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Potatoes are a staple at my family gatherings in one form or another. Cheesy potatoes at Thanksgiving and Christmas, baked potatoes loaded with chili for Halloween, and the ever present potato salad at all summer events. I’ve never been a fan of any kind of mayo… so I took up the challenge to make a vegan dill potato salad recipe only using fresh dill, creamy mustards and olive oil to bring color and flavor to your next BBQ.
What Makes this Potato Salad Vegan?
Traditional potato salad has eggs either in the mayonnaise or hard boiled in the salad itself. My potato salad swaps the mayo for a delicious olive oil + mustard blend dressing, and loads up on fresh veggies.
Switching from a mayonnaise base to an olive oil one also lightens up the salad a bit. I find mayonnaise-based dishes are fairly heavy, while this lovely recipe remains light and bright… plus, it’s just SO colorful without that white sauce covering everything up!
Tips for Vegan Potato Salad
What are your must-have ingredients for potato salad? Mine include dill pickles, fresh dill, and black olives… because those were always in the salads of my childhood. Yet the original salads from my childhood weren’t vegan, so I love the new take this vegan potato salad recipe has on the classic dish.
I don’t peel the red potatoes for my salad, as boiling them with the skin on helps retain more nutrients. Dijon mustard elevates the flavor in this recipe, so that is my go-to in the dressing.
Potato Salad Ingredient Swaps
- I love recipes where I can easily sub in what I have on hand, and this potato salad is just such a recipe. If radishes aren’t your thing, then swap them with diced cucumbers or corn to keep in a bit of fresh crunch.
- If you really want the feel of a traditional potato salad, then swap in a vegan mayonnaise. These tend to be more processed, yet can give you the feel of enjoying your family’s fav old recipe and that extra creaminess.
- The pop of color in the red potatoes is super fun, yet feel free to use any potato you want (Yukon golds work great too!). If you really want a fresh change up, try using a white sweet potato… and then let me know how it turns out!
- While I love using Claussen pickles for this recipe, I bet a lot of you have great local options you might prefer. I’m a true pickle lover, so tell me your fav kind and I’ll give it a try. For a less vinegary taste, try sweet pickles.
More Scrumptious Vegan Side Dishes
I’ve got so many great vegan salads and side dishes you can share at your next backyard BBQ. Just pick the flavors that you want and get choppin’:
If you make this vegan dill potato salad, please let me know in the comments how it turned out!
Vegan Dill Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups golden potatoes chopped into 1/2″ cubes
- 2 tbsp red onions diced
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 tbsp black olives sliced
- 1 radish halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp dill pickles diced
Dressing
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp pickle juice
- 1 tbsp fresh dill stems removed + finely chopped
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- โ tsp ground turmeric
- โ black pepper
- โ smoked paprika
Instructions
- Place the potatoes in a large pot with cold water. Bring to boil then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain the potatoes, set aside to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, mix all dressing ingredients together.
- Add the potatoes and remaining vegetables and herbs into the dressing and stir well.
- Garnish with radishes and paprika.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Vegan Dill Potato Salad Common Questions
Traditional potato salad has eggs in it, either in the mayonnaise or hard boiled. My potato salad swaps the mayo for a delicious olive oil based dressing, and loads up on fresh veggies.
I’ve had it both ways! The potatoes are cooked, yet I like mine to chill a bit in the fridge before serving. Honestly, letting the salad refrigerate overnight before serving will bring out the best flavor.
I love using red potatoes. They are super easy to slice up, and taste delicious. You can also use Yukon Gold potatoes for a buttery taste.
This salad was delicious: hearty due to the potatoes but refreshing due to all the bright flavors from the pickles and pickle juice and dill. My older son really enjoyed it as well!
Delicious salad! Finally! This is a potato salad for those of us who don’t like mayonnaise! And it is so much healthier. The dressing gives good flavor with the dill and the tang of the pepperoncini juice I used. This would be delicious at a summer picnic as well!
I am always interested in what you can do with fresh dill and it, along with the pickles and pickle juice, made this a fantastic potato salad. Because most, not all, mayonnaises are made with soy oil (my allergy nightmare), I totally avoid potato salads, it is a big plus it’s “hold the mayo”. I love knowing what all the great ingredients are and it’s all healthy and fresh. I am going to bring this one to the summer picnics and potlucks! Could have been my whole dinner, so delicious and filling!! Husband gave it 2 thumbs up!
Yay!! Glad it was an overall win!
Tart And Tangy, I Had Never Put Black Olives And Radishes Together With Potatoes, Until Now ๐ I Have Enjoyed Each Ingredient Separately, And Now I Have A New And Interesting Flavor Combination To Explore. I Did Enjoy The Texture Change From The Softness Of The Potatoes To The Crunchiness Of The Radishes.
I wasn’t sure how I’d like radishes and olives in my potato salad, but it was very good. I can’t do onions and garlic anymore and I didn’t have pickles or dill weed, so I improvised. I used some chives and some apple cider vinegar in addition to the mustard. I made it late in the afternoon, so the flavors didn’t have time to meld, but it was still tasty. There was enough left over for tomorrow, so I’m sure it will be even better. Since I rarely purchase mayo, it was nice having a recipe that doesn’t use it.
Sounds like you chose some fantastic substitutes!
Surpassed my expectations by a lot!!! It is so, so good! Thank you!!
Double dilly dilly! How clever to include pickle juice as the acidic component in the dressing. This tater salad is fresh and fun! I felt it needed a little salt, but otherwise perfect.
Was okay. Didn’t have dill pickles so I subbed pickled beets and banana peppers. Gave it more color, but not sure if it made it not as good.
Well… 3 for 3 salads completed. This didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would. The recipe above lists dijon mustard, but the original recipe in the welcome to the challenge didn’t list it. I used it. I also used sweet pickle juice instead of dill. So maybe that’s why it was a weird-ish flavor. Might have to try another version of the dressing to add
Always looking for a good clean potato salad. This did not disappoint. The dill and pickles were key, that and I added a bit more salt:)
Delicious and full of veggies. Very light dressing
Interesting and savoury combination of flavours. Will make it again!
I enjoyed this recipe quite a bit, but my husband didnโt like it. I think I might have made some missteps in following the recipe properly. It wasnโt quite as flavorful as it looked in the recipe. I will try it again and try to figure out what I did wrong.
Not sure if you’ve seen the update on this salad, but when the book got printed, an ingredient was left out – Dijon Mustard. Fresh Vegan Potato Salad Check out the recipe here for the full list of ingredients. So sorry about that! Maybe the Dijon would have kicked the flavor up a notch.
Feel free to make this recipe your own with the flavors your husband would enjoy as well.
This was a delicious potato salad, didn’t miss the mayo at all! Great combination of ingredients!
This was a simple recipe, Made in about 15 min using my Instapot. Ingredients blended well with flavors! Will do it again!
Overall, this potato salad was pretty good. There just seemed to be something missing. I followed the directions exactly except I used kalamata olives instead of sliced black olives. I just felt like maybe it needed more spice or something more savory. I tend to prefer a traditional, creamy potato salad with avocado oil mayo, or a Greek potato salad. I do think that any time you can eat a resistant starch like cold potatoes or fermented pickles, both for gut health, itโs a win-win!