Potato Salad with Pickled Beets

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: December 17, 2022

Summer time means picnics and picnics mean potato salad! Well, at least to me they do. I love potato salad, but it has to be homemade. The store bought ones are either too salty or have too much mayonnaise. My potato salad has to be just right. This is the one that my sister-in-law makes and so far it is my favorite. She uses pickled beets to add flavor. The pickled beets give it a sweet, but tangy flavor.

The ingredients are pretty basic. Nothing fancy here. I used red potatoes, but you can use any potato you like. I have made it before with chopped onions as well, but no everyone likes raw onions in their salad, so I stick to the basic recipe. Usually I just throw everything together and wing it, but this time I measured the ingredients out so you can follow along. Just remember not to go too crazy on the salt and pepper. Even though the salad may not have it’s full flavor right after you make it, once you put it in the fridge and let it sit, the flavors will really pop. You can always add more salt or pepper later.

I chop my potatoes before boiling them because they retain there shape better. I don’t like a mushy potato salad. Yes, I am really picky about my potato salad.

I really like the taste of pickled beets. I just eat them straight out of the jar. There are a little messy, but worth the flavor.

Really, all you are doing is putting everything in a bowl and mixing. Simple and fast. You will need to refrigerate this for at least an hour to get all the flavors to come together. Overnight is even better.

I was only making a small batch for myself, so I used an 8″ x 8″ Pyrex dish. If you are going to make this for a crowd, then double the recipe and use a 9″ x 13″ dish.

I like how the pickled beet juice gives the salad a pink color and added tangy flavor. You can top it with some fresh parsley or chives. I can’t get enough of this salad. I usually eat more than one serving. I try to use light mayonnaise so I don’t feel so guilty.

Potato Salad with Pickled Beets

by The Sweet Chick

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Keywords: no bake salad side potatoes pickled beets peas and carrots hard boiled eggs July 4th American summer

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

3 cups cubed potatoes, cooked and cooled
3 hard boiled eggs. cooled and chopped
3/4 cups canned peas and carrots, drained
3/4 cups chopped pickled beets, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon pickled beet juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

In a large bowl add potatoes, eggs, carrots, peas, and pickled beets.

Add mayonnaise and mix well.

Then add beet juice, salt and pepper and mix until fully incorporated.

Next transfer mixture to an 8 ” x 8″ dish , cover and place in fridge.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour prior to serving or overnight.

Top with chopped fresh parsley or chives if desired and serve as a side to your favorite summer dish!

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Bacon Fat Gingersnaps

Baked Dessert

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

We’re going back to California tomorrow (or today rather, as I write these posts the night before) for the holidays and we’ll be gone an entire two-and-a-half weeks! There’s still so much to do, so I’m keeping this post short. And then I must return to packing and meeting last-minute work deadlines and cleaning out the fridge (urgh).

After that, I foresee freeeeedom and warm-ish weather and long drives down the 1. We’re putting up the tree with my family, seeing friends, and hitting up all our old haunts. One of these days, I will write a long ode to California, but for now, I’m leaving you with a recipe for bacon fat gingersnaps.

I’m guessing you can tell why these cookies are special. Yup! They’re made with bacon fat. While the idea is that you’ve been collecting bacon drippings all along, saving it in a little bowl so you can re-use it for other recipes (something I vividly remember my mom doing when I was younger), I had to go out and buy a pound-and-a-half of bacon especially for this recipe, and then spent the better part of an hour frying it up. Later that night, and for days after, we reheated the strips and used them for sandwiches and omelettes and other such delights. These foods all benefit from bacon, I’m sure you would agree, so it wasn’t too much trouble for me.

The cookies themselves taste smoky and exotic, hardly like bacon, although you can tell there’s something in there that contributes an inexplicable… savoriness? Huskiness? I’m definitely not a slap-bacon-on-it-and-call-it-a-day kind of gal, by the way. But I do like my ginger-flavored sweets, and I love the softness of these cookies. (which begs the question: are they technically gingersnaps then? Aren’t gingersnaps supposed to be, I dunno, snappy?)

I also love the origin of this recipe, which comes from Cathy Horyn, the renowned New York Times FASHION editor who got the recipe from her mother. Yes! So I suppose this recipe is an old-new take on a classic gingersnap recipe that is perfect for the holidays.

BACON FAT GINGERSNAPS

Adapted from Leite’s Culinaria

Makes 3 dozen or so

Ingredients:

3/4 cup bacon drippings (from 1 1/2 to 2 pounds bacon), at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for the work surface
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap) or cane syrup
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together until a smooth, stiff dough forms. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a few hours and up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking with parchment paper. In a small bowl, pour about 1/4 cup sugar. Break off 1-Tbsp chunks of the cookie dough and roll them into balls. Then roll them around in the sugar to coat and place them on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies 10 to 12 minutes, until dark brown. Let cool.