One Easy Swap Brings New Life To Traditional Potato Salad

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Potato salad is a classic American dish that hits peak popularity in the summer, when it's a familiar staple at picnics and backyard barbecues. Its combination of tender potatoes with a creamy mayo dressing and crunchy add-ins creates a crowd-pleasing blend of flavors and textures. But as beloved as it is, it's also fun to shake up traditional recipes sometimes. One TikTok user suggests giving the nostalgic side a fresh take by swapping out its usual boiled spuds for curly fries.

@jujumaoo

Curly Fries Potato Salad 🥔🎄 Crispy, Tangy, and a dish that will make you wish it was Christmas everyday! INGREDIENTS:  – curly fries – 1 tbsp sprig of dill – 1 tbsp parsley – 1 stalk of chives – 4-5 pickles, diced – 1 cucumber, chopped – 1 onion, diced – Maggi Magic Sarap – pepper to taste Wet Ingredients: – 1 tbsp mustard – 1 cup of mayonnaise  – 1 ½ cup greek yogurt – Juice of 1 lemon INSTRUCTIONS:  – Chop all your dry ingredients and combine with wet ingredients and season with Maggi Magic Sarap. Mix well. – Place curly fries in an Air fryer at 180 degrees until crispy. For this you're gonna want to bake it a bit more than usual, since you'll want it to stay crisp when adding your dressing. – Mix the dressing and the curly fries, and stir and combine. Serve and enjoy!  #MaggiMadeMeDoIt #ChristmasRecipes #CurlyFries

♬ original sound – Juju – Juju

The novel ingredient amps up the dish with both fried potato flavor and the taste of the fries' customary spice blend coating that generally includes onion and garlic powders, paprika, and black pepper. The fries' crisp surface also contributes another texture, while the inside remains soft. The recipe recommends cooking the frozen potatoes a little longer than usual to help them stay crisp when they're mixed with the tangy dressing. (They're air-fried in the TikTok, but you can bake or deep fry them, following the directions on the package.) The recipe also includes Maggi brand Magic Sarap — an umami-rich seasoning often used in Filipino cooking — with salt, MSG, brown sugar, garlic, onion, turmeric, and other ingredients.

Tempted commenters on TikTok remarked, "I need this badly" and "This looks amazing!" When one person brought up the issue of the fries potentially getting soggy from the dressing, writing, "Only problem is you'd have to eat this right away to get that texture you're going for," someone enthusiastically responded, "That's not a problem. I want to eat those right away."

Although it was a contributor to the spiral potatoes' wider popularity, Arby's didn't invent curly fries. Like many foods, it's hard to pin down the origin, but an early version appeared in the 1824 cookbook "The Virginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph (per Townsends via YouTube). The fast food chain did, however, likely introduce the flavoring that became standard when curly fries debuted as a side in 1988. While you might consider using regular fries for the potato salad instead, not only would you lose the curly version's eye-catching look, but you'd miss the mixed-spice coating.

Retail stores carry Arby's seasoned curly fries, including Walmart, where they rate well, alongside other brands such as Ore-Ida or the retailer's private label Great Value. (Shipping isn't available for the frozen items.) Other brands that carry curly fries include McCain , plus Aldi and Kroger store brands, among others.

You can get creative by adding other ingredients, or swap the potatoes for curly fries in similar recipes, such as Cajun Potato Salad or Creamy Loaded Baked Potato Salad. Possibilities include veggies like red or green bell peppers, celery, olives, or capers, herbs such as cilantro and tarragon, or something to give it a kick, like jalapeños, horseradish, chili crisp, or cayenne.