Potato Salad

I wanted to make potato salad one day. When I told my husband Matt this he immediately was like "I don't like potato salad." I knew why. He doesn't like mayo, and we all know the typical potato salad is smothered in mayo. Some of them are sweet too, which I personally don't like.

I ended up creating a red potato salad recipe that Matt loves. And have been messing around with it and trying different ingredients. I just made a potato salad with some leftover russet potatoes I had laying around. I cooked up some bacon then set it aside for later. I added some diced celery and red bell peppers to the bacon fat. I also grilled some yellow corn and cut it up and added it to the pan. Cooked the veggies until it was a little tender and added it all to the diced potatoes I had already boiled and drained. I added a teeny bit of mayo - like less than 1/4 cup for 2 lbs of potato. I also decided to try adding a couple tbsp of dijon mustard, which gave it a little kick. Combined everything with some salt, pepper, smoked paprika, chopped parsley, and crumbled bacon.

My secret is adding that bacon dripping to the potato salad. It adds so much flavor. You'd think the bacon dripping would make the salad greasy but it doesn't. It soaks into those potatoes, making them softer, and have this kind of binding-like consistency. It works really well as a substitute to all that mayo you would have used. I wonder how well olive oil would work for a more health conscious meal. And I really enjoyed the grilled corn in this particular potato salad.