Mutti's Potato and Herring Salad Recipe

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This Potato and Herring Salad recipe, aka Kartoffel-und-Heringsalat, comes from my Mutti's handwritten cookbook. She usually made it as one of her party buffet recipes. As well, she often made this traditional German food as a special treat for our summer picnics. To differentiate this salad from potato salad, Mutti would add slices of pickled red beets.

The resulting pink-colored herring salad became her trademark. I used to think it was her special way of making this salad special. It wasn't till I was older and had traveled to Germany that I realized adding beets to herring and potato salad was normal. 

Mutti's Potato and Herring Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups boiled potatoes, diced
  
• 1 cup herring, diced
  
• ¾ cup celery, diced
  
• 6 tbsp sour cream
  
• 1½ tbsp lemon juice
• 1 small can whole beets, drained and diced
• parsley, chives

Instructions:

• In a large bowl, mix together sour cream and lemon juice
  
• Add potatoes, herring, and celery and toss gently
  
• Add beets and toss gently
• Season with minced parsley and minced chives, salt, and freshly ground pepper
  
• Serve chilled. Serves 4 - 6

Hints:

• Add some diced onions or green onions if desired.
  
• If you prefer, potatoes, herring, and beets can be sliced or cubed instead

Which herring to use ...

Use pickled herring that's sold in jars. Drain well and cut the herring into smaller pieces. If onions are in the jars, chop these and add to the salad as well.

If the pickled herring you've bought still has the back-bones in it, you'll need to remove this. Just cut along the back-bone and pull the flesh away from it.

You'll find a different version of the herring salad recipe minus the potatoes as Heringsalat, a great treat that my kids loved when they were little. Sweet and sour and creamy, too! Herring recipes that kids would love. Who would believe that?

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Some more German Salads

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