Change Up Potato Salad By Ditching The Mustard For This Ultra-Savory Addition

Potato salad is a tried-and-true classic, which makes it a perfect base for a variety of inventive recipe twists, from French to Japanese-style potato salad. While mustard is typically used for imparting both savory and acidic hints to this dish, there's another ingredient you can swap in for an ultra-savory addition: roasted garlic. When added to the mix, roasted garlic imbues aromatics and a depth of umami flavor to boiled or roasted potatoes and any accompanying dressings. 

Some people may avoid adding garlic to potato salad for fear of an overpowering taste. However, roasting garlic removes a lot of the allium's spicy bite and pungency that can detract from other flavors in some recipes. Compared to raw or fresh garlic, the roasting process transforms garlic into an ingredient with accentuated savory notes, a natural depth of subtle sweetness, and a creamy texture that's easy to incorporate into any potato salad recipe. 

Considering roasted garlic's savory browned flavors, you can sub it in for mustard in a potato salad's vinaigrette for an easy change-up — and to add even more umami — to the recipe. Just roast a head of oil-brushed garlic wrapped in foil in the oven, or roast individual cloves or garlic heads in oil in a pan until soft and tender. Then peel and mash or puree a few cloves to your desired taste, and whisk the garlic right into the dressing before coating cooked potatoes.

Besides its savory attributes, many people like to add Dijon mustard to potato salad for a zingy flavor blast. The great thing about incorporating roasted garlic instead is that it's an extremely customizable ingredient — one that enhances the browned notes and savory aspect of the dish, while boosting other flavor elements in recipes from creamy dill potato salad to lightly dressed roasted sweet potato salad. Roasted garlic mellows out the tartness of acidic dressings, while amplifying and balancing the richness of creamy potato salad bases such as those made with mayonnaise or sour cream. 

Due to the Maillard reaction, roasted garlic adds both a pleasant browned sweetness and savory notes. For this reason, adding it to the dish offers a different type of natural sweetness compared to mustard. So, if your potato salad also contains a touch of sugar or honey in the dressing, experiment with reducing it or omitting the sweetener altogether.

Play around with adding it to your favorite recipes to give them a twist. Or create something new altogether, such as a savory roasted garlic aioli-style potato salad with green beans or potato salad dressed in a garlicky chimichurri vinaigrette. Roast both the potatoes and the garlic, or add roasted garlic in with boiled potatoes for a nice flavor contrast. And of course, if you want to maintain both a mustard-tang and roasted garlic umami, feel free to add both ingredients to your potato salad for something extra savory and sure to please.