Salt and vinegar potato salad is fun riff on chips
If you love the puckery flavor of salt-and-vinegar potato chips as much as I do, this salad is for you. In it, boiled new potatoes are cut into bitesize pieces, then doused in white wine vinegar while they are still warm, so the acid can infuse them optimally. That covers the vinegar side of the flavor duo — the salinity comes not only from the salt itself but also from dill pickle, which also brings a measure of tangy acidity.
You might be wondering how a recipe featuring salt and potatoes could possibly be good for you, so let me explain. For one, potatoes are more inherently healthful than you probably realize. They are an excellent source of fiber, vitamin C and potassium, plus they have vitamin B6 and minerals, such as iron and calcium. Keeping their skins on, as in this recipe, retains about half the potatoes’ fiber.
A big reason potatoes get a bad rap is because they can cause spikes in blood sugar, but this recipe helps keep that in check two ways. First, the vinegar adds enlivening flavor, and it helps reduce the glycemic impact of starches (in potatoes and other foods) by slowing their absorption. Second, while you can enjoy this salad warm or chilled, when refrigerated, some of the starch in potatoes (and in other foods, such as rice and pasta) turns to a type called resistant starch, which is “resistant” to digestion, so it has a lower blood sugar impact and actually becomes food for healthy gut bacteria. As for the salt, there is enough in the recipe to wake up the other flavors and justify the recipe’s name, but it’s still a modest amount as potato salads go.
But don’t just make this salad because it’s healthful. Make it because it is so darn delicious.