Potato, Avocado & Pickled Jalapeños Salad

Whenever I don’t feel like doing too much in the kitchen after work, I don’t mind buying a roast chicken from the supermarket as my quick dinner fix. Sometimes, I will also buy a side salad and potato salad is often my favourite pick.

Roast chicken and potato salad… you can’t beat this combination.

For today’s dinner, I resorted to the garlic and chilli roast chicken from Woolworths. But instead of getting the potato salad from there, I’ve decided to make my own with an addition of avocado and pickled jalapeños.

Avocado has a similar consistency as cooked potatoes. That’s why I thought it will work in my creamy potato salad.

I like to have pickled ingredients in my potato salad…simply to distract myself from the fact that this is a carb laden salad. 😉

Potato, Avocado & Pickled Jalapeños Salad

Quantity is enough to fill a Pyrex Storage Fridge 1.1L Rectangular Storage Plus

What you’ll need:-

• 3 large potatoes (I used red skin potatoes)
• A recently boiled hot water to cook the potatoes
• 1 Hass avocado
• Juice from half a lemon – to
• 1 French shallot (you can buy it from Coles, Woolworths or Harris Farm)
• 6 pieces pickled Jalapeños *adjust to taste*
• 3 – 4 tbsps mayonnaise
• A handful of parsley
• Ground paprika for garnish *optional*

 (1) Boil whole potatoes (skin on) until soften when prick through using a satay stick – see Note 1.  Cool, peel the skin, cut into cubes and transfer them into a large salad bowl – See Note 2. (2) Finely chop a French shallot and pickled pickled Jalapeños. Add them to the salad bowl with the potatoes. (3) Cut the avocado in half and remove its pit – see Note 3. (4) Squeeze some lemon juice over the cut side up. With one half of the avocado cradles in your hand, use the tip of a knife and score the avocado vertically and then horizontally, to form score multiples of cubes (be careful not to score all the way, thus breaking the skin). Then use a spoon and scoop the cubed avocado out gently onto the potatoes. (5) Add 3 to 4 tbsps of mayo (depending on how creamy you like your potato salad to be) and use a fork and spoon to mix all the ingredients together. (6) Mix in chopped parsley and garnish with a sprinkling of paprika if you wish.

Note 1 – It took me about 40 minutes to cook the whole potatoes to my preferred “softness”. If you are pressed for time, you can peel and dice the potatoes first and then boil them. This ensures more surface area. Translation – less cooking time.

Note 2 – I cut them into fairly large chunks so that when I mix the potatoes with the mayo at the later stage, the potatoes do not turn into a big mash potato instead. The potatoes will mash a little when you toss them around with the dressing. Also, to speed up the cooling process, I actually “rinsed” the cooked potatoes under running cold water.

Note 3 – You can lift the seed out gently with a spoon or you can hit the seed with a knife and twist to lift it out. [information source: ehow]. I have also found another way depicted by the Nutrition Diva to be intriguing. It is actually a similar way to how I remove the flesh of a mango from its skin. This probably works well if the avocado isn’t too ripe. So select whichever way that will work for you! 🙂