Soups, Salads and Cakes
Cooking Skills: Potatoes 1
Chapter 8 · Soups, Salads and Cakes
Skill goal
Use potatoes to thicken a soup, carry a dressing and bind a cake.
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
Potatoes also work as a thickener (soup), a carrier of flavour (salads) and a binder (cakes). The type matters: floury potatoes break down for soups and cakes, waxy ones keep their shape for salads.
| Dish | Potato | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Soup | Floury or all-rounder | Breaks down to thicken and cream the soup |
| Warm salad | Waxy | Holds its shape when dressed |
| Mayonnaise salad | Waxy | Same, and needs cooling first |
| Fishcakes and potato cakes | Floury, mashed dry | Dry mash binds the mixture |
- For soup: soften the leeks or onions slowly. Don't brown them, unless you want a darker flavour.
- For salads: dress while warm with a vinaigrette; add mayonnaise only when cool.
- For cakes: dry mash, chill the shaped cakes, and don't turn them too soon.
Try it
Level 1 · Start here
Leek and potato soup
The potato thickens the soup so it needs no cream. Soften the leeks gently without browning, for a pale, sweet soup.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 2 tsp butter or olive oil
- 2 leeks (about 300 g), washed and sliced
- 300 g floury or all-rounder potatoes, peeled and diced
- 700 ml hot vegetable or chicken stock
- 100 ml milk
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp chopped chives
- Melt the butter in a large pan over a low heat. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt and cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until soft but not coloured.
- Add the potatoes and stock, bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the potatoes are completely soft.
- Blend with a stick blender (or in batches in a jug blender) until smooth. Stir in the milk, season, and reheat gently.
- Serve with the chives.
Blending hot soup
Hot liquid can burst out of a blender. Fill a jug blender no more than half, hold the lid down with a cloth and vent the steam, or let the soup cool a little first.
Level 1 · Warm
Warm potato salad
The warm vinaigrette salad from chapter 1, with more in it. Good with grilled fish, sausages or eggs.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 400 g waxy potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2 cm pieces
- 1 tsp salt, for the water
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 3 spring onions, sliced
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley or chives
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Boil the potatoes from cold in salted water for 10 to 12 minutes, until just tender. Drain and steam dry.
- Whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard and seasoning in a bowl. Add the warm potatoes with the spring onions and herbs and fold gently.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Level 2 · Picnic
Classic potato salad
Cool the potatoes before adding the mayonnaise, or it turns oily. A splash of vinegar on the warm potatoes gives flavour right through.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 500 g waxy potatoes, scrubbed
- 1 tsp salt, for the water
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp plain yoghurt
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- 1 tbsp chopped chives
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Boil the potatoes whole, from cold, in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes until tender. Drain, then cut into bite-size pieces.
- Sprinkle the vinegar over the warm potatoes and let them cool completely (about 30 minutes).
- Mix the mayonnaise, yoghurt, mustard, spring onions, chives and seasoning. Fold gently into the cool potatoes.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Keep it cold
Potato salad with mayonnaise should be kept chilled and eaten within 2 days. Don't leave it out in the sun at a picnic for more than 2 hours.
Level 3 · Binder
Salmon and potato fishcakes
Dry, firm mash holds fishcakes together. Wet mash makes them fall apart. Use tinned salmon (cooked already), and chill the cakes before frying.
Ingredients (3 portions)
- 300 g floury potatoes, peeled and cut up
- 1 tsp salt, for the water
- 1 tin pink or red salmon (200 g), drained
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- ½ lemon, zest only
- 2 tbsp plain flour, for dusting
- 1 Lion-marked egg, beaten, for coating
- 40 g dried breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil, for frying
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes until soft. Drain, steam dry for 2 minutes and mash until smooth. Let it cool for 15 minutes.
- Flake in the salmon (the soft tinned bones are edible and a source of calcium; remove them if you prefer), the spring onions, parsley, lemon zest and seasoning. Mix gently.
- Shape into 6 patties, about 2 cm thick. Coat each in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes a side, until golden and hot all the way through.
- Drain on kitchen paper and serve with a squeeze of lemon.
Plain potato cakes
Leave out the salmon and use 1 tablespoon more flour. Add cheese, herbs or leftover cooked vegetables instead.
Experiments
Experiment
Blended or mashed soup
What texture do you like?
- Divide the soup after cooking. Blend half until silky and mash the other half roughly with a masher.
- Taste both.
Look for: The blended soup is smooth and creamy. The mashed one is chunky and more rustic. Neither needs cream.
Experiment
Warm or cold dressing
When to add mayo.
- Fold mayonnaise into one batch of warm potatoes and another of cooled potatoes.
- Compare after 30 minutes.
Look for: The warm one goes oily and loose as the mayonnaise melts. The cool one stays creamy.
Experiment
Waxy or floury in salad
Check the type.
- Make the warm salad with waxy potatoes and again with floury ones.
- Compare how they hold.
Look for: The floury potatoes break up into a mushy salad. The waxy ones keep their shape.
Experiment
Binder amount
How much holds a cake together?
- Make potato cakes with mash only, and with 1 and 2 tablespoons of flour added per 300 g potatoes.
- Fry and compare.
Look for: No flour: cakes may fall apart. A little flour holds them. Too much makes them stodgy.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leek and potato soup | ||||
| Warm potato salad | ||||
| Classic potato salad | ||||
| Fishcakes | ||||
| Blended vs mashed soup | ||||
| Warm vs cool mayo | ||||
| Waxy vs floury salad | ||||
| Binder amount |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Soup gluey | Over-blended floury potato | Blend briefly; use all-rounder potatoes |
| Soup bland | Unseasoned, or weak stock | Season well; use a better stock |
| Salad mushy | Floury potatoes or overcooked | Use waxy and test early |
| Salad oily | Mayo added to warm potatoes | Cool completely first |
| Fishcakes fall apart | Wet mash, or not chilled | Dry the mash; chill 30 minutes |
| Fishcakes burnt outside, cold inside | Heat too high | Medium heat; finish in a 180°C oven if thick |
Food safety: soup, mayonnaise and fishcakes
Blending hot soup can splash and scald: half-fill the jug and hold the lid down with a cloth. Potato salad with mayonnaise must be kept cold and eaten within 2 days. Fishcakes must be hot all the way through, so cut one open to check. The fish here is tinned and already cooked. Use Lion-marked eggs for the coating. Cooked potatoes: cool them quickly (spread out, within 1 to 2 hours), keep them covered in the fridge, and eat them within 2 days. Reheat until steaming hot all the way through, and only once. (This is the general chilled-leftovers advice relayed by local-authority food-safety pages; unlike rice, potatoes have no special rule of their own, but they are starchy, so they are treated with the same care.)
Checkpoint: can you do this now?
- I can make a creamy potato soup without cream.
- I can dress a potato salad warm and add mayonnaise cool.
- I can make mash dry enough to bind a cake.
- I know why waxy potatoes suit salads.
- I can fry fishcakes until they are hot all the way through.
Next chapter
Cooking Skills: Potatoes 1, chapter 9 is Putting It Together: a roast dinner with every potato trimming, a make-ahead supper and your skills table.