Capers Are The Tiny Way To Give Potato Salad A Big Flavor Boost

When potato salad is good, it's good. However, far too often recipes fall short on flavor. Although spuds are the star of the show, they can taste fairly bland. It's for this reason that they need some help from punchy ingredients to help elevate flavor. Despite that all sorts of add-ins could be used to amp up a potato salad, it's time you turned to capers. 

Like little powerhouses of flavor, capers are the small but mighty key to a more complex recipe. Since they're often preserved in brine or salt, they tend to have a predominantly salt-kissed and acidic flavor. But, they also boast floral nuances and notes of earthiness. Given this varied profile, it's no wonder that they can amplify flavors in a potato salad, tenfold. Not to mention that capers can bring a pop of color to any beige-looking salad, boosting visual appeal. 

Essentially, any kind of caper will do. Brine-packed options can simply be drained before use, but those packed in salt need to be soaked and rinsed. At this point, they can be roughly chopped and added to a potato salad of your choosing. Otherwise, mince or blitz the green pearls into dressing for a complete diffusion of flavor. For added texture, you can even fry them whole and use them as a crunchy garnish. Regardless of what you decide, a spoonful is more than enough to liven up a potato salad without overpowering it.

While capers can be successfully added to a range of potato salads, there are some recipes that fare better alongside the briny beads. For instance, the fresh vibrancy of capers can be a great match for citrus-forward salads like a lemony patatosalata, just as much as herb-heavy recipes tossed in green goddess dressing. Likewise, briny capers can shine in salads crafted with seafood like a warm octopus and potato salad dressed in olive oil, or a fresh spud and smoked fish salad. 

In contrast, because capers are so tart and tangy, they can work especially well to curb richness in recipes featuring ultra-creamy dressings like an everything-bagel-with-lox-inspired potato salad. Similarly, their acidity can offset recipes laden with decadent ingredients like crumbled chevre, chopped quail eggs, or mashed avocado. But, the capers' saltiness and savoriness can even balance the candied quality of a sweet potato-based salad, much like recipes made with honey-infused dressings, sugared nuts, or dried fruit.

Ultimately, capers can elevate and enhance nearly any potato salad. Offering a ton of flavor in a minimal way, the funky little pearls are worth tossing into your next recipe. The question is, which spud-centric salad will you add them to?