Take the usual St. Patrick’s Day fare and serve it up with a new twist. Toss corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes together with a few other ingredients and a homemade dressing and you have a potato salad good enough to catch a leprechaun. Every now and then, while searching for a recipe, I come across two similar recipes and can’t decide which one to try. This recently happened with two corned beef potato salad recipes, so I decided to do a head-to-head taste test. The recipes are much the same, but with a few interesting differences. One recipe uses horseradish and mustard for kick and the other recipe gets additional flavor boosts from celery and mustard seeds. One recipe uses sauerkraut and the other uses freshly shredded cabbage. Subtle, but distinct differences. I liked them both. I say po-tay-to and you say po-tah-to. You choose.
Dublin Potato Salad (Top Photo)
Taste of Home
INGREDIENTS
3 large white potatoes (about 1½ pounds)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided use
2 cups finely shredded cabbage
12 ounces cooked or canned corned beef, cubed
1/4 chopped dill pickle
1/4 cup sliced green onion
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
DIRECTIONS
1. Cover potatoes in lightly salted water and boil until tender. Drain, peel and cube.
2. Combine vinegar, sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; drizzle over still-warm potatoes. Cover and chill.
3. Just before serving, gently fold in cabbage, corned beef, pickle and onion.
4. Combine mayonnaise, milk and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt; pour over salad. Gently toss. Serve in cabbage-lined bowl.
Serves 8
LINNELL’S NOTES
1. The evening before, I placed a five-pound piece of corned beef into a crock pot, so that it would be cooked and ready to use by morning.
2. I used shredded cabbage purchased in bags at my local grocery store.
3. This recipe seemed slightly easier to make than the next recipe, because it had fewer ingredients and required less preparation.
4. Of the two recipes, this one yielded a slightly sweeter and creamier potato salad.
5. For my taste buds, this salad required no additional salt. The corned beef brings plenty of sodium to it.
6. This salad tastes better the next day.
Corned Beef Potato Salad (Bottom Photo)
Razzle Dazzle Recipes
INGREDIENTS
Salad Ingredients:
1 can corned beef (the kind you have to open with the attached key) chilled, fat scraped off, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 large potatoes, any kind, about 1½ lbs
4 green onions, minced
1 can (about 1½ C) sauerkraut, drained, rinsed and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped/diced
1/3 C minced dill pickles
1 small jar diced pimentos (optional, for color)
Dressing Ingredients:
1/2 C low-fat mayo or salad dressing
1 C low-fat sour cream
2 to 4 T spicy brown prepared mustard
1 to 2 T horseradish
1/4 C milk, broth or pickle juice
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine dressing ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Boil whole potatoes in skins until barely tender.
3. Peel and cut into large pieces (2-inches by 2-inches), and place in dressing mixture while still warm. Toss to coat thoroughly.
4. Stir in other ingredients.
5. Refrigerate. Taste and adjust for salt several hours later.
6. Serve cold lettuce. Garnish with cherry tomatoes, sliced
Serves 4 to 6 servings as a main dish
LINNELL’S NOTES
1. I used the same five-pound piece of corned beef that I placed into a crock pot the evening before. I don’t know how the recipe would have tasted with canned corned beef.
2. The 2-inch by 2-inch chunks of potatoes seemed too large, so I cut them smaller.
3. Tasting the salad after adding the minimum amounts of horseradish and mustard, I decided to put in the full amounts.
4. I used the pickle juice from the dill pickle jar.
5. Again, for my taste buds, this salad required no additional salt. The corned beef adds plenty of sodium to it.
6. This salad has a little more crunch, kick, and flavor than the other one. The horseradish and mustard bring out the flavor of the corned beef. It is a less creamy potato salad, though.
7. This salad also tastes better the next day.
8. Finally, did you know that sauerkraut is considered a “belly blaster?” According to Dr. Oz’s website: Why it’s a superfood: Directly translated from German as “sour cabbage,” this traditional fermented food delivers gut-friendly flora that boost digestion and can reduce belly inflammation. Sauerkraut’s signature sour taste comes as the added bacteria ferment the naturally occurring sugars in the cabbage into lactic acid; it should keep for months.
Dr. Oz’s Prescription: Check the label carefully and buy only traditional fermented sauerkraut and not one of the more commercially heat-treated brands (which many are), as that will destroy the beneficial bacteria.
Enjoy!
