Give Potato Salad A Spicy Upgrade With Just One Addition From Your Spice Cabinet

Potato salad doesn't have to be bland, but too often it is. After all, its main ingredients are typically potatoes and mayo, neither of which is a powerhouse of flavor on its own. That's why people use all kinds of mix-ins to make potato salad a little tastier. Some delicious additions, like bacon, require a lot of extra work, but a few shakes of cayenne pepper powder can make your potato salad pop without dirtying another pan.

Cayenne peppers are the hot red chiles most people picture when they think of spicy peppers generally. They're a lot fierier than jalapeños, less so than habaneros. The powdered cayenne you might already have in your spice cabinet comes from grinding these petite heat missiles. So, even just a dusting will pack a wallop in your old-fashioned potato salad, or any other kind.

Simply sprinkling some on top will give the salad's surface area some much-needed color. But it obviously won't maximize distribution. Adding the spice to your potato salad dressing gives the cayenne pepper better reach when coating the potatoes and lets you taste as you go so you don't overdo the intensity. You might also be surprised to find that many of cayenne pepper's complementary ingredients show up in plenty of other potato salads.

Barring the real heat fiends — those of us who seek spice like a sport — you probably don't want to add too many other sizzlingly hot ingredients to your potato salad when cayenne pepper's in the mix. So, you might want to leave the sliced serranos behind this time. Milder ingredients will better let the cayenne pepper shine and keep your potato salad from turning into a heat-tolerance test. Take the cooling celery of so many other potato salads, for instance, which does wonders here, too. And hard-boiled eggs, which plenty of people also use in their spud salads, are even better with a bit of cayenne. Chickpeas will provide a similar texture to the eggs when you don't want to spend all day heating water on the stove, and they, too, are enlivened by the bright red pepper powder.

If you want to accentuate cayenne's fire without just piling on more and more capsaicin, something like crushed smoked almonds will do the trick, while also adding terrific texture. Or you can swerve toward sweetness with some nice, juicy corn kernels. None of these pick-me-ups are limited to scratch-made, either; they and cayenne pepper will all also go a long way toward perking up your store-bought potato salad, too.