Make Ahead
by: Marian Bull
October4,2022
4.5
2 Ratings
- Serves 4
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
This is a good way to use up a jar of leftover pickle brine. Better pickles will yield a more flavorful salad; spring for the fancy stuff with lots of pickling spices hanging out at the bottom. You can make your dressing looser by increasing the amount of pickle brine. If your brine isn't very flavorful, add ground coriander or other spices to the dressing. —Marian Bull
- Test Kitchen-Approved
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- 3 poundssmall potatoes, halved or quartered
- 1 jar leftover pickle brine, strained and divided
- 2 tablespoonsminced shallot
- 2 to 3 tablespoonsmayonnaise
- 1 teaspooncelery salt
- 2 tablespoonschopped dill
- 1 teaspoonground coriander (optional)
- Freshly ground black pepper and coarse or flaky salt, to taste
Directions
- Set aside 1/2 cup of pickle brine. Strain the rest into a large pot, add enough water to boil your potatoes, and salt it well. Bring it to a boil, then add your potatoes. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes; your potatoes are ready when you can easily pierce them with a fork. Just be sure they don't turn to mush.
- Strain your water and immediately toss your potatoes with 1/4 cup pickle brine and the shallot. Set aside to cool.
- Mix your dressing: combine mayonnaise, 1/4 cup pickle brine, celery salt, dill, salt, and pepper. Taste; add more salt and pepper if necessary, and toss in some coriander if you'd like. Once your potatoes have cooled, toss to combine. You're welcome to serve immediately, but the flavor after a night in the fridge is exponentially better.
Tags:
- Salad
- Potato Salad
- Potato
- Celery
- Coriander
- Dill
- Mayonnaise
- Shallot
- Pickle
- Make Ahead
- Spring
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14 Reviews
Lynn July 15, 2016
Anyone know how much is "1 jar" of leftover pickle brine? The big jars or the little ones? And is that a full jar of brine, or just what's left in the jar when all the pickles are gone? I'm just not sure how much brine needs to be in the boiling water.
Eileen July 15, 2016
What a GREAT idea to add the pickle brine to the cooking water. I always use lots of dill pickle in potato salad and sometimes use pickle brine (instead of vinegar) to thin the mayo-based dressing, but had not thought about the cooking water.
maribe July 9, 2014
I finally got around to trying this potato salad. I'm wondering if the recipe is written incorrectly. After boiling the potatoes you drain them, then add a small amount of pickle brine and shallots and allow them to cool. Then you mix in a rather thin dressing and that becomes even thinner when mixed with the brine in which the potatoes have sitting. Should that be drained before adding the dressing?
Marian B. July 10, 2014
yes, sometimes you'll need to drain, but the potatoes also absorb the vinegar when they're hot!
maribe July 10, 2014
Thanks Marian! The salad was delicious, it was sort of refreshing to get that much flavor without the heaviness of the mayo in a typical American potato salad. Will definitely be making again, great recipe!
Marian B. July 10, 2014
so happy to hear it! hooray.
marymary May 22, 2014
Looking forward to trying this, but instead of celery salt, I suggest celery seed. I add it to a lot of dishes. Love it.
Bonny L. May 19, 2014
Your recipe sounds good, but you never add potatoes to boiling water. You should always cover them with cold water, and then bring to a boil.
aimeebama April 23, 2014
Very tasty. We did not add all the salt called for due to the saltiness of the pickle juice. We found the dressing a bit thin. It sort of pooled at the bottom so it didn't look like a totally classic potato salad, but the taste was great.
Leslie B. February 17, 2014
i made a loose interpretation of this tonight. i added some diced celery and chopped pickles and then tossed everything with the warm potatoes and put it over some beautiful lettuce and topped it with some chopped hard-boiled egg. very tasty indeed.
Leslie B. February 17, 2014
oh! pickle juice already has a ton of salt. i can't imagine adding a whole teaspoon of celery salt as well. i didn't add any.
Nancy H. August 12, 2022
The extra salt in the boiling water/brine is kind of like boiling pasta in salted water.
It’s needed to properly season the potatoes, and it gets drained off after boiling.
TheWimpyVegetarian August 28, 2013
Making this tomorrow! It looks delish!
jeanrhude August 22, 2013
Pickle juice in my taco meat, chicken or fish, also yummy. I always put some of the greek olive juice in my greek salad dressing. Good stuff.
