Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jarzynowa)

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Potato salad is potato salad you might say. I’m here to tell you, my friends, that the little things make quite a difference. Enroute to Poland, we’ve stopped off in Sacile, Italy to visit friends, one of whom is Polish. As it turns out, they both have family visiting while we are in town. So our gracious hosts scrambled to make room for 8 in their apartment. What I’m sharing with you today is the large batch of Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jarzynowa) Mama Maria made for this house full. You could certainly scale it down, but it’s so delicious, why would you?

As a disclaimer, let me say that my Polish friend calls this potato salad. I think of it as potato salad, but the Polish name literally translates to vegetable salad. You may call it whatever you like.

Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jazynowa)

Making the potato salad in this family is a team effort. Maria is boiling the veggies, which Tata Zbigniew peels and dices ever so finely once they’re cool. Our friend, Greg who was kind enough to share his mom’s recipe, tells me that this is something his family always has for Christmas Eve and Slywester (New Year’s Eve). The veg are cooked the day before, possibly left on the balcony to cool overnight, depending on the weather, and he will wake up to find his parents busy in the kitchen, chopping and assembling the next morning.

Polish vegetable Salad garnished with carrot flowers.

I’ve noticed that so many Polish recipes, have you boiling the potatoes in their skins which seemed unusual to me. In the past, when I’ve made potato salad, I peeled and diced before boiling? Am I the only one? So I had to ask, why cook the potatoes in the skin? Actually all of the boiled veggies are unpeeled.

The answer was that the peel adds flavor (and most likely vitamins), and I have to agree. The flavor is very good. My own observation is that the texture is different, more consistent, and pristine.

The links below are Amazon affiliate links which means if you make a purchase, they sent me a few cents to help support this site. 

As eight hungry people have been noshing on Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jarzynowa), I’ve picked up some serving suggestions. Greg loves to eat it on toast, and Maria’s creative suggestion, which was fabulous, a small slice of a good bread, spread with butter, top with a thin slice of deli ham, put potato salad on half of the ham, fold the other half over the top, essentially making a ham and potato salad taco (on top of buttered bread). Yum-o! Pyszne!

Let me also share one other fun aspect of our evenings. Uno, a decidedly international version, has been the evening card game. The fact that there was no common language for all 8 of us added to the fun. Even the Americans who began with no experience in Polish were picking up these phrases:

what color – jaki kolor
red – czerwony
blue – niebieski
green – zielony
yellow – żółty

And my personal favorite “koniec!” for (the end or done! It goes both ways, Maria would play a wild card and confidently tell us the color was “blue.”

So whether your game nights are all English or involve more than one language, there’s no need to limit yourselves; this sałatka is so much for that a cookout side dish. Let’s hear your creative ideas for Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jarzynowa).

Smacznego!

Lois

Polish vegetable salad in a clay serving dish

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Polish Potato Salad (Sałatka Jarzynowa)

★★★★★ 4.5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: polishhousewife
  • Prep Time: 100 min
  • Cook Time: 40 min
  • Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
  • Yield: 3 quarts 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

A Polish potato salad that is full of flavor!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large or 2 leeks, white part only, carefully rinsed
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 8 medium potatoes
  • 6 carrots
  • 1 sm-med celery root (or 1/2 large)
  • 1 dozen eggs, hard-boiled
  • 2 cups shredded dill pickles (large side of grater), press out the juice
  • 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  1. Finely dice the leek and combine with parsely, 1 teaspoon salt and olive oil, set aside (this softens the leek)
  2. Add whole potatoes, carrots, and celery root to a large Dutch oven cover with salted water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and cook until tender (a fork can be inserted easily)  20-30 minutes, drain, cool
  3. Peel cooked vegetables, dice into 1/3 inch (1 cm) cubes, dice egg whites, and crumble the yolks, add all of this to a large bowl, add pickles, mayo, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper
  4. Cover and keep refrigerated, you can “frost” with additional mayo if desired

Notes

The leek/parsely mixture and the cooking of the veg can be done a day in advance, just keep everything refrigeratied

The entire dish can be prepared the day before you plan to serve

1 cup of cooked peas can be added as you assemble, but we didn’t use them

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Diane Sinosky

    I declared this as the best potato salad I have ever had! It is great and peaked right after preparation. Next time I will not create such a fine grate with the pickles, as on day 2 the sour flavor had dissipated and was more sweet than I would have liked. .But on day one – wow! This will be my go-to potato salad..

    ★★★★★

  4. Betty Peterson

    I will be trying this, as I’m from a Polish family. Don’t recall them ever making it this way…sounds so good.

    ★★★★★

  5. Robin

    Thank you so so much for this website and this polish potato salad. This is my daughters all time favourite. Every time I go to the polish store here in St. Catharines Ontario where I live I have to always buy 2 containers of this. Now that I have come across you site, I am exited to start making different polish things for my family. I lose my mother when I was 13trs old and I have be collecting different polish recipes than what is in my mother’s own cook book. I miss a lot due to a lot of recipes were in her head. So thank you so much again for your site.

  6. Marianne Glowacki

    I tried it and my husband and I agree it was one of the BEST potato salad recipe’s !! It is so different then what I would normally make. Thanks

  7. Barbara Jean

    This potato salad is fabulous—much like my grandma’s! It does take TIME, though, so 2 days makes sense. Use really good dill pickles like Bubbies. We made this recipe for our 50th Anniversary for 40 people. We served it with some good Polish sausage—-everyone loved it! Thanks! !

    ★★★★★

  9. Carol Rydzanich

    Hi, I went to Polish School from grades 1 through 8. I Learned a lot of the Polish language. Unfortunately after my babcia passed, no one spoke it anymore and I have forgotten a lot. My mom is gone now too so are a lot of her recipes which were in her head. She made a similar potato salad that I loved so I am glad to find an authentic recipe. By the way, I thought the Polish word for Potato is Kartofle ( spelling).

  10. Sue gayewski

    Here in Australia I make this polish potato salad with Polska ogorki, Polish dill cucumbers. Yummmmm

  11. Magda

    Hello, I would like to recommend you other version of this salad. I boil the day before: 6 potatoes, 4 carrots, 2 parsley roots, 1 small celery (all veggies im skins), I boil also 5-6 eggs, next day I peel the veggies, I chopp them and put to the big bowl, I chopp also 1 small onion, I peel eggs from shells and chopp eggs too, I add 1 small can of green peas, 1 can of corn, I chopp 1 jar of gherkins (pickled cucumbers). I add some salt and freshly ground pepper, next I add 1 jar (330 ml) of mayonnaise – the best is Kielecki 🙂 and 2 table spoons of finely chopped green parsley. Bon appetit 🙂

  12. Dawn

    Hello this sounds like my mother in laws I want to try to make this as this year we cannot be together as we usually are ;( what is celery root? Is this just regular celery stalks? Thanks and stay safe

    • polishhousewife

      Celery Root or celeriac is in the same family as the familiar stalk celery, but it’s from a different plant. If you can’t find it try 2 stalks of celery. Cook them with the other veg, but only for 10 minutes.

  13. Ania

    Is there a way to make this salad without the leek or celery root? I don’t have either but still really want to make the salad. Thanks so much!

    • polishhousewife

      You can substitute 2 stalks of celery for the celery root, cook them with the other veg but pull them out of the water after 10 minutes and dice finely. As for the leeks, I would try a bunch of green onions (AKA spring onions or scallions).

    • Maria

      Answer to Ania:
      I’ve been making this salad for years. My version does not include celeriac, leek or parsley and it still tastes great. Mine does include a chopped onion and a tin of peas. I don’t grate the dill cucumbers but chop them.

  14. Kathy Settimi

    I’ve had this salad but chopped apples were added. I’m told every polish family makes their own version.

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