Kartoffelsalat (German Potato Salad)

I’m pretty sure Kartoffelsalat is my favorite part of a German meal. People need to take it away from me before I eat the whole thing. In Germany there are typically two different types of potato salad. In the north they make it with mayonnaise (which is also how its done in the US) but in the southern parts of Germany and Austria, potato salad is make with vinegar and mustard. Since my Oma is Bavarian, we were brought up eating potato salad with a mustard base and I never really took a liking to the mayonnaise loaded potato salads you often see at american BBQ’s. Trust me once you have potato salad made in the southern German way you wont go back.

Kartoffelsalat is a typical side dish to most sausages, in my family its mainly Wiener Würst. It is almost always served at the beer gardens in Bavaria. This recipe is the way that my grandmother usually makes it, except I sometimes like to throw in some bacon pieces. Normally we don’t have it with bacon and its delicious either way.

Ingredients:

• About 12 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes, boiled and peeled
• 5 bacon strips (optional) fried and cut into small pieces
• 1 white onion diced
• 2 green onions diced or 2 tbsp of chives
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp Dijon or brown mustard
• 1 tbsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Take the boiled and peeled potatoes and cut them into bite sized pieces. Combine the potatoes with the bacon, onion and sliced green onions.

Add in all of the wet ingredients and the sugar and mix together well!

Add more vinegar, oil or mustard to taste. I usually like it pretty mustard and vinegary so I tend to go heavy on that.

This dish can be served cold or warm, we normally have it kind of lukewarm.

Enjoy!