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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 oneโs a keeper also
I never made potato salad because I hate mayo. Never thought to use pickle juice- thanks for the recipe!
Awesome, I never thought about potato salad like this. Perfectly yummy
This salad is very tasty but I don’t think of it as a salad. It’s more of a potato side dish and nothing at all like a potato salad.
I canโt believe I never tried dill pickle potato salad before! Itโs got a tang from the pickles and a spiciness from onion/radish/celery combo. The garlic just tops it all off and brings it together. Great picnic salad idea for this summer!
Iโm converted!!! All the flavor of a potato salad none of the mayo!!!
Lots of ingredients I don’t normally have on hand.
I’m all about a creamy potato salad; but I really enjoyed this. The creaminess if the potatoes with the big flavors in the dressing was really yummy.
The dill dressing recipe was different on the PDF so I did not add mustard.
Thank you for, again, taking me out of my comfort zone.
Happy to challenge you, Emily!! Way to go!
UPDATE to my previous comment:
I JUST noticed that the recipe on this blog has Dijon mustard as an ingredient. I followed the recipe on the downloadable book of recipes. The mustard is NOT listed in that recipe at all.
NOW I need to make this again and see if it is better with the mustard.
So sorry about that, Allison. Def give it a shot with the Dijon – it really kicks the flavor up a notch.
Not sure what to expect – very happy with how it turned out. Will definitely make this for family get-togethers so I hope the recipe doubles/triples well!
I have to say that this wasn’t my favorite recipe. It seemed lacking in flavor. I would have liked more dressing to it. Also, I need to avoid potatoes for my health, so I substituted rutabaga. I couldn’t get enough of the rutabaga, but that and the onion was all I tasted. i LOVE onions, but this just didn’t work. Next time I will try substituting cauliflower instead and double the remaining ingredients, except the onion.
I loved the vinaigrette with pickle juice, also the crunchiness from radishes and celery. The olives were a nice addition to the mix of flavours.
Will do this again.
Alright, this is the salad that I was the most skeptical about. Iโm not a fan of pickles or mustard. I may have overcooked the potatoes a little bit. While this is for our dinner tonight, I did try a little and liked it. Now granted, my wife and I are not olive eaters, so that one was omitted. Day 3 and still enjoying!
Great job! Way to challenge yourselves!
Not at all what I was expecting and SO yummy! Loved having the option for potato salad without the mayo.
We loved this potato salad recipe! Iโm actually one day ahead on the 10 days and made it last night! My husband usually likes creamy potato salad, so I added a couple of tablespoons of your cashew cream and a couple shakes of hemp seeds! It was delicious! I served it with oven roasted โbarbecuedโcauliflower and a side of oven roasted asparagus!
Great combination with the bbq cauliflower! And I did the same thing with the cashew cream! Def gave it that creamy potato salad texture.
Day 3 Salad Challenge – Iโm not a fan of this. Iโll have to make again because my potato were mushy too soft ๐