Table of Contents
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
- ⅛ tsp ground turmeric
- ⅛ black pepper
- ⅛ 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 is very different. I love the fresh dill so that made this salad tasty however I would prefer my potatoes bakes.
Really enjoyed this healthy version of a potato salad. Lots of yummy flavours.
I was skeptical on this vegan potato salad but was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I love dill pickles and the dressing with the pickle juice was amazing! I will definitely be making this recipe for our next meal with the in-laws. They say I cook the same things all the time so I will broaden my cooking abilities and include this recipe and others as well.
The in-laws will be pleasantly surprised!
As a “comfort-food” junkie, I was expecting to be blown away by the Vegan Potato Salad, and while I loved the pickle, olive and radish combo, I think if the Dijon mustard had been in the pdf, it could have made a difference to me.
For my second salad I added the mustard and a 1/2 tbsp of vegan mayo and it bumped this awesome recipe up to a 4 star, but I’ll have to experiment to get it up to a 5 star for my taste buds.
Thanks I will have to add those in as I had the same issues you did.
I really liked the potato salad, but I skipped the olives, can’t stand them. We have a similar recipe in Germany, the dressing is with veggi stock, vinegar and mustard and idealy you enjoy the salad luke warm.
Enjoyed the extra crunchy ingredients in the potato salad and the delicious dressing. We will be making this again!
Love, love, love this salad! My husband and I both enjoyed the dressing, this will be a keeper recipe…can’t wait to make it instead of “regular” potato salad at the next family get together!
I made this with the addition of green beans and it was sooo good!
I wish there were more than five stars. I thought my hubby and I would strongly dislike this one…he really isn’t a potato guy and we both love our mayo-based potato salads. I am shocked at how much we loved this! My hubby scarfed it down with a hard-boiled egg on top for some protein, and we didn’t miss the mayo AT ALL. Not a black olive fan, so I used Kalamata. I wanted to mention that the pdf version of the salad challenge does not include the dijon mustard, so we made it without it and still loved it (but we’ll certainly add it next time…and there WILL be a next time!). 🙂
Very tasty!!!
Dill was so perfect with the potato,I’ve always used sweet but will be using dill from now on. Will make again
My husband has been doing this challenge with me. As much as we both enjoyed this salad his main comment was how he liked this salad much better than mayonnaise potato salads.
Made this for lunch today. It was good but missing something – maybe a little more pickle. I did not use olives but will next time.
Great recipe. Full of flavor, crunch and tang. This is a great alternative to the traditional potato salad. Lighter and more refreshing.
Delicious alternative to mayo dressing! I really liked the crunch of the celery and radishes.
This is a very interesting potato salad. I think I should have added more mustard, mainly for my taste. If you like pickles, this is the recipe for you!
Not my favorite one needed more dressing
Love the pickles in this
potato salad, plenty of flavor! I used my instant pot to cooked the potatoes so it came together quickly. I really enjoyed having a recipe lined up for each day that I didn’t have to research! Thanks for all your hard work❣️