Side dishes · Potato sides

Classic potato salad

Name: Classic potato salad
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 900 g gold potatoes, in 2 cm (¾-inch) chunks; 2 eggs egg, hard-boiled, chopped; 2 stalks celery, finely diced; 1/2 small red onions, finely diced; 4 small reduced sodium dill pickles, chopped; 2/3 cup mayonnaise; 1 tbsp yellow mustard; 1 tbsp white vinegar; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper; to dust paprika

The mayonnaise one, with mustard, celery, pickles and egg — the most-searched Fourth of July dish in ten states. Potatoes top the satiety index; the dressing is where the calories live, and the tuner shows exactly how far you want to take that trade.

Time: 40 min (20 prep + 20 cook)
Servings: 8
Per serving: 246 kcal
Protein: 4 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

900 g gold potatoes, in 2 cm (¾-inch) chunks900 g
2 eggs egg, hard-boiled, chopped100 g
2 stalks celery, finely diced100 g
1/2 small red onions, finely diced60 g
4 small reduced sodium dill pickles, chopped80 g

Dressing

2/3 cup mayonnaise160 g
1 tbsp yellow mustard15 g
1 tbsp white vinegar15 g
1 tsp salt5 g
1 tsp black pepper2 g
to dust paprika1 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Boil the potatoes in well-salted water until just tender, 10–12 minutes. Drain and — the important part — splash the vinegar over them while they're hot, so it soaks in instead of sliding off.
Let them cool to warm. Dressing a hot potato melts the mayo into grease; dressing a cold one leaves it sitting on the surface.
Stir the mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper together, then fold through the potatoes with the egg, celery, onion and pickles.
Chill at least an hour — it genuinely improves overnight — and dust with paprika before serving.

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

7% of kcal

77% water

10 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1970 kcal goes into the pot, 1438 g of ingredients comes out as ~1430 g of food → 138 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 138
Protein: (7%); 2 g
Fat: (61%); 9 g
Carbohydrates: (32%); 11 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 237 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.