Vintage loving soul that I am, I can't help but have a special spot in my heart for yesteryear recipes that not only telegraph the era they hail from, but which shout it out, loud and proud, from the rooftop!
Typically these sorts of foods include a combination of ingredients that seems a touch dated to the average diner, but which we as vintage fans have a deep respect and adoration for, even if they're not exactly what we're plunking down in front our families each night these days.
Chances are such dishes, when they hail from the 1950s and are of a savoury nature, are apt to include at least one of the following things: mayonnaise, hard boiled eggs, pickles, olives, mushroom, pimentos, tuna, and/or celery, to name but a few iconic ingredients of the age.
Today's vintage recipe for hearty, delicious sounding Ripe Olive Potato Salad hails is from 1952 and houses five of those very ingredients, a point that made this passionate old school epicurean smile ear-to-ear.
{Talk about a meal in a side dish! This lively, flavourful mid-century potato salad combines pickles, olives, pimentos, mayo, and a handful of other ingredients with spuds to create a stick-to-your ribs potato salad that is bursting with 1950s charm. Vintage recipe image source.}
I fully get that this combo of ingredients might not elicit squeals of delight from everyone, even though I do think they harmonize together fairly well. By all means, pick, choose, and disregard as needed. Being allergic to eggs, I need to skip the hard boiled ones here and use GF vegan mayonnaise (the vegan offerings from Follow Your Heart are by far my favourite store bought options on that front), and would likely use cucumber over celery, as I have an easier time with it, but aside from that, I'd totally give it a go as is.
If I wanted to switch things up a bit though, I might ditch some of the veggies (pickles included), leave the black olives in place and use some sun dried tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts for a thoroughly Mediterranean influenced potato salad, or maybe some black beans, corn, and cilantro for a fun Southwestern take on this staple summer side dish.
Potato salad is a seriously versatile food that you can play around with endlessly, making it as mid-century or present day as your heart desires. You can even sub in sweet potatoes, yams, taro, sunchokes, parsnips, or rutabagas for the standard spuds themselves.
As summer is but a stone's throw away, picnic, grilling, camping, and al fresco eating season in general are all starting to really hit their stride, so I wanted to share this delightful, adaptable vintage potato salad recipe - which really does scream 1950s in the best kind of culinary way - with all of you here today, on this gorgeous sun-kissed Saturday.
With lots of family events, birthdays, barbeques and other enjoyable events in the cards throughout the next three to four months, I know that dishes like this great mid-century offering will be a common sight on our table - be it indoors or out - and one that I'm really, really looking forward to, as I rarely make cold pasta or potato salad during the snowy half of the year. That’s baked, mashed and roasted spud season! :)
