Recipe for Southern German Potato Salad – Oma's Kartoffelsalat

by: Gerhild Fulson  / Using her extensive experience and cultural knowledge, Oma Gerhild provides trusted, authentic, and easy-to-follow German recipes both here and in her many cookbooks.

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Traditional German Potato Salad from southern Germany

This recipe for German potato salad is an easy way to learn how to make potato salad. This one's usually served warm, but it tastes great cold as well. 

It follows the method shown for Easy Potato Salad, but has an interesting variation for the dressing, more in the style of the salads eaten in southern Germany

By the way, the German wieners that are shown here have had their ends cut before being pan-fried. My Mutti used to do that for us, and I loved doing it for our boys when they were young. Makes a great kid-friendly meal!

Quick tip 

• If you have nice new potatoes, you can skip peeling them.
• Just scrub them well and slice.
• This is really a healthier way to eat potatoes.
  

That's not Like The German Potato Salad I've Had!

Well, that's because there is not just one recipe for German potato salad.

Basically, northern Germany uses mayonnaise in their potato salads, and southern Germany uses recipes similar to the one above. But, even there, there are variations and no rule applies!

There are almost as many recipes as there are German cooks! So, use these various potato salad recipes to kick-start your own variation!

The recipe below is usually eaten warm. In other words, while this is cooking, you can make the dressing, perhaps but the hamburgers on the grill. Finish off the salad, take the burgers off the grill, and enjoy a traditional German feast!

If the salad is still HOT, why you've just made a hot German potato salad recipe -- also very traditional! And, if it's cold, then it's also traditional!

Another southern German Potato Salad

There are so many variations on this most traditional German food ... there just isn't any one traditional recipe for it though. Here's anther one, that includes a most popular ingredient: bacon. 

Enjoy this potato salad all the way from southern Germany. No mayo in this one. And, it's so good!

The potato salad, above, is also served warm and is popular in the southern part of Germany. Again, so many recipes abound. You really need to try them all to see which on is your favorite.

Oma Says:

What I find so humorous about this is, that my Mutti loved to make potato salad. We all loved potato salad.

AND, we only knew the mayonnaise type. AND, we only knew of the cold type, like this one here ... 

Go to northern German recipe >

And it is so very, very good.

Never, ever, did we eat our potato salad hot or warm. It was lovely cold from the fridge, where it needs to stay because of the mayo.

Now, though, I've learned different. I really enjoy the salad warm; somehow the flavors just seem to come through better. So I let the salad warm a bit to room temperature to serve. 

Ready to make Southern German Potato Salad?

Print Recipe

Recipe for Southern German Potato Salad – Oma's Kartoffelsalat

This recipe for German potato salad is an easy way to learn how to make potato salad. This one's usually served warm, but it tastes great cold as well. 

It follows the method shown for Easy Potato Salad, but has an interesting variation for the dressing, more in the style of the salads eaten in southern Germany

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings:

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup vegetable broth (see Hints below)
• 1½ pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 4 - 5 dill pickles, cubed (see hints below)
• 1 bunch radishes, sliced (optional)
• salt, pepper
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons juice from dill pickles
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• chives to garnish

Instructions:

1. In large pot, cook onions in butter until translucent.
2. Add broth and bring to boil.
3. Add potato slices and simmer, covered, about 10 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
4. Mix egg yolks, sugar, pickle juice, and lemon juice.
5. Remove pot from heat and stir egg yolk mixture into the potatoes.
6. Add pickles and radishes. Season with salt and pepper.

Notes/Hints:

• Use 1 cup of water and a bouillon cube instead of the vegetable broth
• If you have German pickles, use those instead. Since German pickles are semi-sweet, omit the sugar in the recipe and only add if needed. 

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Unless otherwise noted recipe, images and content © Just like Oma | www.quick-german-recipes.com

05.21.2021 revision update

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Recipe for Southern German Potato Salad – Oma's Kartoffelsalat Rezept



By Oma Gerhild Fulson





This recipe for German potato salad is an easy way to learn how to make potato salad. Served warm, it tastes great cold as well.


Ingredients: potatoes, butters, vegetable broth, pickles, onion, radishes, seasonings, egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice,

For the full recipe, scroll up ...

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Hi, I'm Oma Gerhild! As a food writer and cookbook author, I'm always looking to find ways to pass on my German heritage using local ingredients. Quick and easy. That's my goal. Wunderbar food. That's the result.