Southern-ish Potato Salad by Nicole Taylor

The greatest failure when making potato salad is overcooking the spuds—creamy mashed potatoes is a no-go for any potato salad recipe.

This is one of two featured recipes by this week’s guest, Nicole Taylor, from her cookbook Watermelon & Red Birds. Paid subscribers can also enjoy Nicole’s recipe for a Sweet Potato Spritz. You can also hear our conversation with Nicole here.

Photo by Beatriz da Costa

Excerpted from Watermelon and Red Birds by Nicole A. Taylor:

The greatest failure when making potato salad is overcooking the spuds—creamy mashed potatoes is a no-go foy potato salad recipe. You want a waxy variety like fingerlings, Yukon Golds, or red potatoes; these varieties will keep their shape and texture when cooked right. Bobby Seale, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, said it well in his 1988 cookbook Barbeque’n with Bobby, where he wrote under a recipe titled “Hunky Crunchy Potato Salad” that his mother’s potato salad was a “tasty quasi-mashed potato salad.” My pro tip is to season the potatoes while they are warm. Begin your training to be a queen.

Serves 6 to 8