Japanese potato salad has to be one of my favorite recipes to make and eat! It is an easy to make side dish. You can pack Japanese potato salad for a picnic in the park, served with dinner or added to your bento box lunch. This potato salad goes especially well paired with our Japanese Fried Chicken Karaage.

Japanese potato salad is very different from American potato salad, except that…

Well, Japanese and American potato salad both have potatoes as the star of the dish. However, they taste very different. Unlike American style potato salad, Japanese potato salad has no boiled eggs. I was never really a fan of the egg texture of potato salads that I grew up with. But, I did love the tangy potato part. When I discovered Japanese potato salad, I realized how much I love potato salad (and I think it had something to do with the fact that there are no eggs).

I also realized that there are other reasons why Japanese potato salad is so different from American style. Japanese potato salad has a more mild, less vinegary taste because it uses rice wine vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. And, I would say the biggest difference between Japanese potato salad and American potato salad is the Japanese mayo! Kewpie gives Japanese potato salad, its Japanese potato salad quality: it’s creamy and bursting with umami.

Kewpie mayonnaise is the most important ingredient in Japanese potato salad

I would venture that any potato salad recipe that does not use Kewpie, is simply potato salad. It is not Japanese potato salad. Kewpie Mayo has a special ingredient that makes it burst with savory umami. Some of you might not like this, but I’ll tell you the secret anyway. . . Kewpie has MSG. Now, I’m not going to go into a whole thing here about MSG, which is a topic fraught with misunderstanding, fear and racism. Ugg. This is a food blog, and I digress. All I will say is, if you want the real taste of Japanese potato salad, Kewpie is a must.

To make Japanese potato salad add salt first

Not only do you need kewpie mayo for Japanese potato salad to taste delicious, you will also need salt! Now, here is my tip to give the potato salad the perfect flavor: add salt to the pot when you are boiling the potatoes and carrots. I also pickle the cucumbers in salt for at least 15 minutes. The two saltings will ensure that every ingredient is perfectly flavored.

Dice, chop, slice, mince your veggies to add to the Japanese potato salad

I’ve had many different variations of Japanese potato salad over the years. Those variations mostly are based on how the carrots, cucumbers and onions are cut. Chi Chi will often add long, thin slices of onion, or large coins of carrot to his potato salad when he makes it. This is delicious, but I actually prefer to have all of the veggies diced to into the same size little mini squares. Something about the symmetry of all of the added crunchy ingredients, mixed with the creamy potatoes makes my mouth happy. Experiment with these different shapes and sizes and let me know what you enjoy!

Japanese Potato Salad

Recipe by BeckiCourse: Sides, SaladsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 4 medium Russet Potatoes

• 1 cup Kewpie mayo

• 1 Carrot

• 1 Persian cucumber

• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

• 1/2 Yellow onion

• Salt

• Pepper

Directions

• Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove and add about 1 tbsp of salt. Peel potatoes and cut into cubes and add to boiling water to cook.
• Once the potatoes are about 1/2 way cooked (about 5-7 minutes), add carrots to the boiling water. Boil potatoes and carrots another 5-7 minutes until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Strain the potatoes and carrots and lightly rinse in cold water. Allow the potatoes and carrots to cool for another 10 minutes.
• While the potatoes are boiling dice, carrots cucumbers and onion to desired size (I like to make them small square shapes. Place the diced cucumbers in a small bowl and add about 1 tsp of salt, mix gently with your hands to coat the cucumbers in the salt and allow them to pickle for about 15 minutes.
• To make the potato salad add all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a rice paddle or wooden spoon until potatoes become creamy, but retain some texture. Careful not to over-mix, so that the potato salad turns into mashed potatoes!
• Once the salad is assembled, sprinkle with cracked pepper to taste. If you want your potato salad to be cold, place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more before serving. We like our Japanese potato salad served at room temperature so will often eat right after its made.