German potato salad with bacon and cucumber
45 min · 7 g protein · 199 cals / serving
Southern Germany's warm potato salad: waxy potatoes sliced while hot and soaked in a tangy dressing of stock, vinegar, mustard and soft onion until they turn silky and glossy, then tossed with crisp bacon, cool, thinly sliced cucumber and a handful of chives. No mayonnaise anywhere, just sharp, savoury and moreish.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 lb red potatoes, waxy, similar size
- 3 thick-cut slices, cooked crisp bacon
Dressing
- 1 tsp canola oil
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 cup beef broth, or chicken stock
- 3 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, medium-hot German or Dijon
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 1 large cucumber, very thinly sliced
- a bunch fresh chives, snipped
Steps
- Boil the potatoes in their skins in salted water for 18–22 minutes, until a knife slides in easily. Drain, and as soon as you can handle them, peel and slice them about 1/4 inch thick into a large bowl.
- While the potatoes cook, fry the bacon in a dry frying pan until crisp, drain on paper and crumble. Pour off the bacon fat and wipe the pan with kitchen paper.
- Heat 1 tsp of the oil in the pan and soften the onion over medium heat for 3–4 minutes, then add the stock, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
- Pour the hot dressing over the warm potato slices, add the remaining 2 tsp oil and turn gently. Leave 20–30 minutes, turning once or twice, so the potatoes drink up the dressing and turn creamy and glossy.
- Just before serving, fold in the cucumber, most of the bacon and the chives. Taste for salt and vinegar, scatter the rest of the bacon on top, and serve warm or at room temperature.
Good to know
Why does it need to sit?
Warm potato slices soak up the hot dressing, and some of their starch thickens it into a light, creamy coating. That is the whole trick of a Swabian potato salad; serve it straight away and it tastes of vinegar on potatoes.
Which potatoes?
Waxy ones: red potatoes, fingerlings or any 'salad potato'. Floury potatoes fall apart when they absorb the dressing.
Make it vegetarian
Leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock; the onion is already softened in oil. It comes out a little lighter, at about 72 instead of 68. A few sliced radishes add the crunch back.
Per
- Calories
- 71
- Protein
- (14%)
- 2 g
- Fat
- (24%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (62%)
- 11 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 214 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1192 kcal goes into the pot and 1802 g of ingredients comes out as about 1690 g of food: 71 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.