I love Egg and Potato Salad. However, as a part of a lunch buffet in most hotels, this salad sitting there in the open for a few hours, tends to get all dried up and stodgy, and the eggs rubbery. It is easy to totally dislike this dish. But made at home, in a somewhat Indian avatar, this dish turns all glam and spiced up and totally irresistible.
Traditionally, an egg and potato salad is drowning in mayonnaise, which is a downer for me. I love Mayo as a light spread in my sandwich, especially the ones I carry with me for travel etc. as it keeps the sandwich really moist even after 3-4 hours. I most definitely don’t like or approve of mayo as a dressing. Call me opinionated, but what’s a food blogger without a strong opinion on food! ahemclears throat
A classic egg and potato salad, apart from the mayo, has onion, celery, mustard powder, vinegar and seasoning. Some add chopped pickles too, such as pickled gherkins, to add an extra bite and zing to the salad.
Sunday morning, I had a shoot coming up so I wanted to quickly prepare lunch and be done with it. One of the menu items I had in mind was an egg and potato salad, and I had this light bulb moment. Why not make it with Bengali flavours? Some whole spices in a mustard oil tadka, kasundi, turmeric and made it throughly Indian!
Now, the brilliance of Kasundi needs to be experienced to be understood. It has the pleasant sharpness from ground mustard seeds, the appetite building tanginess from vinegar and an array of other spices. Call it a sauce, a relish, a dip or a condiment, this is one of my favourites. Try adding kasundi instead of Dijon or English Mustard to salad dressings, I do it all the time. The vinegar is sometimes replaced by raw mangoes to give it a natural sour taste. You can buy a bottle of kasundi and it will stay in the refrigerator for a long time.
So here’s the recipe I used to make this Egg and Potato Salad with a Bengali tadka.
For those on a low-carb or keto diet, go ahead and make this without the potatoes, adding zucchini or cauliflower florets instead and use butter or ghee for the tadka.
Tuck in!
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
serving
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- 3 Eggs
- 3 potatoes Medium sized
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/2 tsp kalonji seeds or Nigella
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 green chillies finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsps kashundi
- 1/2 - 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsps onion finely chopped
- 2 - 3 sprigs mint leaves
Ingredients
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- We need to start by boiling the eggs and cooking the potatoes. This can be done in advance. The eggs should be hardboiled and potatoes cooked well but not turning mushy. [How to make the perfect boiled eggs]
- Peel the eggs and potatoes when cool enough to handle. Quarter them and keep aside in a bowl.
- In a small pan or a tempering ladle, heat the mustard oil.
- Add the nigella, cumin and mustard seeds. Once seeds splutter, add the finely chopped green chillies. After few seconds, add turmeric, remove from flame and transfer this over the eggs and potatoes.
- Add Kasundi, salt, finely chopped onion and mint leaves. Toss well and allow to chill for minimum one hour before serving.
- If the taste of mustard oil is too strong for you, you can use sunflower oil or any other cooking oil.
This Egg and Potato Salad with Bengali flavours, cuts down all the heaviness and calories from mayo. Allowing it to sit for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, ensures that the salad absorbs all the flavours from the spices.
It makes a super filling for a sandwich too, just chop the egg and potato into slices, instead of chunks. And yes, this recipe will rescue you in a potluck situation. Make a large batch, a few hours in advance, and get ready for compliments 🙂
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