Warm Potato Salad

Potato salad cooked in the microwave? Can he be serious? Yes I am, very serious (but it’s also a lot of fun).

Look, one of the things about cooking for lunch is that you really don’t want to spend too many hours doing it. It usually takes place at a weekend with friends and family around, so anything that cuts down on the time taken must be welcome.

Enter the microwave.

It has an undeserved reputation for corner cutting. In fact it’s a legitimate cooking method that does a far better job of things like vegetables than more traditional means. Use it well and it will reward you with fresh looking results that retain most of their nutrients because of the relatively short cooking time.

This warm salad is a case in point, with the potatoes retaining a high proportion of their Vitamin ‘C’ content. Serves 6.

You need:

4 potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled
1 onion, chopped
2 slices of bacon, chopped
2tbs cornstarch (cornflour)
250mls of vegetable stock
60mls of cider
2tbs wholegrain mustard
90mls thick cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley or coriander to garnish

Cut a cross in the skin of each potato with a sharp knife so that steam can escape. Place the potatoes around the edge of the turntable so that they are evenly spaced and cook on high for 5 minutes. Then turn them over and cook for a further 4 minutes.

Check that they are cooked and then set aside to cool sufficiently for you to handle them. Once you can do that, peel them and cut them into cubes.

While you’re waiting for the potatoes to cool down, put the onion and bacon in a microwave bowl, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Stir, then cook for a further 2 minutes.

Stir in the cornstarch, stock and cider in that order, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Stir.

Add the mustard, cream and potatoes, turning gently to coat evenly. Turn the power down to medium, cover and cook for 2 minutes only. Season to taste and garnish with the chopped herbs.

At this stage the salad will be quite hot. You want it to be warm, so there is no rush to get it to the table, giving you plenty of time to sort the rest of the meal out.

print this page