Old Fashioned Potato Salad Recipe
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Make this delicious old fashioned potato salad for your next barbecue! Quick, easy, and homemade.
Old Fashioned Potato Salad
Spring is in full gear now, and I couldn’t be happier. The grass is starting to become luscious and green and the trees are getting heavy with leaves. I can finally get out of the house and soak up some Vitamin D! I have started planting my seedlings for my vegetable garden and have various simple garden projects in motion.
Another one of my favorite things about spring is being able to cook outside on the grill, enjoying the fresh tastes of spring, and getting to dine with my family outside.
We especially love having friends over in the evenings to enjoy an afternoon barbecue. Whenever we have a barbecue, we always have our favorite dishes: barbecue ribs (made with a homemade bbq sauce recipe), buttermilk biscuits, fresh green salad (or homemade coleslaw) and of course, a good old fashioned potato salad recipe.
Today, I wanted to share my recipe for old fashioned potato salad, a tried and true recipe that my family loves.
Old Fashioned Potato Salad Recipe
What you need:
- 4 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup chopped celery, diced
- 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1.5 tbsp prepared mustard
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
How to make:
Bring two pots of water to a boil, one large enough for the potatoes, and another smaller one for the eggs. Cook the potatoes over medium-high heat until fork-tender, about 15 – 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the eggs until cooked through, about 12 – 15 minutes.
Strain potatoes and add them to a large bowl. Allow the eggs to cool. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel the shell away, slice the hard boiled eggs, and add to the potatoes. Add in celery and stir.
In a small bowl, combine relish, mayo, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper and stir until well combined. Pour dressing over potato mixture and gently stir until everything is coated and well mixed. Refrigerate for 1 – 2 hours before serving.
—Check out this easy Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe & Learn How to Make Your Own Fresh Mayo.
Need to print this to add to your Recipe Binder? Get the Homemade Potato Salad recipe below:
Old Fashioned Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups potatoes peeled and cut into 1" cubes
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup chopped celery diced
- 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1.5 tbsp prepared mustard
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Bring two pots of water to a boil, one large enough for the potatoes, and another smaller one for the eggs.
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Cook the potatoes over medium-high heat until fork-tender, about 15 - 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the eggs until cooked through, about 12 - 15 minutes.
-
Strain the potatoes and add them to a large bowl. Allow the eggs to cool. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel the shell away, slice the hard-boiled eggs, and add to the potatoes. Add in celery and stir.
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In a small bowl, combine relish, mayo, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper and stir until well combined. Pour dressing over potato mixture and gently stir until everything is coated and well mixed.
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Refrigerate for 1 - 2 hours before serving.
Potato Salad Variations
While the recipe above is a classic Old Fashioned Potato Salad recipe, you may want to make some adjustments to suit your family’s preferences. Here are some ideas:
- For a healthier version, swap the mayo out for plain Greek yogurt
- To add some crunch, add in 1/4 cup chopped onions. if you like their raw flavor
- To change the flavor up, use freshly diced pickles with 2 tablespoons of pickle juice instead of the sweet pickle relish
- To give it more punch, add in some fresh chives or green onions
Here are some more summertime favorites to serve alongside your potato salad:
How to Make Coleslaw From Scratch
Fresh and Easy Avocado Corn Salsa Recipe
Crockpot Drumsticks with Fresh Tomato BBQ Sauce
5 Simple Dinners for Busy Summer Nights
Does your family barbecue? What is your favorite way to make old fashioned potato salad?
This Old Fashioned Potato Salad recipe was originally published on Little House Living in May 2014. It has been updated as of May 2020.
I love potato salad! =)
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I know it’s all in what you’re used to or possibly grew up on, but this version would never go over well with my family. At gatherings my family won’t eat just anyone’s potato salad unless it’s made, the way we call “old fashioned southern potato salad” Boiled potatoes, chopped boiled eggs , chopped onion, chopped DILL pickles, salt, pepper and DUKES (a southern thing) mayonaise. No celery, no sweet pickles, no mustard and no garlic. But thank you for sharing your recipe anyway. We all have different tastes in all things. If not the world would get very boring.
🙂
When I was young I had four children and a husband, I felt like I was cooking for an army.now not much cooking due to medical problems that keep me from cooking much.When I get a craving for homemade potato salad I buy frozen mashed potatoes then I add my mayo, mustard,onion powder, sea salt, black pepper, dill pickle relish and white vinegar all to taste.I use to peel and cube my potatoes, slice and dice onions but now with the pain from sickness keep’s me from doing it the old fashion way.God bless you all and your family.
I’m guessing you cook the potatoes in salted water, right? I lightly salt the water, and use less salt when mixing, at the end.
I think I’ll try this recipe tonight, using onions, the yogurt, (or maybe 1/2 and 1/2) and the relish, which I’ve never tried before. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, thanks!
I wanted to give you a tip, as well: I don’t cook the eggs separately, but lay the eggs on top of the potatoes and cook them in that water, once its started boiling. How long you leave them in depends of course, upon how cooked you like them, how big the eggs are, and how cold they were when you put them in. So, say 6 – 10 minutes, and then you save little there. Also, I strain lightly salted potato water into a container, and use it for various things, including bread making.
Made the potato salad this evening. Before it had set and chilled it was pretty tasty…used home grown eggs, Yukon potatoes, chopped home canned bread and butter pickles with a little juice, MW, little bit of onion, mustard, finely diced celery, a dash of salt and a shake of pepper.
My husband said the sample tasted like his Mom’s potato salad. She was a wonderful person and cook so that was quite a compliment.
We are now retired and have our own chickens and a little garden and we enjoy your site very much.
I make mine like yours but I also put some dill relish and finely chopped onions. I would say there’s very little difference between mine and yours!!
I did make it this morning, and just had a bowl now. The only changes I made were, no garlic powder. From the variations, I put 1/8 c. (a little nub that wanted using up) fine minced onion, and the chopped chives which were going crazy in the garden. I really like this recipe, as it reminds me of the potato salad of my youth, the one on every picnic table on 4th of July. Thanks a bunch!
This is how I make my potato salad too, got to have SWEET pickle relish! Sometimes I add just the sweet pickles and maybe some of the juice. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Found you on DIY Sunday Showcase!
I’m always on the lookout for different potato salad recipes, will definitely give this a try!
This is how I have been making potato salad all my life and the way my mom and grandma made it! It is delicious! Sometimes I use chopped onion instead of pickle relish by my family likes it better with the relish.
It’s potato salad time of the year NOW!
I made this yesterday (with a few tweeks with what I had) and it was fantastic. Thanks for giving me a template – I had never attempted potato salad before and this recipe was easy to follow. I’ll be linking to you as soon as I can write up a post…
This looks delicious! I’d love if you’d come link up at Tickle my Tastebuds!
Julia @ Mini Van Dreams
My mom always put radish in her potato salad.
Yum! The potato salad looks delicious! Thanks for sharing!
This looks amazing!! Found your recipe at Back to the Basics. I am one of the hostesses of Tickle My Tastebuds and would love you to stop by and link up this recipe if you have not yet already.
Lori
This looks so yummy and just like the one my mom makes! I’m going to have to try this asap! Pinned!
Looks awesome. Just in time for summer barbeques! 🙂 Thanks for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday.” Hope you can join us again this week.
I think this is what my grandma always makes! yum!
This potato salad looks delicious, I love it and can never get enough when the warm weather arrives. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
It is almost like mine except I add red onion. Has been a fav for years. Oh and red wine vinegar… maybe for your amount a TBS. love that salad.
I have been craving potato salad! Thanks for the motivation! Yummy!