Kartoffelsalat with Sausages: the German Christmas Eve Dinner
Potato salad with sausages is what most German households actually eat on Christmas Eve — far more often than goose: warm potato salad with stock, mustard and onion, served with hot sausages. The two things that decide the outcome: the potatoes are dressed warm, because cold they absorb nothing, and the stock goes in gradually until the salad turns creamy without a drop of mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 1 kg waxy potatoes
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 200 ml hot vegetable stock
- 3 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 tbsp mustard
- Salt and pepper
- 1 handful chopped chives or parsley
- 6 frankfurters or Vienna sausages
- Optional: 4 pickled gherkins, diced
Method
- 1
Boil the potatoes in their skins in salted water for 25 to 30 minutes, until a knife slides in without resistance but they still hold together.
- 2
Peel them as soon as you can handle them and slice half a centimetre thick. They must be warm: that is the only moment they take up the dressing.
- 3
Mix the hot stock with the vinegar, mustard, chopped onion, salt and pepper.
- 4
Pour the dressing over the warm potatoes in two or three goes, folding gently and waiting between each. The potatoes drink the liquid in.
- 5
Add the oil and the gherkins if using. Leave at room temperature for at least 1 hour: the salad only finishes coming together in that time, and that is where the creaminess comes from.
- 6
Heat the sausages in hot water without boiling, 8 to 10 minutes. If the water boils, they split.
- 7
Serve the salad warm or at room temperature, with the chives scattered over and the sausages alongside.