it, just make sure to add an extra squeeze of mayo before serving if the salad consistancy seems dry.
More than a just a side dish
You can use the potato salad to make another Japanese comfort food, the potato salad sandwich!
Just get white bread, add 4 washed and dry leaves of romaine lettuce, and pile the potato salad on. Close the sandwich and cut on an angle.
