For A Lighter Take On Potato Salad, Break Out The Champagne Vinegar

When it comes to good side dishes for picnics and cookouts, potato salad is a surefire pick. It's hearty and filling while also being packed with flavor. Plus, you can dress it up with different herbs and add-ins that give the meal its own flair. Now, more often than not, potato salad is made with a creamy dressing. However, you don't have to make it this way. Instead, you can make a lighter version with a Champagne vinegar-based dressing instead of the typical mayonnaise.

This particular type of vinegar also lends a unique flavor to your salad. For starters, it adds a bit of tanginess to the dish. At the same time, this particular type of vinegar has a light, slightly sweet, and fruity flavor that adds depth and complexity to your salad. And, because it's more delicate than other types of vinegar, it still lets the flavor of any other herbs and ingredients you add to your salad shine through. The result is a delectable side dish that's on the lighter side and has an elevated taste.

While Champagne vinegar may be what gives this spin on potato salad its unique taste, it's not the only ingredient in it. For starters, you'll need to choose potatoes for the salad. You can use any variety you like here, whether that's yellow potatoes, red potatoes, or even white boiling potatoes. Just note that you're going to want to select small tubers so that when you chop and quarter them for your dish, they're bite-sized. Otherwise, you'll wind up with large chunks of the vegetable that are hard to eat.

You'll also need to consider what other ingredients, apart from the vinegar, go into your sauce. For starters, mustard is a key inclusion, which also adds depth to the sauce and gives it a slight bite and a dash of bitterness. For this recipe, you'll want to use Dijon mustard, although you can also add some whole-grain mustard to add a bit of texture.

You can also select various herbs, such as tarragon or chopped chives, to mix into your vinaigrette and give it some additional tasting notes. Or, you can stick with simple salt and pepper. Whichever way you go, mix the herbs, mustard, and vinegar together. As you whisk, slowly pour in a stream of your preferred oil and then toss it with the potatoes for a yummy side dish.

If you want to make this dish but don't have Champagne vinegar on hand, there are a couple of alternatives that you can use instead. Now, the salad won't have exactly the same flavor profile, but these swaps can still get you a similar result. As you select which type of vinegar to use, remember that the Champagne variety has a light color and flavor. So, you'll want to choose alternatives that have similar tasting notes.

One of the closest replacements is white wine vinegar. White wine vinegar is also light with fruity notes, although it's more acidic and less sweet than the Champagne variety. Still, the difference in taste should be fairly imperceptible once it's combined with the rest of the ingredients in your potato salad.

Another pick could be apple cider vinegar, which is fruitier than Champagne vinegar but still retains some of the condiment's lighter qualities. Or, there's rice wine vinegar, which has much the same acidity level. With these alternatives, you've got plenty of options when it comes to making a light spin on a tasty, classic picnic side.