One of my favorite sides to a piece of fish would have to be Krompir Salata. Balkan-style potato salad with onions, vinegar, and other simple ingredients closely resembles German-style potato salad. Once you taste this, you’ll think twice about going back to the mayo-based one!

My grandmother taught me to make Krompir Salata when I was young. Some grandmas teach their grandchildren to make cookies, mine taught me potato salad (among other things 🙂 ) It’s so simple, though, so I think it was appropriate. After all, it set the foundation for learning all the other, more complicated, Balkan delicacies.

To be honest, we don’t often eat this salad in this house. In fact, we probably only eat it once or twice a year, and usually when it’s a Lenten holiday, when meat, dairy, and eggs aren’t consumed. So every year, around Christmas or Easter, I make this easy side dish to go with a nice piece of fish. It’s so delicious, I’ve made it a meal on its own too!

Although this recipe is super simple, I do want to make an important note. You can use any potato that you’d like for this recipe, but I prefer to use yellow potatoes. Their flavor really makes the dish stand out, much more than with a russet potato.

Raw onions not your thing? Check out my other sides and salads, as well as Vegan/Posno dishes for more Lenten/Vegan dishes.

Krompir Salata/Balkan Potato Salad

Recipe by The Balkan HostessCourse: MainCuisine: Balkan

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

7-8 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into equal sizes
5-6 tablespoons (75- 90 ml) oil (I use sunflower)
4-5 tablespoons (60-75 ml) white vinegar
1 yellow onion (or shallot, green onion, red onion, etc.),thinly sliced
Salt, to taste
Black Pepper (Biber), to taste
Fresh or dried parsley, for garnish

Directions

Fill a medium pot with water and add your peeled yellow potatoes. If they are not all the same size, cut them into pieces of the same size so they all cook evenly.
Cook the potatoes until a knife goes through each one easily but they remain firm. They should not be falling apart.
Strain the potatoes and allow to cool to room temperature.
Slice your onion into thin stripes, pulling apart some of the layers.
In a large mixing bowl, add in the oil, vinegar, and some salt and black pepper. Start off with a small amount and then adjust later. Set the bowl aside.
Once the potatoes are cool, chop or slice them. For larger chunks, chop them into larger pieces. If you prefer a semi-mashed consistency, slice them into slices.
Add the potatoes to the mixing bowl and carefully stir everything together. Taste the salad and adjust for all ingredient. I prefer my potato salad with slightly more vinegar.
This salad needs to be refrigerated a few hours, but ideally overnight before serving. This gives the onion and vinegar enough time to soak into the potatoes and make the dish a well-rounded flavor. Serve cold.

Notes

While I do love the yellow onion in the recipe, I sometimes substitute it for shallots or green onions. Milder flavor, but you still get the onion kick!

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