Vlašský Salát – Potato Salad

Potato salad seems like a rather tradional dish. One you would find at any American BBQ or get together. I have made many different styles on potato salad in my lifetime, butha potato salad like the traditional Czech Vlašský Salát are hard to beat.

There are several recipes available for this dish online, but I have made a few Americanized tweaks to make it unbeatable. 

 

Ingredients

6 Medium Russet Potatoes

1/2 Cup Diced Dill Pickels

1 Cup Diced Raw Carrots

1 Cup Shelled Green Peas

1/2 Cup Diced Sweet Yellow Onions

1 1/2 Cup Sour Cream

1 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise

1/4 Cup Thousand Island Dressing

1 Cup Diced Ham or Baloney

3/4 cup Diced Hard Pepper Salami.

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to Taste

IMG_2757When doing the prep work for this salad, I would suggest cubing the potatoes in small pieces and dice your vegetables with the same consistency in size.

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The uniformity will help unify the flavor rather than one vegetable overpowering the other.

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Dice up your Onions, carrots and pickles. I have baby kosher dill pickles in my refrigerator, but any dill pickle will do.

IMG_2820As with any dish, using fresh ingredients will add to the flavor, but if you don’t have access to fresh ingredients, you can substitute fresh peas with frozen ones.  If you do use frozen peas, they don’t need to be brought to room temp prior to adding them into your salad.  The peas will further cool the salad and slowly defrost as the salad sets up.

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When prepping your meat, I would recommend using a food processor or blender it has a food processing attachment.  The smaller pieces will give you more bites with meat in them.

IMG_2897Now that everything is prepped for your salad, combine all the vegetables in a bowl prior to adding the wet ingredients.

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You can either make your own mayonnaise or use store bought.  The same goes with thousand island.  If you don’t have thousand island in your kitchen, you can substitute with extra mayo, ketchup, a teaspoon of sugar and white wine vinegar.  Your salad already has dill pickles and onions, so there is no need to add extra.  The main reason for adding the thousand island is the tart it brings to the dish.  If you are going to make your own thousand island, I would recommend combining the ketchup and mayonnaise  first prior to adding it to the salad, so the ketchup doesn’t stick to the potatoes.  IMG_2957Combine all or your wet ingredients in a separate bowl prior to adding to your vegetables.

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This also will also include your apple cider vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Once combined, stir all of your ingredients together to complete your salat.  If needed, add salt or pepper to taste.

 

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Enjoy!