Potato Salad with Garden Peas, Bacon & Egg
Potato salad sounds like a cheat meal. This one is 438 calories, 24g of protein, and 12g of fiber.
Cold-rinsed baby potatoes hold their shape and keep their bite. Crispy bacon strips and diced pickles add crunch and acidity. Egg wedges go on top, garden peas and radishes fill the gaps, and a quick yogurt-mustard dressing pulls everything together in 20 minutes flat.
Ingredients
- baby potatoes 0.5 pound
- egg 1
- garden peas (frozen) 4 ounces
- radishes 5
- pickles 2
- bacon 3 slices
- yogurt, nonfat 1 tablespoon
- mayonnaise 1 teaspoon
- yellow mustard 0.5 teaspoon
- mixed salad 1 handful
Method
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Cut the baby potatoes in half and cook them in a pot of boiling water for 8-10 minutes until they are tender. Drain and rinse with cold water.
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Cook the egg in a pan of water for 6-8 minutes. Shock it in cold water, peel the egg and cut it into wedges.
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Boil the garden peas for 2-4 minutes in a pot of boiling water, then drain.
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Slice the radishes into thin rounds, then into strips and dice the pickles.
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Slice the bacon into strips.
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Prepare a dressing by mixing yogurt, mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl.
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Combine the cooked baby potatoes, garden peas, radishes, pickles and bacon strips in a bowl. Stir the dressing into the salad. Season the potato salad with salt and pepper.
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Place the lettuce on a plate and top it with the salad. Place the egg wedges on top of the salad and sprinkle with some pepper and salt to taste.
Tossing the pickles with the potatoes in step 7 does more than add crunch. Acetic acid from pickled cucumber slowed starch digestion in a Lund University study, cutting the glycemic index of a starch meal by 45%.
Out of 38 foods tested in equal-calorie portions, boiled potatoes scored 323% on the Satiety Index. More than three times the fullness of white bread and seven times higher than a croissant. The combination of protein, fiber, and water content in potatoes triggers sustained fullness, confirmed by researchers who also measured actual food intake afterward.
Research: Holt et al., 1995Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Why does the recipe say to rinse the potatoes with cold water?
The cold rinse stops the cooking so the potatoes hold their firm texture in the salad. It also triggers a structural change in the starch. When boiled potatoes cool, some of their starch converts into resistant starch, a type of fiber that passes through digestion more slowly. A 2019 study measured this conversion and found that cold storage increased resistant starch content significantly compared to freshly boiled potatoes.
Can I use fresh peas instead of frozen?
Fresh garden peas work perfectly. Blanch them for 2-3 minutes instead of the 2-4 minutes the recipe calls for with frozen peas. Fresh peas cook faster since they have not been blanched before freezing. The texture will be slightly sweeter and more crisp.
Why is this salad more filling than most salads?
The potatoes. In a University of Sydney study testing 38 foods in equal-calorie portions, boiled potatoes scored 323% on the Satiety Index, the highest of any food tested. That is more than three times higher than white bread. Combine that with 12g of fiber from the peas and potatoes, 24g of protein from the egg, bacon, and peas, and a 438-calorie total, and the result is a salad built to keep you full.
