You haven't had potato salad like this Korean Potato Salad before!
What is Korean Potato Salad? 감자샐러드
This Korean Potato... Salad? Or is it mashed potatoes? Maybe some kind of Korean banchan appetizer thing? Whatever you call it, it's a combination of fluffy potatoes, tender crisp carrots, crunchy apples, and potentially a whole slew of other ingredients to add to the flavor fun.
Eat Korean Potato Salad as you would any other banchan on the table. It also works as a larger side dish if you double or triple up the recipe.
Korean Potato Salad as Banchan, "Gamja Salad" 감자샐러드
Korean meals are known for their stunning variety of banchan. Somewhere in the middle of that spread of little side dishes, you might spot something familiar yet completely unexpected: a scoop of potato salad.
Yes, potato salad. Leave it to Koreans to adopt an all-American summer picnics classic and give it a permanent home in Korean cuisine. But this version isn’t just a copy-and-paste of its American cousin. Korean Potato Salad aka Gamja Salad 감자샐러드, is softer almost liked mashed potatoes, sweeter, and textured with ingredients like carrots, cucumbers, and apples.
Is Korean Potato Salad Healthy?
Yes! Korean Potato Salad can be healthy! Depending on your health needs and dietary considerations, of course. To be honest, I think the only way Korean Potato Salad would be unhealthy is from overconsuming it because it tastes so good!
While historically we've thought of potatoes as "bad" because their high starch content puts them in the "carbs" category, potatoes themselves are low in calories, fat- and cholesterol-free, and 1 medium Russet potato provide nutrients like vitamins B6 (27% of RDI) and C (28% of RDI) as well as potassium (26% of the RDI).
Dietary Considerations of Korean Potato Salad
As published, this recipe for Spicy Carrot Salad is:
- vegetarian, vegan adaptable if you use plant-based mayo
- dairy-free
- gluten-free/wheat-free
- grain-free
- refined sugar-free
What Ingredients You Need for Korean Potato Salad
Korean Potato Salad fresh/refrigerator ingredients:
- potatoes, russet is best, but waxy like yukon gold is ok too, 1 pound or more!
- carrots, about 1-2, 1 cup diced
- apple, ½, diced
- cucumber
- red onion, ¼, diced and soaked in ice cold water for 10 minutes
- eggs, 3 hard-boiled, peeled and chopped
Korean Potato Salad dry/pantry ingredients:
- sea salt for boiling potatoes
- mayonnaise, ½ cup
- sea salt
Optional mix-ins to add with the vegetables: corn kernels, peas, celery. Some people get creative and add chopped ham!
Best Potato Recipes, Salad and Otherwise
- Roasted Garlic Potato Salad
- Crispy Smashed Potatoes
- Crispy Smashed Potatoes (big batch method) with Caviar and Creme Fraiche
- Salt and Vinegar Smashed Potatoes
How Many Potatoes in One Pound?
Because potatoes come in so many different sizes and shapes like so many um, other things, it's better to "measure" potatoes by actual pounds or even diced in cups, not by number of potatoes.
One medium Russet potato, which I measure as about the size of my fist-and-a-half, weighs about 8 ounces or ½-pound. So 1 pound of potatoes, or 16 ounces is just about equivalent to:
- 2 medium Russet potatoes
- 4 cups of peeled, cubed potatoes
This recipe is a salad though, not precision baking, so it's ok to come close enough with the amount of potatoes and the other ingredients.
It's always better to overestimate and make a little more, since the leftovers taste great straight out of the refrigerator!
Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources
Mayonnaise: Use any mayo with a flavor you like. Japanese Kewpie mayo has added sweetness. I like to use this plant-based mayonnaise, made with avocado oil. It has a slightly strong vinegar fragrance than others, but has the best texture.
Carrots, Cucumbers, Apples and all other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market.
How to Make Korean Potato Salad
Place diced potatoes in a large pot. Add cold water to pot until potatoes are covered by about 1 inch, and add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are cooked through to fork-tender, about 15 minutes. Exact time will depend on size of potato pieces.
Turn off the heat. Strain potatoes from water to a large mixing bowl, leaving water in pot to cook carrots.
Add diced carrots to water in the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat. Drain carrots.
Lightly crush potatoes in mixing bowl with a large fork until coarsely mashed.
Add cooked carrots, chopped boiled eggs, sliced cucumber, diced apples, onions, mayonnaise, and 1 teaspoon salt to the potatoes.
Mix gently until evenly distributed. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt if needed.
Transfer to serving bowl. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Can be eaten warm, room temperature, or cold straight from the fridge.
Pro Tips, Tricks, and Techniques
Double, triple, or even quadruple the recipe. The amount of ingredients for the spicy sauce make about 8-10 cups. But I highly recommend scaling up to make triple the amount.
Make it sweet. One of the hallmarks of Korean Potato Salad is the sweetness. My specific recipe doesn't use added sugar, relying only on the natural sweetness from the carrots and apples. However, if you want a more "traditional" flavor, add 1 tablespoon of sugar with the mayonnaise and salt.
Rainbow carrots make it fun. Add some more color to your dinner table by using rainbow carrots. Different colored carrots do taste different from one another, but the difference is so subtle, you'd probably only be able to tell the difference if you tasted them totally raw side-by-side, and that's if you had a pretty sensitive palate. The different colors also have different antioxidant profiles, since different antioxidants render different pigment colors in vegetables!
Amp up the vegetable content! Some versions of Korean potato salad also include other vegetables like corn kernels, peas, and even chopped celery.
Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage
Advance Prep
You can make the Korean Potato Salad up to 2 days in advance and store the fully prepped salad in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Leftovers
Store leftover Korean Potato Salad in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, taking into account any days you prep in advance.
Freezing
Korean Potato Salad recipe does not freeze well.
Tools and Equipment
There isn't any special tool or piece of equipment that is absolutely required for this Korean Carrot Salad. You can make it using a sharp chef's knife on a sturdy cutting board to julienne the carrots! However, that isn't to say there are a few tools that might make it slightly easier to get the Korean Carrot Salad from the farmers market to your fork (or chopsticks), namely a mandoline or slicing attachment on your food processor!
- Japanese mandoline, for faster uniform slicing
- regular mandoline with storage container
- Chef's knife, my personal workhorse
- Wooden cutting board, oversized for all those carrots
- Glass mixing bowls
- Mini ¼-cup liquid measuring cup
- Mini whisk
- Glass storage container with airtight lids, perfect size for storing Spicy Carrots you make it in advance
- Glass mason jars, wide mouth because they're easier to use and wash
- Mason jar lids that are better than those horrible 2-piece metal lids
Korean-Style Potato Salad aka Gamja Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound potatoes
- generous pinch of salt for boiling
- 2 carrots, medium diced
- 3 hard-boiled eggs
- 2 small Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 apple, diced
- ¼ red onion, sliced and soaked in ice cold water for 15 minutes to take the bite off
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon sea salt + more to taste
Optional Mix-Ins
- diced ham, optional
- cooked corn kernels, optional
- cooked green peas, optional
Instructions
Cook Potatoes and Carrots for Potato Salad
- Place diced potatoes in a large pot. Add cold water to pot until potatoes are covered by about 1 inch, and add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are cooked through to fork-tender, about 15 minutes. Exact time will depend on size of potato pieces.
- Turn off the heat. Strain potatoes from water to a large mixing bowl, leaving water in pot to cook carrots.
- Add diced carrots to water in the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat. Drain carrots.
Prepare Remaining Vegetables for Potato Salad
- Lightly crush potatoes in mixing bowl with a large fork until coarsely mashed.
- Add cooked carrots, chopped boiled eggs, sliced cucumber, diced apples, onions, mayonnaise, and 1 teaspoon salt to the potatoes. Mix gently until evenly distributed. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt if needed.
- Transfer to serving bowl. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Can be eaten warm, room temperature, or cold straight from the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
Food for Afterthought
If you've been here a while, you know how much I dislike “creative” sushi—overly muscular behemoths of rice bristling with decidedly non-Japanese sushi ingredients like steak, cream cheese, tomatoes, and jalapeños with names like Crunchy Cowboy, Godzilla, and Firecracker Fantasy that sound more appropriate for an aquarian battle of American Gladiators than a sushi menu.
F-EW-sion
It is, quite frankly, just the faintest glimmer of what is a blinding hatred for all things Asian fusion. Maybe hatred is a strong word. If so, then I meant abhorrence. I have no hard evidence of from where it stems, but I have my theories. It probably has to do with the fact that I myself, am a product of Asian fusion – Korean girl by heritage, born into an American society, faced with competing, clashing cultures. Is it Korean? Or is it American? Is it Japanese sushi? Or is it just I-don’t-know-what-the-right-word-is-here?
I realize that in many respects, this cultural fusion is a thing of beauty, and it is how food and cultural cuisines evolve. It has taken me a long time to appreciate it. Even now, I can’t say that I fully appreciate it. I think it’s more like I have accepted it because my tastebuds have been beaten into the ground with sesame crusted everything with wasabi-scented smashed potatoes and soy ginger miso squirted out of ketchup bottle into a fancy paisley on the edge of my plate. Really, I don’t hate it. I can’t, because I have been known to conjure such cross-cultural cuisine-blurring things as pita-chos.
Adoption
But let’s put aside for a moment my negative feelings about Asian fusion, and look instead, at adoption. I have noticed that in addition to this delicious cassoulet called fusion wherein we take ingredients from here, techniques from there, and presentation style from way over there so that every dish on the table has a Chinese five-spice blend of French and Japanese, there is something more along the lines of a grand global Epcot Center buffet called adoption. It’s taking some food and just straight up putting it on your cultural table, and yet it still maintains its cultural integrity.
If we look at it from a Brangelina perspective (obviously, I’ve already made my point, but I can’t help but succumb to all the Hollywood media propaganda), biological babies are a fusion of whatever ethnicity Pitt is, and Jolie which, for the ease of argument, I will say is French. However, little adopted Maddox is very seamlessly integrated into the Jolie-Pitt family, but he is, no doubt, ethnically Cambodian. Wow, that was too perfect, now wasn't it?
Fusion vs Adoption Examples
There are many examples of all of this. For instance, Japanese folks serving Indian-inspired Japanese curry over spaghetti noodles is fusion. Their offering spaghetti and meatballs on a menu alongside tonkatsu is adoption. Their putting a slice of American cheese on ramen is just gross. But I won’t get into that.
In the Korean world, I have seen no better adoption than serving all-American potato salad in a tiny dish as bahn-chan right along with galbee. I have no idea when or how it started. It probably has the same history as Spam, but again, I just can’t get started on that. Korean Potato Salad is, um, how can I be at once descriptive and brief about this? Delicious.
Kate says
Okay, okay, I hear you...and i agreen, no "sushi" should have beef in it...but there's this chain in NYC called Sushi Samba (Japanese-Brazilian)where they have a roll called "El Topo" that is salmon, jalapeño, shiso leaf, fresh melted mozzarella & crispy onion. And it's effing AWESOME.
Also, what your feelings about fruit in sushi rolls? Like green apple/hamachi rolls? tuna/kiwi/blood orange?
~ Wayne says
I don't mind the fusion food, just the name. "Fusion" has come to denote "fussy" or "pretentious" in my mind for some reason.
And to Kate's point, how about mango/salmon rolls? mmmm i salivate now
Dolores says
My issue with the whole fusion concept is less the crossing of cultures -- I LIKE the idea of taking two or more ingredients you wouldn't normally put together and creating something that's eons better than the sum of it's parts. Interesting combinations of fruit, fish and other non-traditional ingredients over rice works just fine for me.
But some marketing geek (or several) took ken the whole fusion thing way too far, using the word "fusion" to throw random ingredients together and put an outrageous pricetag on the result. And because it's trendy, people eat it up (no pun intended).
Anonymous says
Apples! What a brilliant addition! Will have to try this recipe come summer time!
Maure says
thank you sarah, thank you christina - and thank you to the
fully marinated baby what precipitated the bbq which led to
said potato goodness.
sarah, i will treat this adopted recipe as if it were my own, with love and respect and perhaps the addition of fresh red chili. and maybe, someday after it has become of age, it will learn from whence it came. or fed to the cat.
Henry says
I always thought the apples in the salad was weird but it actually works. My mom always used spam instead of ham. Spam makes everything better, like bacon and butter.
Catherine says
OK. Without even reading this post, yet, your picture alone scream's my mom's potato salad! i kid you not, mom made potato salad with carrots and hard boiled eggs, and i looooooved it! it's been a while since i've had it though...*sigh*
my mom also makes turkey stuffing with potatoes and peas. it's a potato fetish me thinks. she even puts it in fried rice - is that normal? j/k.
OKOK. going to read your blog now. ;)
sarah says
kate: i think i may have tried sushi samba before, if the restaurant in south beach is the same one. el topo, however, doesn't sound as appetizing to me (sorry!) i am not a huge fan of salmon to begin with, and while i love jalapenos and shiso leaves, i can't believe there is MOZZARELLA cheese in it! LOL! now THAT is just taking it too far. not sure how i feel about fruit in sushi, though i have tasted a few nigiri sushi that had a tiny garnish of yuzu zest. i'd have to try the fruit stuff before i could say anything.
waye and culinarily curious: i think you both have actually hit the nail right square on the head - it's that the fusion stuff is always way too overdone, it's EVERYWHERE, and if it tastes okay, prices are worth it, but they don't always taste as good as they cost.
anonymous: apples in the potato salad or the sushi? apples in the potato salad=good :)
maure: you are very welcome! you'll have to let us all know how it turns out!
henry: spam?!?! lol!
cat: yes, i think i have only ever seen apples in "korean" or "japanese" potato salad. LOL!
FooDcrazEE says
i should try this....never had this fusion salad before. Thanx for the great post
Christina says
Wow Sarah - I can finally google myself and find one page on the internet that refers to me! Thank you :) BTW - Henry - originally I used SPAM in the potato salad as that is one of the OG ingredients in the traditional Korean potato salad BUT my friend Rose hates SPAM so I altered the recipe for her since I bring the salad to most of our friends' potlucks. But the ham substitutes nicely for the SPAM. Also - I realized at a young age when my Dad would pack me SPAM sanwiches for lunch (sometimes even on raisin bread ...) that not everyone (other than Koreans and Hawaiians) eat spam and think it's normal. So when I made the salad for co-workers I made sure to use the ham version.
Christina says
Wow Sarah - I can finally google myself and find one page on the internet that refers to me! Thank you :) BTW - Henry - originally I used SPAM in the potato salad as that is one of the OG ingredients in the traditional Korean potato salad BUT my friend Rose hates SPAM so I altered the recipe for her since I bring the salad to most of our friends' potlucks. But the ham substitutes nicely for the SPAM. Also - I realized at a young age when my Dad would pack me SPAM sanwiches for lunch (sometimes even on raisin bread ...) that not everyone (other than Koreans and Hawaiians) eat spam and think it's normal. So when I made the salad for co-workers I made sure to use the ham version.
sarah says
foodcrazee: it's not fusion! the potato salad is not fusion! it's just potato salad. okay, if you go and put Spam in it, though, i have no idea what it would be. lol!
christina: you had spam/raisin bread sandwiches?!?! in elementary school? were you kicked a lot on the playground? sure would explain a lot ;)
JeffreyP says
sarah, they didnt kick christina just cuz of her sandwiches....
Christina says
Sarah - hmmm. did I ever tell you the story about how I was going to a party and we ran out of tape so my mom wrapped a present with rice instead of tape? When the present was being opened the girl and her mom were like "That is so cool? How did you get the paper to stick?" and I was like "ummm, it's rice" and my face was beet red. Then all the girls there were like "That is sooo cool do Koreans use rice instead of tape and glue?" and I was like "no - we just ran out of tape..."
Jeffrey - aren't you the one who used to wear his sister's blazers in highschool and look like Ducky from "Pretty in Pink"???
sarah says
jeffreyp: hey don't be projecting your sad playground stories of yourself onto christina! ;)
christina: omg! my mom did that to us, too! she said it makes it look prettier because then you wouldn't see the tape on the outside! lol! it IS a korean thing!
Ed says
I think you're wrong about fusion but right about bad fusion. Come down under and see how it should be done by people who have actually been to Asia. I mean, what's really the difference between noodles and pasta? Have you ever tried a gazbacho with a dash of fish sauce and Asian herbs. All this reminds me of the post I should be writing write now but will probably do tomorrow now.
sarah says
ed: i think more than anything, it's just that the bad fusion is everywhere, and that self-proclaimed "foodies" have declared their utter love for such refinement and exotic-ness. *ugh* please.
now, as far as gazpacho, i love the idea of an asian influence, but i have a personal distaste for fish sauce. yeesh. LOL!
Ed says
i know what you mean and too many chefs over do the fish sauce. I hate having to sniff my armpit in restaurants to check I've washed when really the smell is coming from the plate...still not got round to posting about fusion.
Anonymous says
Hi, nice blog. I can't stand FUSION food either. Especially the anglosaxonized Chinese restaurants in the same league as PF Chang (puffy chicken balls with sweet & sour sauce anyone?)
OTOH, I love the Korean potato salad-uh. I don't know where you are from, but it's all over Toronto as well (up here in Canada)
Andrew Choi
Anonymous says
BTW
THANKS FOR THE RECIPE!!!
Andrew
sarah says
you're very welcome, andrew! hope you get to make it, and wehn you do, let us know how it turned out!
just don't say it was crap since that might hurt christina's feelings, in whcih case she may never share another recipe with me again.
Anonymous says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I always love the potato salad at Korean bbq, but never knew exactly how to make it.
The first time I made this was for a bbq and it was so good. Got lots of compliments!
Just a note: I halved the recipe and still got a lot of potato salad (big bowl). So if you make the full recipe, be prepared to eat a lot of it! Not that there's anything wrong with that. =)
Anonymous says
wow! so glad that everyone is liking this! i'm going to have to let christina know. dammit, i should have said it was my recipe. LOL!
xoxo,
sarah
Caroline says
this is a delicious salad!I made it for a potluck and the whole thing wsa gone! So goood! Thanks for posting the recipe!