Japanese Potato Salad Recipe
This is an easy recipe that teaches you how to make a potato salad in Japanese style. Potatoes weren’t a usual part of the traditional Japanese cuisine but nowadays, potato salad has become a daily fixture to Japanese meals. This particular type of potato salad is made with Japanese Mayo, no vinegar and no pickles. The Japanese mayo comes from apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar, contains more eggs than the western-style mayo and a small amount of MSG. It is much thicker in texture and richer in taste given that it contains a high ratio of eggs, so it’s also tastier. This potato salad is less acidic compared to the usual type that’s added with commercially made mayo and vinegar. It’s also a healthy salad since apple cider vinegar, one of the main components of Japanese mayo, contains all the nutritional goodness of apples plus extra acids and enzymes that offers amazing health benefits. Truly, this recipe is worth your time and energy. Now, here’s how to make it.
Ingredients
- 3 medium boiling potatoes, such as Yukon gold
- 1 small carrot
- 1 large egg
- 1 small onion
- 4 inches of a seedless cucumber
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Fresh ground pepper, to taste
- ¾-1 cup mayonnaise, see note below (165 g-220 g)
Instructions
- In a pot filled with enough water, cover and 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.
- While boiling those 3 ingredients, slice the cucumber and the onion very thinly. Sprinkle both with a little salt, and set aside for 10 minutes or more until the vegetables expel their juices. Squeeze firmly to get rid of the juices.
- When potatoes and carrots are done, drain and peel them while still hot, using a kitchen towel to hold them while peeling helps.
- Crush the potatoes and shred the carrot. Mix in a little salt and pepper and set aside to cool.
- Peel the hardboiled egg and finely chop it.
- When potatoes-carrot mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in cucumber, onion and egg. Add the mayonnaise.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time or for an hour
- Serve cold and enjoy!
Notes
The ideal mayonnaise to use is a Japanese mayo. It’s also best 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.) If you lack the access to Japanese mayonnaise or don’t have the time to make your own, any commercial mayo will do as long as it's not too heavy on the vinegar flavor. However, Salad cream such as Miracle Whip should not be used.
