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Bistro Potato Salad with Caramelized Onions

A potato salad featuring caramelized onions, mayonnaise, dill, mustard, lemon juice, and sugar.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Dill and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 976 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Bistro Potato Salad with Caramelized Onions

Time35 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramelized onions

  1. Sauté onions in olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 20 minutes.

  2. Season onions with salt and pepper.

  3. Cover onions and chill.

Cook and chill the potatoes

  1. Boil potatoes for 35 minutes.

  2. Drain potatoes.

  3. Chill potatoes in a covered container.

  4. Slice chilled potatoes.

Make the dill mayonnaise

  1. Combine mayonnaise with dill leaves, mustard, lemon juice, and sugar.

Assemble the salad

  1. Brush a thin glaze of the dill mayonnaise over the potato slices.

  2. Arrange salad by spooning onions onto a plate, spreading into a 12‑inch round.

  3. Arrange overlapping circles of glazed sliced potatoes over the onions.

  4. Spoon some dill mayonnaise into the center of the salad.

  5. Pass the remaining dill mayonnaise in a small bowl.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

476Calories
13 gProtein
20 gFat
66 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Dill5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried4
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Dill + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Dill + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Potato + dilltop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yellow onions
Sweetness and savory depth when slowly browned into caramel.
Red potatoes
Firm, waxy texture that holds its shape when boiled and sliced.
Mayonnaise
Creamy fat base that carries the dressing flavors and coats the potatoes.
Dijon mustard
Sharp acidity and emulsifying help that stabilizes the dressing.
Lemon juice
Acidity that brightens the rich mayonnaise and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the mustard and lemon.

The step that matters

Chilling the potatoes before slicing. Cold potatoes are firmer and hold their shape when cut, so the slices stay intact for overlapping. Warm potatoes crumble and tear easily.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pepper, potato, dill, mustard, lemon, sugar):

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, potato, dill, mustard, lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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