Add A Packet Of This To Your Next Potato Salad For A Side Dish Everyone Will Crave

Potato salad is most often spotted alongside burgers at a cookout or as part of a bigger picnic spread, but it's very rarely a surprise in itself. So if you're feeling like your potato salad is a little predictable, there is one addition — taco seasoning — that could change the game by making it smoky and spicy instead of just creamy and tangy. And it couldn't be easier either. Once the potatoes are boiled and cooled, toss them in your go-to dressing, then add some packaged taco seasoning. For six servings, add a whole pack, scaling that amount back depending on the quantity of potato salad you're making.

Of course, it's better to improvise like this when you have the rest of the salad down to an art form, so start with the right spuds for a good potato salad and then think about balance. The salad dressing should consist of a nice, creamy base to help mellow out the spice, as taco seasoning usually contains cumin, paprika, garlic, and some heat, too. A mustard-based or vinegar-based dressing is going to be too sharp and tangy for the taco seasoning, so stick to a mayo or a mayo-mustard hybrid. A little bit of acid, like some vinegar or lime juice, added to the creamy base will then work to brighten it up. From there, feel free to keep to your favorite crunchy additions, whether that's celery or red onion, although it's best to skip any dill and go easy on pickles or relish, as they can clash with the Tex-Mex flavors. It's just about giving the salad a little more personality than it normally has.

Little tricks like this are so clever because they are an incredibly easy way to borrow the flavors from one dish that you love and drop them into another. This taco seasoning potato salad will still feel like comfort food, but will also feel like an international take on potato salad, although of course, less traditional and more of an homage to Mexican flavors.

If you want to push this fun idea even further, more traditional Mexican potato salads — called "ensalada de papa" or "ensalada rusa" — don't use taco seasonings, but they do share that same creamy base. For a bit of a take on ensalada de papa, stir the taco seasoned potato salad with extras like poblano peppers, jalapeños, red or green bell peppers, and red pimientos as a garnish. There's also room to play with a Tex-Mex theme here by adding in some corn, black beans, cheddar cheese, and chopped cilantro. Or, you could simply keep it as you usually eat it, and let the seasoning do the talking. Either way, it's a potato salad like you've never had before.