In the Czech Republic, potato salad is traditionally served on Christmas Eve alongside fried carp, rope sausage and pork chops. Besides of potatoes, it consists of hard-boiled eggs, peas and carrots, pickles and often cold cut meat. We use a soft-textured salami called “gothaj,” which resembles bologna or hot dogs, or even mortadella. In different parts of the country, people add other ingredients. My father leaves out onions. My mother substitutes half of the mayonnaise for plain yogurt to lighten it up, which saves some calories and adds a bit of tartness. Grandma used to add an apple and pickled celery root. This recipe from Epicurious suggests subtle substitutions but comes pretty close to my family’s recipe. You can omit or substitute any ingredients and make the salad your own.
Czech potato salad tastes the best when made the night before Christmas Eve to allow the flavors to come together overnight. Take it out of the refrigerator (or the attic like we do with our bucket of salad that does not fit in the fridge) 30 minutes to an hour before serving. Leftovers will last in the fridge for up to 5 days, although that NEVER happens in our household. In fact, I sometimes end up making another batch before New Year’s Eve. I often make this salad for Easter, too because it’s too long a wait until Christmas.
Czech potato salad
Ingredients
- 4 large potatoes
- 1/4 lb meat such as bologna or mortadella, or 4 hot dogs
- 4 eggs hard-boiled
- 2 large pickles
- 1 can peas and carrots
- 1 small onion
- 1/4 c yellow mustard
- 1/2 c mayonnaise or 1/4 c mayo and 1/4 c yogurt
- Pickle juice
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Boil the potatoes. When cool enough to handle, peel them, cut into small dice and put into a large bowl.
- Dice the meat, eggs, onion and pickles.
- Add the meat, onion, pickles and peas and carrots to the potatoes and mix well. Add the mustard, mayonnaise (or mayo combined with yogurt) and some pickle juice. Season with salt and pepper. Mix everything together. Add the eggs last so they don’t get too mushy. Taste the salad and add more salt, pepper, mustard and pickle juice to your liking.
Video
Notes
If you can find the cutter that I use buy it. I had my mother mail one to me as I have never seen it in the U.S. but that does not mean it is not available. It is quite handy for cutting potatoes and eggs for salads.