Curried Potato Salad

The Curried Potato Salad is a variation on the Classic Potato Salad, where curry powder and other additions are made, giving the salad added flavour. Besides potatoes, the salad calls for salt, mayonnaise, yoghurt, onion, mustard, curry powder, red bell pepper, carrot, peas, and parsley. With potato as the star, this salad is filling and the curry powder adds a kick of flavour, especially familiar to Indian palettes.

The rich and creamy Potato Salad has today become an American staple at picnics, holidays, barbecues, and cookouts. The dish seems to have originated in the 16th century, introduced to the New World through Spanish travellers. Potatoes were boiled in wine or a vinegar and spice mixture.

The more Americanised version is believed to have originated from German cuisine and introduced through European settlers. The ‘German Potato Salad’ was a hot dish, which included bacon, onion, and a vinegar dressing. Culinary historians believe that German immigrants had a special taste for sweet and spicy items like vinegar, sugar, and mustard, and are considered responsible for introducing the oil, vinegar, and herbs dressing for potatoes, popular at the time.

There's some confusion about who first added mayonnaise to the salad. Bottled, commercial mayonnaise was available from the 1900s and about 20-to-30 years later, mayonnaise-based salads started becoming popular. Early 20th century potato salads reflect these shifts, with recipes usually calling for cooked potatoes and celery, with a herbs seasoning, all packed in a creamy mayonnaise. The present day Potato Salad isn't much different from this. Today, it’s one of those popular dishes that every family has their own recipe for, with their own special ingredients.

It’s this experimentation and open mindedness about the dish that have also resulted in the Curried Potato Salad, among other variations.