You may think that a potato salad is not a Japanese recipe, buy apparently it’s a very common every day bento and side dish. I have never heard of the Japanese version of the potato salad until I read the last Haruki Murakami book (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage), where the main character orders a potato salad in a restaurant, arising my curiosity. As usual, I did a little research and finally went for (and slightly adapted) the recipe from Just One Cookbook, a Japanese recipe blog that is in my blogroll and I’ve already introduced in this post, along with the fabulous H. Murakami book.
I instantly liked this recipe because: I love potatoes in every possible way (I think I might be addict to starch) + it’s a fresh salad ideal for a summer meal + it can be both a side dish or a complete meal + it’s quite easy to prepare + it’s an ideal dish to take to friends and family gatherings and finally, unlike other kind of potato salads, is packed with veggies!
Let’s cook and dig in!
Japanese Potato Salad
- Servings: 2 as a main dish or 4/6 as a side dish
- Time: 40 minutes
- Difficulty: easy
Ingredients
- 2 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
- Salt to taste
- a dash of rice vinegar
- 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced
- 2 cucumbers, diced
- 1/2 cup maize/corn (I used tinned, you can also use frozen or fresh previously boiled)
- 2 boiled eggs, grated
- Mayonnaise to taste (home-made would be ideal, I used a bought good-quality and light)
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Preparation
Put the potato chunks in a cooking pot, cover with water, add salt, bring to a boil and cook around 15-20 minutes. Once the potatoes are cooked, strain them, put them into a bowl, mash them roughly, leaving some small chunks, season with vinegar, add salt if necessary and let it cool.
In the meantime blanche the spring onion and carrots with water and salt during 5 minutes in the microwave (I used 700 W power) and strain.
Continue by adding the onion, carrots, cucumbers, maize and eggs to the potatoes. Season with mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste. Mix and get ready to enjoy!
PS. The original recipe added ham to the mix; and I’m already thinking about including tuna or chicken roast left overs!
Filed under: Japanese Tagged: carrots, cheap and cheerful, clean eating, corn, cucumber, healthy food, high fiber, maize, potatoes, spring onion, vegetarian, whole food
