Simple Vegan Potato Salad with Dill

Why We Love This Recipe

• Vegan: With a creamy dressing made from vegan mayonnaise, dijon mustard, and lemon juice, this dill potato salad is a dairy free twist on a classic that tastes just like the original you know and love.
• Simple recipe: Just boil the potatoes, mix up the dressing, let everything sit, and serve! Since this is served slightly chilled, it's also a perfect recipe to make ahead of time, meaning it's a great option to bring to your next summer cookout.
• Easily customizable: You can swap out the lemon juice for vinegar, add in har boiled eggs if you're not vegan, swap herbs in and out, or add additional vegan mayo to make it creamier. We also love this similar version with asparagus, and this version with dill pickles!
• Summer BBQ side dish: This simple vegan dill potato salad is delicious alongside other summer classics, like vegan coleslaw, caprese salad, corn salad and more.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this simple vegan potato salad with dill:

Ingredient Notes

• Potatoes: We used peewee (baby) potatoes in this simple vegan potato salad, so any smaller varieties like fingerlings or creamers will work well as a substitute. You can feel free to use whatever potato you like, just note that cooking times may vary by variety. If your potatoes are small enough, you don't even really need to chop them.
• Shallots: You can swap out the shallots for red onions, or yellow/white onions if you prefer. We like to hit the diced shallots with 45 seconds of hot tap water followed by 45 seconds of cold water, just to mellow them out a bit, and cut down on that sharp raw onion flavor.
• Mayonnaise: Any variety of vegan mayo should work well in this recipe. Of course if you're not vegan, feel free to use regular mayo.
• Mustard: We used dijon, but yellow would work just fine in this recipe.
• Acid: We used lemon juice, but you can swap this out for the vinegar of your choice.
• Spices: We kept it simple with salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder, but we'd imagine that celery seeds or caraway seeds would also be nice additions, depending on your tastes.
• Herbs: Dill and parsley were our choices, but chives, tarragon, and cilantro are all popular choices as well.

Step-by-step Instructions

(1) Add all dressing ingredients to a small mixing bowl.

(2) Whisk together until smooth and set aside.

(3) Bring 5 quarts of water + 2  tablespoons of salt to a boil in a large pot. Add potatoes, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until just fork tender. Drain and rinse in cold water and set aside to cool. 

Optional: to remove the "bite" from the raw onion or shallot, rinse the diced shallot in a colander under very hot water for 30 seconds, then under cold water for 15 seconds.

(4) Add shallots, celery, dill, and parsley to a large mixing bowl along with the potatoes. Pour dressing over the vegetables and toss gently to coat. Season with more salt and pepper if desired. Refrigerate potato salad for at least 1 hour before serving. 

Expert Tips and FAQ

Tips:

• We used a smaller variety potato variety in this salad. If you're using a larger potato, your cooking time may vary. To test the doneness of your potatoes, simply stick a fork in them while they're boiling. If the fork slides in with a little bit of resistance, they're done. The potatoes should be fork tender, but not falling apart.
• Add a 2 or 3 large pinches of salt to your boiling water. This will help to impart some additional flavor to your potatoes. And don't worry if it sounds like a lot – almost all of it gets drained out!
• We cut the potatoes before cooking, but if you're planning on peeling them, leave them whole, as this will make peeling A LOT easier.
• Boil your potatoes at a rolling boil or a simmer. Boiling the potatoes at too high of a heat will result in an inconsistent doneness throughout the potato. The water should be turbulent, but not violently boiling.
• Adding your potatoes to an ice bath (or running under very cold water) after boiling halts the cooking process and prevents overcooking.
• Leave the skin on or peel: We chose to leave the skin on, but if you want to peel your potatoes, wait until they're cool and simply peel the potatoes with your hands. The peel should come off easily. Alternatively, you can peel before boiling.
• For an eggier flavor reminiscent of a classic southern style potato salad, you can add up to ½ a teaspoon of kala namak, also known as black salt. It's high in sulfur, which helps to create an eggy flavor and aroma.
• Let your salad sit: this is totally optional, but we like setting the salad aside for an hour or two in the fridge so that the potatoes can essentially "marinate" in the dressing and soak up all of that delicious flavor.

Make ahead, storage, and freezing:

• You can make this salad up to 3 days in advance. Cook your potatoes and store in an airtight container in the fridge, and mix together your dressing and store that in a separate airtight container.
• The dressed salad will last in the fridge for about 2-3 days, but we'd recommend eating within the first day (it's best fresh!).
• Freezer: We haven't tried freezing this recipe, but we'd advise against it, since freezing will negatively affect the texture of the cooked potatoes.

FAQ

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