St. Patrick's Day Countdown: Potato salad
Written by Ciaran on Mar 15, 2026 | 0 Comments
There are just a few days left in our countdown to St. Patrick's Day, with an offer and a potato packed recipe for you each day until March 17th, with 17% off sitewide all weekend in honor of our national holiday.
Now I can just hear the purists spluttering and spitting out their tea at the inclusion of a potato salad in a list of Irish potato recipes, hang on - hear me out! Though potato salad surely has its roots in Central Europe, and our North American friends have added their own take, it is omnipresent in Ireland. You will find it in Irish delis, newsagents, petrol stations, and cafés up and down the land. You see, we Irish have a habit of adding it to sandwiches when we're not ordering other national delicacies at these establishments, namely the Breakfast Roll or Chicken Fillet Roll!
Ready-made potato salad is also available at all times of the year in supermarkets, although many of these, in my humble opinion, are not worth trying when making your own yields far, far better results. The potato is often hard! Unforgivable! In the summer, such as it is here in Ireland, you will be hard pressed to find an Irish BBQ where some manner of potato salad is not present.
A snap of an Irish BBQ from a few years ago that went viral for all the wrong reasons under the tag "Irish BBQs are worse." We hope they had their potato salad safely stored indoors!
Photo Credit: Imgur
It would be a less common sight at a St. Patrick’s Day feast, but if you are feeding a crowd and there is some manner of buffet situation going on, potato salad may make an appearance. It's easy to make, tasty and filling, so it's always a winner.
And it seems potato salad has been gracing tables in this part of the world for some time! I was amused to stumble across "Potato Pete," a character created by the British Ministry of Food during World War II, encouraging the consumption of all things potato, including potato salad.
This jaunty fellow had a recipe book full of potato-packed meals, snacks, and more sourced from across the British Isles, so people could do their part for the war effort by eating locally grown spuds. I suppose we needn't have bothered with our own countdown; we could have just shared his ideas instead. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?!
All jokes aside, it is an interesting window into a challenging time and well worth a look. I, for one, can’t wait to show it to our own potato-obsessed Gemma. Although it must be said that Pete wasn’t perfect: he mixed up champ and colcannon for one! We can forgive him, though… Times were tough.
A page from said cookbook featuring Potato Pete's suggestions for salad. Making the most with limited ingredients, and the potato takes center stage again!
Photo Credit: National Library of Scotland.
Here is a recipe we use at home for barbeques, big family gatherings, or whenever we have some leftover waxy baby potatoes sitting in the fridge. These instructions are inspired by the Ballymaloe Cookery School.
Ingredients
- 1kg waxy potatoes in their skin (you do not want floury potatoes here, or you end up with mash - we are not fans of a mashed potato salad in our house!)
- 120ml Mayo - you can make your own or buy some from a shop
- 90ml olive oil
- 30 ml apple cider vinegar
- A squeeze of 1/2 a fresh lemon (I can feel Poato Pete's disapproval with this one... you can leave it out if you like!)
- 1/2 tsp of wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley (chopped)
- 1 tbsp chopped chives or diced scallions
- Sea salt & freshly-cracked black pepper to taste
Method
- If not already cooked, boil the potatoes in their skins until tender. The time will vary depending on the size of your spuds, but 15 to 20 minutes should do it. Just make sure they are cooked through - no mash allowed, but also no hard potatoes here! I am a little like goldilocks it seems; the potatoes need to be just right!
- While that is happening, shake up your olive oil, cider vinegar, lemon juice, and mustard in a jar to combine.
- Drain the potatoes and, while they are still hot, peel the skins off carefully. If they are new potatoes, you can also absolutely leave the skins on! Chop the potato into bite-sized cubes.
- Toss the cubed potato in the oil, then mix and season well with sea salt & freshly-cracked black pepper.
- When the potato has cooled, add in the mayo, spring onions, or chives and parsley. Sprinkle a little parsley on top to finish.
Potato with a moon
Perhaps my abhorrence of undercooked potatoes - in potato salad or anywhere else - is some sort of folk memory of "potatoes with a moon"? Regina Sexton, a Food Historian from UCC, documented this unusual way of serving potatoes in her book A Little History of Irish Food. There are records of a 19th century cooking practice in which potatoes were only half-cooked, leaving "an ghealach", a moon of raw potato. This raw core, or "bone" as it was sometimes called, was eaten to prolong digestion and stave off hunger for longer. Ingenious, perhaps, but I imagine not pleasant to swallow or stomach. I am thankful I live in a different time!
What's Next?
Check back tomorrow for our penultimate entry - Day 16 of our St. Patrick's Day countdown, or open Door Number 15 of our 17 Days of celebratory offers! And don't forget there is 17% off sitewide this weekend for St. Patrick's Day.
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Ciaran
My Irish Jeweler
Born in Co. Antrim and reared in Dublin, I was fascinated with Gaelic culture from an early age. I suppose it's not surprising given my mother inherited a grá for the Irish language from my grandfather, an Irish school headmaster. And that grá continues! My brother and sister are now Gaelic teachers here in Ireland, my niece is an award winning Irish dancer, and I proudly work to share Irish culture through our Irish and Celtic Jewelry at My Irish Jeweler!
I love researching and reading about the history of Irish design. It's at the core of what we do here at My Irish Jeweler. I find much of it so interesting that I have to share what I find. I hope you enjoy it!
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