Grilled Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of the great American summer dishes, even if (or, maybe, especially because) it came from several different countries. It helps that there seems to be a potato salad for everyone’s taste–it doesn’t matter whether you prefer mayonnaise, mustard, or vinegar as the basis for the dressing, it doesn’t matter whether you prefer to serve it hot or cold. The most common version, however, seems to be made with mayo and hard-boiled eggs.

My favorite, until fairly recently, had always been my mom’s. (Big surprise!) Boiled potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, bread and butter pickles, onions, mayo, celery seed, maybe celery, maybe some mustard–I don’t know, since the recipe just happened to get left out of the family cookbook. Chris and I have occasionally made do with store-bought, but that always runs the risk of being too goopy.

Recently we found a really good recipe, but one with a slight drawback–it calls for Yukon Gold potatoes and red onions, neither of which we typically have on hand. The big advantage is that the cooked ingredients are prepared on the grill, which means that if you’re going to have the grill going for burgers or brats or steaks, you can whip up potato salad without having to turn on the stove too. A few changes to ingredients and preparation makes the recipe faster and simpler, but no less delicious–when the still-warm potatoes and onions are tossed with the dressing and celery, the salad becomes incredibly fragrant and even more appealing.

Grilled Potato Salad Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Author: Steve

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 pounds russet potatoes scrubbed but not peeled
• 2 medium yellow onions
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 stalks celery finely chopped
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat the grill.
• Mix the mayonnaise, parsley, vinegar, garlic, and mustard is a small bowl and refrigerate.
• Cut the potatoes and onions into 1/2 inch slices and drizzle with olive oil.
• Put the potatoes on the grill over direct medium heat. After 2-3 minutes, add the onions.
• After about 6 minutes, turn the potatoes and onions. (Move the potatoes at the front of the grill to the back and vice versa, so that they'll all cook somehwat more evenly.)
• After about 6 more minutes, remove the onions from the grill. Let the potatoes cook for 2-3 minutes more, then remove them from the grill.
• Roughly chop the potatoes and onions and put in a large bowl.
• Add the dressing and celery and toss well to coat the potatoes.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Best served warm, but it works at room temperature as well.