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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 olive oil
- 2 tsp pickle juice
- 1 tbsp fresh dill stems removed + finely chopped
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- â…› tsp ground turmeric
- â…› black pepper
- â…› 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.
I thought the salad had a lot of nice ingredients; however, the flavor was very basic for me. Thank you for the recipe!! 🙂
Tasty, crunchy, no mayo swamping all the flavors. Win for me!
Love all the dill flavor, I actually forgot about adding the mustard, but still had great flavoring. I experimented and added a blend of turmeric, ginger and cinnamon which made the potatoes quite tasty. Another win!
Well, my husband loved it, so that’s saying a lot! He”s a Hugh mayo lover. Trying to get him on the “right” track
This is one of my favorite potato salad recipes! I love how light the dressing is and all of the dill flavor!
A nice twist on potato salad – love the crunch of the dill pickles!
Love this! Make it often. This time I added chopped jalapeno, Sun-dried tomatoes and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Yummy!
Love love love this salad. I so hate mayonnaise! Thank you for an awesome alternative. I will use this dressing for my tuna salad as well. Jan your creativity is astounding.
I made this potato salad as it is but I didn’t have use radish I do not like it.
If I have to make it again I think I’ll double the dressing or add some plain yogurt.
This is a great salad to bring along at picnics and potluck.
Will make it again this weekend.
I don’t like dill pickles as much as bread and butter ones, so I substituted those in this recipe. Not a good choice.
I didn’t know what to expect when tasting this potato salad! It is full of flavor and too easy to make! Really like the dill too and I feel like this salad would go well with a lot of different things.
It’s been years since I have tasted potato salad since I am allergic to potatoes. I decided to give the salad a try using rutabaga instead of potatoes. Rutabagas make a great substitute for French fries, and gives a bit of a garlic flavor which I like. The rutabaga cooked up about like potatoes and I was able to make the salad. I found it delightful! It did take a bit of prep to put it all together, so I probably won’t make it often. It does provide an option to enjoy a salad similar to potato salad for me so I’m most likely going to make this as a bring along dish to a group outing knowing there will now be something I can eat at the outing. I will likely leave out the radish next time as it is not my favorite, but the other ingredients work well for me.
i made this recipe as written except that i used half yukon gold potatoes and half red potatoes (and ended up with far more than two cups of potatoes, but used them all!). i love a good plant based potato salad, so i was looking forward to trying this one. it did not disappoint. i simply added a bit more black pepper to the end product. i do have thoughts of stirring in some culina plain and simple plant yogurt into a bit of it on another day soon to see what i think. too bad i didn’t have a jackfruit bbq sandwich and plant coleslaw to go with it!
This recipe is a keeper! Will definitely make it again!
This potato salad is delicious. I substituted cucumber for the pickles.
I doubled the salad part and tripled the dressing, as the salad looked dry in the photo, and that would not fly with Hubby. I cooked the potatoes in the pressure cooker instead of boiling them and added one each of mini red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, diced, and maybe 2 Tbsp very small Italian parsley leaves, both of which I always put in potato salad. I microplaned the garlic–the smaller the garlic is cut, the more garlic flavor there will be, and I wanted garlic. Wow, did the garlic flavor ever come through! Because the dressing tasted mustardy and Hubby doesn’t like mustard, I added about 3 Tbsp nonfat plain Greek yogurt to the tripled dressing recipe, and that took it down a notch plus made the dressing extra creamy. I assembled the salad in the morning, and we ate it a little after 4 p.m. I thought it was robust and very, very tasty! Hubby ate very little of his–he prefers a yogurt-mayo dressing. I will definitely make this myself and just make the traditional batch for Hubby.