The Best Kept Secret For Quick Potato Salad In A Pinch Is This High-Temp Appliance

Some home cooks like to follow Ina Garten's method for avoiding mushy potato salad by parboiling the spuds and then gently steaming them until they're tender. I'm sure that strategy works great, but for me, that's too much time spent on a relatively straightforward dish. I'm more apt to follow Joanne Gallagher's advice and speed up the process. The co-founder and recipe developer at Inspired Taste revealed that if you want potatoes to cook quickly, an Instant Pot should be your go-to appliance.

"You can definitely use an Instant Pot to cook your potatoes quickly and evenly, so you don't have to babysit a pot on the stove," Gallagher said. "Try cooking the eggs at the same time as well, to save a step. It's an efficient alternative that is especially helpful for busy days."

An Instant Pot's pressure cooker function can get you tender potatoes in just a few minutes, whereas boiling them takes 10 to 20 minutes. Granted, you do have to wait for the pressure to build up. Depending on the model you have, that may take around 10 minutes, but you can walk away while it does its thing instead of patiently tending to them as they boil on the stove.

Gallagher illustrated how using an Instant Pot for potato salad speeds up the process in more ways than one. "Start with your cubed potatoes and a little water. If you're adding eggs, place those on top," she said. It doesn't get any easier than that! Still, when using a high-powered appliance to do the grunt work on your spuds, there are some concerns that merit extra attention.

Personally, I'm always one for using more power to get just about any job done — but there are potential problems that folks using an Instant Pot to cook potatoes should watch out for. Joanne Gallagher warned that you might be setting yourself up for mushy potato salad if you're not mindful about the entire process.

"It's easy to overcook potatoes in an Instant Pot," Gallagher said. "You might come away with crumbly, over-softened potatoes." No spicy upgrade for potato salad is going to save overcooked spuds. Still, if you prep the tubers uniformly and are cautious about the timing, you shouldn't encounter that problem. "The trick is to cut them into even pieces, use a shorter cook time, and do a quick release," Gallagher said. "You'll want them fork-tender and holding their shape when you mix everything up."

Speaking of dressing the dish, you don't want to jump the gun and do so right after the starch comes out of the appliance. "Cook them briefly until tender, then drain out everything and let the potatoes cool a bit," Gallagher instructed. "If they're too steamy, they'll soak up the dressing too quickly." After chilling the potatoes, you can dress them up using any number of tasty ingredients. But bear in mind that just as soup usually tastes better the next day, allowing all those flavors to get to know each other for a spell will add depth and character to the dish. "Resting your salad helps everything come together and stay balanced," Gallagher said.