Why crispy smashed potato salad .. ok hear me out
Life is too short to make boring salads. That is my philosophy for making this recipe at least twice a week.
In my cooking world mediocre salads are simply not acceptable. And to be fair I think as vegans we eventually get super creative with our salad game and end up making a full meal out of it.
Crispy smashed potato salad is something that I make for people I love. I have never met anyone who wouldn’t like this and they usually end up ask for the recipe, so I am here to share it with you too.
This salad is very easy to make, however, you need to be a bit patient with the potatoes and get them very crispy. I don’t like to have it with soft potatoes, you could, but I would choose the crunchy version any day.
By the way, for this recipe you can use vegan mayo or any unsweetened and unflavored vegan yogurt that you like, I usually use soy yogurt, but use whatever you prefer. Mayo can make the salad feel heavier, and that’s why I usually use yogurt, but the choice is yours.
Ingredients:
- 8-10 medium size baby potatoes (around 1kg) scrub it well, we won’t peel it, no we won’t
- 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
For the salad:
- 7-8 cucumbers (chopped)
- 1 cup vegan yogurt (unflavored and unsweetened)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 or 2 shallots (I used an onion because I didn’t have shallots)
- Pickled cucumbers 5-6 medium sized
- 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions on how to make crispy mashed potato salad
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the baby potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain and let them cool slightly. Because we will smash them with a glass so they become flat.
Season the flat potatoes with salt and sweet paprika and some extra virgin olive oil. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the potatoes for about 40-45 minutes until they get nice and crispy.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the vegan unflavored yogurt or vegan mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. You can also add fresh lemon or vinegar but since we have pickled cucumbers for me that is enough and I wouldn’t add any other sour flavor.
3. Now it is time for some chopping, finely chop the parsley and dill, and by the way don’t forget to throughly wash and dry them. Chop the pickled cucumbers into small pieces and diagonally cut the shallots or onions.
We also need the cucumber to be diced into slightly bigger pieces, bigger than the pickled cucumbers. If the cucumbers are small I wouldn’t peel them, dice it with the skin.
4. Mix the ingredients well together and fold the dressing into the mashed potatoes until well coated. You can cover the salad and let it sit in the fridge so the flavors would meld and the mix in the crispy potatoes last minute. But usually that step never happens for me, I skip it and eat it straightway because it is too hard to resist.
But please remember to add the crispy potatoes before serving, we don’t want to have soggy potatoes in the salad. The contrast between crispy and creamy is just simply divine.
I hope you enjoy this delicious vegan salad with your loved ones x