Japanese Potato Salad

Submitted by puppitypup

"I had Japanese potato salad for the first time a few weeks back at a Zaar luncheon held at a Japanese Tea Garden. I liked it so much that I had to come home and look it up online. I learned that although potatoes weren't a part of traditional Japanese cuisine, potato salad has since become a daily fixture in Japanese lunch boxes. Japanese potato salad is creamy and non-acidic, no vinegar and no pickles here. This recipe is from justhungry.com, tweaked a bit by me to resemble what I had at the Tea Garden. Posted for Zaar World Tour. Time doesn't include cooling time. By the way, we enjoyed lunch so much we forgot to check out the garden :lol:"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 3 medium boiling potatoes, such as yukon gold
• 1 small carrot (optional)
• 1 large egg (optional)
• 1 small onion
• 4 inches of a seedless cucumber
• kosher salt, to taste
• fresh ground pepper, to taste
• 3⁄4 - 1 cup mayonnaise, see note below

directions

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender. Boil the carrot, unpeeled, in the same pot. Boil the egg until hard boiled at the same time.
2. In the meantime, slice the cucumber and the onion very thinly. Sprinkle both with a little salt, and let sit for a while (10 minutes or more) until the vegetables exude their juices. Squeeze firmly to get rid of the juices.
3. When the potatoes and carrot are done, drain and peel them while still hot (holding each in a kitchen towel to peel them helps). Smash the potatoes and shred the carrot. Mix in a little salt and pepper and leave to cool.
4. Peel the hard boiled egg and chop up finely.
5. When the potatoes and carrot mixture has cooled to room temperature, mix in the cucumber, onion and egg. Mix in the mayonnaise. Cover with plastic wrap and cool in the refrigerator until serving time (ideally at least one hour).
6. Note regarding mayonnaise: The ideal mayo to use is a Japanese one. Next best would be to make your own, using a flavor-neutral vegetable oil such as canola or safflower, not extra virgin olive oil. ("Extra Light" olive oil is fine.) Lacking access to Japanese mayonnaise or the time to make your own though, any commercial mayo will do as long as it's not too heavy on the vinegar flavor. Salad cream such as Miracle Whip should not be used however.

Reviews

[KK]

this is a really good recipe!! however, in my oponion, ratio of potato to ingredients is a bit off. and instead of boiling the potatoes and carrots with skin in the water befofe peeling, peeling before boiling is easier. besides that, i thouroughly enjoyed this! i even added some crabstick imitation crabmeat) to it and its delicious!

 

[lackii650]

Wow. This potato salad is delicious. Thank you for sharing. Definitely be making again.

 

[littlemafia]

Brought back nice memories! I did think of obento when I ate this. I used regular mayo (and it was ok), the egg and I didn't boil the carrot. I'll make this a lot! Thanks.

 

[Heather in Utsunomi]

Nice! I was looking for a recipe for Japanese Potato Salad. We will be making this tomorrow but I will leave the egg out and add a handfull of tube pasta and ham. That is how they make it at one of my very favorite izakayas! Thank you, you saved me from having to ask the owner how she makes it.

 

[Um Safia]

Made & reviewed for ZWT 4 ~ Kumquat's Kookin Kaboodles! Our family just loves potato salad, so I was very interested to try it Japanese style. I'm so glad I tried this as it is so yummy & light - we ate it with a little leftover chicken & soup. Thanks again puppitypup for another winner!