No-Peel Buttermilk Potato Salad

A recipe for potato salad with cool and creamy buttermilk and fresh herbs with pops of flavor and texture from stone-ground mustard and finely diced red onion.

So, I was wasting my life away looking at Pinterest one night and came across a potato salad recipe from Ina Garten that really appealed to me.

Two things jumped out at me – one, she used tender little baby potatoes and didn’t peel them and two, she used buttermilk in the recipe.

I wish I could tell you I was one of those super cool people who boil the whole potatoes before peeling them when making mashed potatoes and potato salad but I just never quite mastered that skill. Or I should say, I never had the patience for it.

The idea behind leaving the peel on potatoes while boiling them is that it makes the finished dish tastes better because:

1. The potatoes absorb less water therefor leaving more room for them to soak up the flavors of the other ingredients in your recipe.
2. The peel gives the potatoes a ton of their flavor (some even make the argument that if you must peel them before boiling, add the peels to the water in a cheesecloth pouch while the potatoes cook).
3. Less water helps to avoid gluey, watery, sticky potatoes because the peels preserve the structure of the starch.

The peel on baby potatoes is much thinner and more tender than full-size potatoes which makes them perfect for a no-peel recipe! By using the tiny little potatoes in this potato salad, I don’t have to peel them (before or after cooking) so I get all the benefits of the three points above.

Girl, yasss!

Using the buttermilk jumped out at me because it gave me a way to make potato salad in a similar way as my favorite macaroni salad. The secret to my macaroni salad is to “marinate” the noodles in seasonings, residual water and a little dijon mustard before adding the mayo. The pasta soaks up all those flavors like a sponge and the macaroni tastes divine!
Read more here »