Smoked salmon salad: the potatoes go in still warm
Smoked salmon is expensive and very salty, so everything else in this salad has one job: to balance it and stretch it across four portions. Potatoes, cucumber and a sharp dill dressing do that. Two decisions settle the result: the potatoes are dressed while still warm, so they drink the dressing in, and the salmon is laid loosely on top, never tossed — tossed, it shreds and over-salts the whole bowl.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Potatoes 25 min
- Dressing the potatoes 5 min
- Assembly 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBoil the potatoes in their skins
Scrub the potatoes and boil them skins on, in well-salted water with the dill stalks, 18 minutes from the boil, until a knife goes in without resistance. The skin holds the potato's shape and keeps its flavour in — peeled, they break up and go watery.
Ingredients: 600 g new potatoes · 1 tbsp salt · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs red onion · 2 tbsp capers · 80 g rocket
Skins on, salted water, dill stalks inMix the dressing before they cool
While the potatoes cook, whisk the sour cream with the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, honey, pepper and half the chopped dill. It should be looser than seems necessary — warm potatoes drink it within minutes.
Ingredients: 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 2 tbsp mayonnaise · 2 tsp Dijon mustard · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ tsp honey · ½ tsp freshly ground pepper
Looser than it looks; the potatoes drink itDress the potatoes warm
Halve the drained potatoes and immediately, while hot, toss them with half the dressing. This is the moment: warm starch absorbs fat and acid, while a cold potato takes them up poorly and stays bland inside, even with twice as much dressing.
Ingredients: 600 g new potatoes · 1 tbsp salt · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs red onion · 2 tbsp capers · 80 g rocket
TipThe same rule governs potato salad and lentil salad. Anything starchy that needs seasoning should be seasoned warm.
Shave cucumber ribbons
Shave the cucumber lengthwise into long thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler, stopping at the seeds — discard the watery core. The ribbons are structural, not decorative: thin cucumber wraps around the salmon instead of lying beside it.
Peeler ribbons; the watery core goesLayer up, salmon loosely
Spread the rocket, potatoes and cucumber ribbons on a platter. Tear the salmon slices in half and lay them in loose folds, building height rather than laying them flat. Scatter over the thin onion and capers.
Ingredients: 250 g smoked salmon · 1 bunch dill · 1 pcs lemon
TipLoosely folded salmon looks far more generous than the same salmon laid flat. It is a very simple trick that makes a real difference on the table.
Folded slices, never flatFinish with dressing and dill
Spoon the remaining dressing over in a zigzag, without tossing, and scatter the rest of the dill. Serve with lemon wedges. The salad is best at room temperature, while the potatoes still hold a little warmth.
A zigzag of dressing, dill, lemon
Before you start
A cheaper version
Smoked mackerel or trout, flaked, instead of salmon. They are much cheaper and the smoke is more pronounced still — add half a lemon more to compensate.
Rinse the capers
Capers in brine should be rinsed and dried; salted ones soaked 10 minutes in water. Unrinsed, they can over-salt a salad in which the salmon already brings plenty.
With egg
Four eggs boiled 7 minutes (yolk still creamy), halved and set on top, turn this into a full dinner.
How long it keeps
The dressed potatoes keep a day in the fridge and are arguably better. Add the salmon, cucumber and rocket only at serving — they will not survive the night.
