The BEST Potato Salad With Bacon

Recipe: Bacon Potato Salad Recipe »

This creamy potato bacon salad is next level delicious! It is made with sweet, soft garlic confit, crispy bacon, baby spinach and shaved parmesan tossed in a mayonnaise and garlic oil dresing. Serve it hot, warm or cold. Plus don't miss tips on perfectly seasoning potatoes and making the dreamiest garlic confit.

About This Potato Bacon Salad

Do we really need another potato salad recipe? Honestly I wasn't sure if I should share this but it's so good that I had to. This potato and bacon salad is made with delicious garlic confit, baby spinach, shaved parmesan and a oil and mayonnaise based dressing. It has to be tasted to be believed. Served hot, warm or cold, it is utterly divine. I've got another potato bacon salad recipe with corn here too.

WARNING: I cannot be alone with this potato salad or I will eat it all. I'm just letting you know how addictive it is ;)

I was inspired to make this potato salad by one that I ate recently at the Book Barn at Bendooley in the Southern Highlands. The key to this potato salad is the garlic confit. Confiting is simply the method of cooking food in oil at a low temperature. When garlic is confited it becomes absolutely out of this world delicious and sweet.

I am also going to share with you some tips for boiling potatoes that will make your life easier.

Video How To Make Potato Bacon Salad

Video: How to Make Potato Bacon Salad

Tips For Making Bacon Potato Salad

1 - Don't rush the confiting process, it's supposed to be done low and slow. I start the confit in the morning while I am working out and having a cup of tea and by the time 11:30am rolls around I'm ready to make the rest of the salad.

2 - Life tip: Make more garlic confit than you need for this recipe! It's SO delicious and is wonderful on top of toast with feta. Garlic confit is sweet, not savoury and confiting it brings out the sweetness of garlic and takes away any acridness. It's also fantastic on avocado toast.

3 - You can peel the potatoes or leave them unpeeled. I don't mind eating potato skin so I never bother peeling them (I also hate peeling).

4 - How to Perfectly Season Potatoes: Potatoes absolutely need salt and the best way to ensure that your potatoes are completely seasoned is to add salt to the boiling water. For every 1kg/2.2lbs of potatoes, add 2 tablespoons of salt into the water. The salt water penetrates through the potatoes as it cooks seasons it through to the core! It sounds like a lot of salt but most of it is discarded when you drain the potatoes leaving you with the most perfectly seasoned potatoes.

5 - Cool off the potatoes before adding the baby spinach to avoid it wilting. (If you don't mind your spinach slightly wilted you don't have to cool the potatoes and can serve this hot).

6 - Cut the potatoes into your size preference. I really like chunky potato salads so my potatoes aren't cut into tiny cubes but really cut them into whatever size you prefer.

7 - Garlic confit lasts for 2 weeks in the fridge in the oil or 3 months in the freezer.

I am a massive potato salad fan. Here are some other potato salads to try next: Olivier Russian Potato Salad (which I grew up eating as I had two really good Russian friends). I also have a soft spot for Japanese potato salad as I love the texture of it (it's sort of like a cross between potato salad and mashed potato). The one I make the most for pot lucks because it is vegetarian is this Jalapeno Potato Salad..

Bacon Potato Salad Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes (plus cooling time for potatoes)

Cooking time: 2 hours concurrently

Serves: 6-8 as a side

Ingredients Needed

For garlic confit

• 55g/2ozs garlic cloves (around 12 garlic cloves)
• 55ml/2flozs extra virgin olive oil (enough to submerge the garlic)

For Salad

• 1kg/2.2lbs baby potatoes
• 2 tablespoons salt for boiling potatoes
• 250g/8.8ozs streaky bacon
• 2 cups/60g/2ozs baby spinach
• 25g/1oz green onions
• 80g/2.8ozs shaved parmesan
• 12 confit garlic cloves from above

For Dressing

• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 4 tablespoons garlic olive oil from above
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 CONFIT - First make the garlic confit. Preheat oven to 120C/240F fan forced or 140/280F conventional. Place garlic in a small oven proof dish or small saucepan and cover with oil. Place foil or the lid on top and bake for 2 hours or until soft and light golden in colour. Cool until needed.

Step 2 POTATOES - While the garlic is confiting place a pot of water onto boil and add the salt to the water. Place potatoes in the water and cook for 10-20 minutes or until tender but not soft or mushy (some baby potatoes are really tiny while these were on the larger side). Cool completely. Potatoes can be boiled 1-2 days ahead of time. Cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl.

Step 3 BACON - While the potatoes are boiling, finely dice the bacon and fry until golden and crispy (around 5 minutes on medium heat). Drain the bacon fat reserving the bacon bits.

Step 4 MIX - Add the bacon to the potatoes along with the baby spinach, green onions, confit garlic cloves and most of the shaved parmesan (reserve a little to sprinkle on top).

Step 5 DRESSING - Whisk the mayonnaise with the cooled garlic oil and drizzle over the salad gently tossing it. Season with salt and black pepper and add extra parmesan on top and taste for seasoning.

Substitution notes and ingredients:

You can use any type of potato that is good for boiling. You want to look for waxy potatoes as they will hold their shape. Starchy potatoes (like Russetts) may disintegrate when boiling. I like using chat or baby potatoes or kipflers as they are waxy.

Streaky bacon can be subbed with middle bacon if you want a lower fat alternative.

Mayonnaise can be switched out for aioli.

Shaved parmesan can be subbed with grated parmesan, grana padano or pecorino cheese.

I freeze leftover fat like this bacon fat to use in place of oils in recipes like bread or roasted vegetables.

Personal Note

As soon as I tried this bacon and potato salad at the restaurant I knew that I had to make it again because I enjoyed it so much. Everything came together at the same time to make this. I had a bag of baby spinach that I forgot to use up and I had some bacon in the freezer that was edging close to its expiry date.

I went to the greengrocers for some potatoes and then saw the display of things for quick sale. I cannot resist that little section of goodies - I've bought many bargains like a 500g/1.1lbs box of the sweetest raspberries which Mr NQN and I devoured on the same day. Today I found a big box of peeled garlic cloves. I can never be without garlic so even though it was about 3 month's worth of supply and there was no way I could use it all, I was Dear Reader, blinded by the bargain.

But then when I got home I remembered one small detail of the dish that we ate and that was garlic confit! I have added a lot of garlic in my recipe; 12 cloves of garlic does seem a lot but when it is in this salad, it is so mild and sweet that you'd be convinced that it had sugar or honey in the dressing or something.

Now I've just got a couple of hundred garlic cloves to go! Any suggestions?

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever stop at the quick sale displays to buy things? Have you ever tried confiting garlic?