During barbeque season, grilled foods call for a cool counterpart, something comforting yet refreshing. Potatoes offer a versatile blank canvas for salad making. Imagine taking some of the key ingredients for guacamole—avocado, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapenos—and creating a potato-based work of art with Tex-Mex influence.
Whether you’re grilling tritip steaks, seafood kabobs, lime-marinated chicken breasts, or cumin-scented pork chops, this potato salad will provide a bit of zing and interest to your fiesta.
Food writer Faye Levy shared several approaches for potato salads with both vinaigrette-based and mayonnaise-based dressings in the July 1986 issue of Bon Appétit. All of the recipes in this article begin with the same approach: dousing the freshly boiled and peeled potatoes with a combination of white wine, olive oil, seasonings, and green onions. The wine provides a slightly acidic base (without having the sharpness of vinegar) for the potatoes to soak up. As the potatoes cool, they absorb the seasonings to create a subtle flavor base for the salad.
Levy recommended dressing this salad with a homemade mayonnaise flavored with pickled jalapeños and chopped cilantro. But I wanted to lighten the dressing up. I used a combination of store-bought mayonnaise and plain Greek yogurt as the base instead. The yogurt cuts down the calorie count considerably and provides a nice tangy taste that is further enhanced by another change I made–adding a bit of lime juice.
To complete the salad I opted to use grape tomatoes instead of dicing up one regular size tomato as Levy suggested. I like the texture and brighter color that the smaller tomatoes provide. Some of the avocado goes into the salad; some of it is used as a garnish. 
While the dressing and chopped jalapeños can be added to the potato salad several hours ahead of time, wait until right before serving to add the tomatoes, avocado, and cilantro to keep them as fresh as possible.
This potato salad can bring a bit of zip to your Labor Day barbecue.
Tex-Mex Potato Salad
Sunnyside Cook
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 pounds red boiling potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes
- 3 tablespoons minced green onions
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt I used 2%
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or more
- 2 tablespoons minced pickled jalapenos seeds and ribs removed if desired
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons minced cilantro for garnish fresh
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- 1 large avocado peeled
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together white wine, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Place potatoes in medium saucepan, covered by one inch with salted, cold water, and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and cook for 15-25 minutes, until tender when pierced with knife. Remove from water. Peel and cut potatoes into 3/4 inch dice and place into a medium bowl.
- Pour wine mixture (whisked one more time) over potato chunks. Toss potatoes with wine mixture gently and add green onions. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
- Mix mayonnaise and yogurt together in small bowl. Add chopped jalapenos and lime juice. Fold mayonnaise mixture into potatoes until well-incorporated. (You might just use 2/3 of the dressing to begin with and gauge if you need all of the dressing or not. Refrigerate leftovers to add later or use otherwise.)
- Cover and refrigerate potato mixture until 15 minutes before serving.
- Allow potato mixture to come to room temperature for 15 minutes. Dice 3/4 of the avocado and slice the remaining 1/4 for garnish. Hold back 10 tomato halves for garnish as well.
- Right before serving, carefully mix in avocado chunks, tomato halves, and 2 tablespoons of cilantro to potato salad.
- Taste for seasonings, adding more held-back dressing, salt, pepper, or lime juice, if needed.
- Garnish salad with avocado slices, tomato halves, and 2 teaspoons cilantro.
