Summer Salads, Part 5

 

I have told you (and quite recently) that I can never get enough of potato salad. Old favorites, new favorites, bring 'em on! This might just be one of the best potato salad recipes EVER.

We changed a few things from the original recipe, so I am going to type the recipe as we prepared it and then you can check the original recipe in the link provided below.

Roasted Potato Salad with Balsamic-Bacon Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

5 lbs. baby red potatoes, cut in half or quartered
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil, plus an additional 1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup minced garlic
1 tablespoon seafood seasoning (we used Old Bay Seasoning)
8 ounces bacon
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 bunch Italian parsley, minced
6 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Toss halved potatoes with 1/4-1/2 cup olive oil (as needed, to coat potatoes), 1/2 cup garlic, and seafood seasoning. Place in a single layer onto baking sheets and bake in preheated oven until tender and golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly browned and crispy. Pour off bacon grease. Allow the bacon slices to cool, then crumble and set aside.

Whisk together balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Pour in the oil in a slow, steady stream while whisking vigorously to make a vinaigrette (start with 1/4 cup). Toss the roasted potatoes together with the vinaigrette. Add in additional 1/4 cup olive oil, if needed. Fold in red onion, parsley, and eggs. Allow to stand at room temperature 20 minutes before serving.

Source: Allrecipes.com, submitted by beautiful, but adapted by our family. You can find it here.

Notes: No lies, this potato salad is a lot of work, but holy cow, it is totally worth it. This is one of the best potato salad recipes I have ever had. If you are looking for a mayonnaise-free potato salad, this is it.

Here are the changes we made: We used 5 lbs. baby red potatoes instead of 3 lbs. We used 1 1/2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning instead of only 1 tablespoon. I also increased the bacon slightly from the 8 ounces called for in the recipe. The original recipe calls for one whole cup of garlic! Instead, we used 1/2 cup of garlic while roasting the potatoes and omitted the other 1/2 cup of garlic that the original recipe added in when tossing the potato salad. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of olive oil when roasting the potatoes and another 1/2 cup of olive oil when tossing the potato salad (1 cup total). As you can tell by the original ingredients, this potato salad is more of a main course! I tossed my potatoes in 1/4 cup olive oil before roasting and then made the vinaigrette with 1/4 cup olive oil. After tossing the potato salad, it needed a little more olive oil to coat it, but not a whole 1/2 cup (at least, in my opinion). The original recipe also called for reserving the bacon grease and tossing that in the vinaigrette at the end. I felt that the potato salad didn't need that extra fat, and the bacon grease wasn't needed to add any flavor, especially since I increased the bacon called for in the recipe. I probably used a little less than a full bunch of parsley too. Finally, I used 6 hard boiled eggs instead of 5 (as called for in the original recipe). The real trick for this recipe is that rather than buying simple sliced bacon, you buy bacon ends and pieces, chop it up, cook it, and then toss that in the salad.

We have had this salad with halved potatoes and quartered potatoes. I personally prefer quartering the potatoes (even though it looks prettier halved) because it goes farther and I feel like I don't overeat the salad quite as much this way. Though, let's be honest, it's hard not to overeat this salad.

There you have it. This stuff is awesome. You seriously have to try it.