Not My Momma's Potato Salad

Growing up, it was a family tradition to have dad's famous burgers every Saturday night. Now that all the kids are grown and have lived away from home for nearly 6 years, he makes them whenever we come to visit. Friends loved coming over when I was a kid because of burger night. It's amazing stuff. Seriously, you missed out as a kid if you didn't get to come over to my house for burgers.

The real star of the show for me, however, was my momma's amazing potato salad. If you were one of the lucky few who did come to my house for burgers, you undoubtedly heard the story about why we eat warm potato salad. In college my mom's roommate said they didn't have time for potato salad since it needed time to chill and my mom said, "Oh yes we do." She continued making it and serving it warm (room temperature, really) so we grew up thinking potato salad was supposed to be warm. My 29 year old sister and 33 year old brother still won't eat it any other way, but I branched out to the cold kind years ago so that I could eat leftovers she sent home with me in college.

Her potato salad consisted of potatoes, mayo, boiled egg, and pickles. So simple, and yet so amazing. And obviously very not vegan. I was sad about not participating in this family tradition anymore at first, but being vegan is really important to me for so many reasons. So I found a compromise.

A friend told me how she makes vegan potato salad and I used what she recommended plus one special ingredient to make it taste a little bit more like home -- pickles! So here it is:

Not My Momma's Potato Salad
- Red potatoes, cubed but not peeled
- Red onion
- Celery
- Pickles
- Vegenaise
- Nutritional yeast
- Dill weed, salt, and pepper

I took this to a friend's house last night and she could not stop talking about how amazing it was. This is a friend I've had my entire life who has been to countless burger nights at my house and even requested I bring her leftover potato salad when she couldn't come over. And she loved it. This was really exciting for me! I loved it too but i didn't know how a meat-and-dairy-lover would feel about it. We agreed that it is way different than my mom's version and really can't be compared but it's still really really good.

My fiancé loves my mom's potato salad so much that when I asked what he wanted me to make when we stayed in a cabin on vacation once, his only answer was potato salad. I'm so glad that I've found something that I'm sure he will love (although when we visit my parents I'm sure he'll still get huge helpings of the original). Maybe we'll start our own family tradition with my new potato salad. :)

Now I just need to figure out how to make homemade veggie/bean burgers so I can make them thick and juicy like dad's famous burgers!