This Fresh Keilbasa and Potato Salad is a unique and delicious combination of tastes, textures, and temperatures. It’s a twist on the traditional Polish pairing of keilbasa with potato.
Fresh Keilbasa and Potato Salad
Course: DinnerCuisine: Polish6-8
servingsIngredients
2 lbs. fresh kielbasa
Olive oil for kielbasa brushing, plus 3 Tbs for the dressing
2 lbs. baby Yukon Gold potatoes, halved, quartered, or eighthed into large, bite-sized pieces
3 Tbs chicken stock
3 Tbs sweet onion, finely diced
1 Tbs dried tarragon
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper (optional)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 Tbs chopped fresh parlsey
1 large head romaine
Watercress (optional)
Directions
- Brush the kielbasa lightly with olive oil, then cook it as if you were cooking brats, but about 5 minutes shy of the recommended timing.
- Bring the potatoes and enough cold water to cover to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat; cover and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, 20 minutes. Drain and transfer the potatoes to a large bowl. Drizzle the stock over the hot potatoes and shake the bowl around to try to distribute the stock. Let cool 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, soak the onions in just enough ice water to cover, 15 minutes. Drain; set aside.
- Make the dressing: measure the remaining 3 Tbs oil, tarragon, vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt, (and pepper) into a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake like crazy. Set aside.
- Cut the kielbasa into 1-inch pieces. Add the kielbasa, bell pepper, celery, and parsley to the potatoes; gently toss. Drizzle with the dressing and toss again.
- Serve warm over romaine (and watercress).
Notes
- Substitute basil for the tarragon, although it’s not really a fair swap; the tarragon’s really good.
Intro:
This is a great salad. I love it. And so unusual! The flavors go together really well. The heartiness of the keilbasa and the satisfying comfort-food power of the potatoes make a great combination. The warm salad and cold greens also make a great combination. I was raised in a Polish family, I can attest to the fact that kielbasa and potatoes is a classic Polish pairing, yet this salad isn’t familiar to me. I stumbled across a recipe, and then searched for others, and found it all tremendously appealing. I’m so glad I discovered it!
Social Learning: fresh vs. smoked kielbasa
When people say “keilbasa,” they’re talking about smoked keilbasa. Unless you shop somewhere VERY unusual, all the keilbasa you’ve ever seen in the grocery store is smoked. I want to go so far as to say that unless you were raised by Poles, all the kielbasa you’ve ever come across in your life has probably been smoked.
Fresh keilbasa is quite different from smoked. You rarely ever stumble across it; you usually have to seek it out. Fresh keilbasa has a texture quite different from smoked: less compact, less uniform, more tender. The flavor is also different: milder, although still quite garlicky.
This salad is often made with smoked kielbasa. My spin was to use fresh, and I really, really loved the result. If you do decide to make it with smoked, you should disregard my keilbasa cooking suggestions. Smoked kielbasa is ready-to-eat as-is, and needs only to me warmed through and maybe browned a bit.
Outro:
If you want a hearty salad with a good dose of protein, and you like something a bit off the beaten path, this is it. It keeps for days, and reheats perfectly in the microwave (at 50% power, so that you get it warm but not hot). It’d be a chore to take to work, because you’d have to keep the lettuce separate from the salad until serving time. It would also leave you very garlicky breath, so if you do take it to work, bring mints for the afternoon.
Fresh Keilbasa and Potato Salad
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. References: Food and Wine, Food Network, Simply Stacie. Also “Smoky Sausage and Potato Salad,” in Now and Later: 160 hearty recipes that turn one meal into two (Weight Watchers Publishing Group, 2009), 83. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. Fresh keilbasa with fried potatoes, sunny-side-up eggs, and buttered Polish rye toast was one of my grandmother’s staple Sunday breakfasts. I have many, many wonderful memories of my grandfather using his toast like a plow, to shovel bitefuls of his Sunday breakfast meal onto his fork, and then biting the toast in between forkfuls.
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I’ve never seen fresh kielbasa! Now I have to find it. Great potato salad. I really like the combination.
Oh, it’s so worth finding!
What a great way to use some Keilbasa – wonderful combination of flavours and textures! Loving the addition of tarragon, too.
Thanks, Ben!
Potato and sausage are a great team for a satisfying and delicious meal!
Thank you, Angie!
je ne connaissais pas cette saucisse!
bonne journée
Ah! It’s worth getting to know!
Your enthusiasm for this salad is infectious! It’s great to hear how much you enjoyed this unique combination of flavors, now i feel I want to make one of this soon
Thanks, Raymund!
Living in South Bend, IN, there are a lot of Polish offerings locally, but I haven’t had this before. I do love a good comfort food involving potatoes and have a newfound love of warm potato salad, so this is a must try!
I hadn’t had it before either, and I grew up eating Polish foods.
I only recently found a smoked kielbasa without garlic, so I imagine fresh is going to be out of the question. Right? I will try this with smoked – -it sounds amazing, Jeff.
Wow! There are all sorts of Polish sausages, even though almost everyone – including me, who grew up in a Polish household – thinks of just one type. There is a really fantastic Polish shop in Chicago where they have so many kinds of keilbasa, that I bet you could find a fresh one without garlic. But as I mentioned, this “salad” is most often made with smoked kielbasa, so maybe the one you’ve found will work with it.
We eat kielbasa a lot, what a fabulous recipe Jeff!
Thanks, Diane!
I must say I laughed when you called this dish a salad! Europeans always have meat (or fish) in salads. I laughed because a very long time ago, we were vacationing in Europe and our time there was coming to an end in Vienna. I remember being “meated out” and just craving fresh greens, so I ordered a salad! Yup, mainly meat and potatoes!!! Sigh.
Having said that, your salad looks like a comforting meal. I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh kielbasa but I will check it out.
I have to say that I agree. It’s not what I think of as a salad. But then there’s potato salad. And so many salads are so often filled with chicken or beef or whatever. But even then, this still doesn’t seem a whole lot like a salad. But it’s really dellicious.
Wonderful salad 😀
Thank you!
That’s a good point about kielbasa, Jeff. I feel like so many different sausages are all labeled under the generic term kielbasa…but I want to try fresh kielbasa! Maybe there’s a Polish grocer in Asheville?? Either way, the flavors in this salad sound delicious.
The Poles tended to immigrate to the northern states. In fact, I believe that New York state has more people of Polish descent than any other, so you should’ve tried when you lived there! But you never know. If you do get the chance, you should try it – I think any foodie would like it.
That’s looks very great. Good job 👍😊 It’s great that you inspire other Polish cuisine. Very fantastic products you chose to prepare this salad.
Best regards to you 🥰🤗💖
Thank you, Patryk!