Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Almost Fat-Free Yogurt-Based Potato Salad Gets Mixed Reviews

I don't remember if I've told you this before or not, but potato salad is the first food I can remember eating. Since it was my first culinary memory I am very particular about how I like my potato salad made. Basically, there's my mom's recipe - which is perfect - and every other version.

So while I usually don't stray from what I consider "real" potato salad, once in a while I will mix it up and try something new. One variation I like is
potato salad made with a sour cream dressing, which was the inspiration for this yogurt-based green onion potato salad.

There are many recipes that use non-fat plain yogurt in place of sour cream. The tangy taste and texture are similar, and while the missing fat content is clearly noticeable, in many cases it does work, especially for things like cold sauces and dressings.
In this case I will call the results mixed. I thought it was a perfectly decent potato salad when I first served it, room temperature, with some grilled chicken. However, the next day, after it was refrigerated over night, I felt the yogurt flavor had taken over and I didn't enjoy it as much.

Michele, on the other hand, enjoyed it room temp and cold, and thought it was a very good side dish considering the very low fat content. This is one of those recipes I'll be anxious to hear your opinions on. Enjoy!



2 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch green onions, divided
3 cloves minced garlic
2 lbs red potatoes
salt, cayenne, freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp mustard


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29 comments:

Susanna said...

I'd rather eat a little bit of full-fat any food than a lot of non-fat imitation. Life is too short to compromise on flavor.

Chef John said...

I normally agree, but non-fat yogurt isn't imitation food like non-fat mayo/cheese etc. is.

Yubi Shines said...

I may have to try this; I love potato salad but the mayo tends to make me feel ill. It doesn't have anything to do with thinking about the fat content, it's just the taste or texture or something.

There's non-fat cheese? How does THAT work?
Is the answer "it doesn't"?

Chef John said...

it doesn't

redforever said...

So how does your Mom make potato salad? Care to share her recipe?

Chef John said...

I may, but she uses ingredients you can't buy.

Anonymous said...

ingredients like love? just kidding. i bet your mom's recipe must be wonderfull :)

milkshake said...

Mayo can make the gall bladder upset. Its is the combination of uncooked whole eggs (including egg whites)and soybean oil that goes rancid as the whipped stuff sits on the supermarket shelf. I would encourage this reader to try to make his own mayo afresh, with egg yolks only, with a good light oil - its pretty easy and the flavor is so much better.

Yogurt-based potato salads: My complaint is that they don't store well because yogurts tend to separate whey and so they turn runny over time. And they do become more sour overnight because they contain a live culture that keeps fermenting the potato carbohydrates into lactic acid - so the best really is to finish them soon (The way to prevent this acidification would be to heat up the yogurt to kill the lactobacteria). Greeks make excellent yogurt salad dishes but they use a thick strained yogurt that does not separate that easily. The best common brand is Fage and they have excellent 2% low-fat version of it too. (Cabot and Stonyfield "Greek" yogurts are awful)

Jesse from Detroit said...

Why do you salt the water when boiling potatoes?

Anonymous said...

In Denmark we have a tradition of using mayo and cremefraiche in a mixture - almost 50/50. I guess the taste of mayo is too overwhelming. We tend to use many different dairyproducts, as it's an important part of our "nordic kitchen". One of the top restaurants in the world (NOMA - cph) use "milk-skin" in their dishes, but that is the playground in the form of molecular gastronomy :)

Chef John said...

to season the potatoes

CollegeGourmet said...

I'd probably use full-fat Greek yogurt. It's still lower fat than using mayo, but not too low in fat. I'll probably try it both ways eventually lol...
Mmmmm... Potato Salad.

Anonymous said...

About how long does it take to boil those potatoes?

Chef John said...

didnt time, but about 25 min, maybe

Michael said...

I just made this for the in-laws along with corn on the cob and hamburgers on the grill. It was a HIT!! I may have put a hint too much cayenne in there, but honestly, this was freaking delicious. I don't know what it's like on day 2 because it's all gone!! :)

Thanks for the great recipe. Only downside is peeling all of the potatoes is a chore.

Chef John said...

cool, leave the skin on next time!

Grams Pam said...

There are so many sweets during the Holiday Season, so I took this as my "dish" for the potluck at work. It was a big success, with no left overs for me to bring home (darn it!)

I almost always use a mayo/yoghurt mixture. However, I strain it to get the thicker Greek-style consistency. HINT: don't mess with cheese-cloth, use plain white hankies from the Dollar Store, they have a finer weave and they're reuseable.

Thanks again Chef John ... never fails that I can find something "just right" from your site. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
---Pam
(lovin' my freakishly small wooden spoon and the SFQ is to die for!)

Chef John said...

thanks!!! you too!

Tina Quintero Marrone said...

Thanks for this!!! It is great potato salad! Here in Germany we eat a lot of potato salad but not as nice as this one! We love it!
There are some friends of mine in the world using your site for coocking and we all enjoy it :-))))

Anonymous said...

I always use fat free Greek yogurt in mayo or cream-based recipes - either as a substitute or as a flavor addition. I often whip in a few tablespoons of low fat cream cheese, which has that almost-but-not-quite sweet flavor that cuts the tang of the yogurt. It also gives it a more luxurious texture (whether hot or cold) without adding much fat.

Miranda said...

Why is the video not working?? I wanna know how it's made! yum yum....I'm hungry

Phil said...

i stirred in some bacon (pancetta...)

Mark D. Khoury said...

My family thoroughly enjoyed it, 2 days in a row.
We used Greek yoghurt. :-)
You could add almost anything meaty to it for an added yum!

cookinmom said...

Sorry...had to add a little sour cream and mayo. Yeah, I cheated! Very, very good for such simple ingrediences!

Unknown said...

You forgot to put mustard in the ingredients!

Recipe looks good, as usual.

Unknown said...

Wheres the videooo?

Unknown said...

Hey chef John, my boyfriend and I are HUGE fans and this is one of our favourite recipes! Thank you so much, you are such an inspiration!

Unknown said...

Add some dill, and celery. Soooooo good!

Sally said...

Chef, I just watched an Allrecipe's video on YT where they made a potato salad using a subscriber's recipe. (I believe it was called World's Best - or something like that.) It was so very strange and it garnered some of the most vehement comments! It used a dressing of raw eggs (well, they were briefly "saute-ed"), 1/2 cup of sugar, a can of condensed milk (!) and...other stuff...with a very small portion of mayo. Some commenters said that their mothers (grandmothers) had used this to stretch mayo during hard times. I was wondering what your take on this might be. I also put a little milk in mine to make the dressing more "wet", but a can of condensed milk?! Oh, and I, too, would like to see your mom's version of potato salad. Thanks!