My mom always made really good potato salad when I was growing up, but she didn’t have a recipe. In my family we play fast and loose with our summer salads — dumping in a handful of ingredients into a bowl until it tastes good! So it was a little tough for me to create a recipe for vegan potato salad based off of mom’s classic potato salad, but I think I nailed it. This tastes pretty much like what I grew up eating. I hope you love it as much as I do!
What You’ll Need
Potatoes. Obviously a crucial ingredient! I like russet potatoes for this recipe, since they’re good and starchy and mingle nicely with the dressing. Feel free to swap them out with red or yellow potatoes if you’d like.Vegan mayonnaise. I used Hellman’s vegan mayo, which is available right near the regular mayo at most supermarkets. Vegenaise and Just Mayo are also good brands to look for. Mustard. The recipe calls for plain old yellow mustard, but feel free to get fancy and use spicy mustard or Dijon mustard.Pickle juice. White vinegar works as a substitute.Red onion. Yellow onion will work as a substitute for this, but I find it to be a little overpowering flavor-wise and recommend sticking with red if possible.Carrot.Celery.Relish. You can finely diced up some pickles if this isn’t something you normally buy. The recipe calls for dill pickle relish, but feel free to use sweet relish if that’s your preference. Celery salt.Salt & pepper.Paprika. This is optional and mainly for garnishing your potato salad. Feel free to skip it if you don’t have any on hand.Fresh chives. These get sprinkled on top of your potato salad. Scallions work as a substitute.
How to Make Vegan Potato Salad
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d prefer to skip right to the recipe.
Boil your potatoes first. Boil them whole, with the skins on, until they’re fork tender. Drain them and let them cool for a bit when they’re done.Now you can peel and chop your potatoes. They should peel pretty easily at this point!Add your chopped potatoes to a large bowl, along with almost everything else: mayo, mustard, pickle juice, onion, carrots, celery, relish, salt, and pepper. Stir it up!Taste-test your vegan potato salad and make adjustments if needed — this might mean adding mayo to make it creamier, adding relish or pickle juice to make it more tart, or increasing the salt and/or pepper.
Transfer your potato salad to a serving bowl and top it with some paprika and fresh chives. I recommend chilling it for a bit before serving.Tip: If you grew up eating potato salad with eggs in it, try adding a bit of kala namak to your potato salad. Kala namak is a type of salt with a high sulfur content, so it gives things an eggy flavor. It can be found in most Indian supermarkets.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover potato salad will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for about 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing it.
More Vegan Summer Sides
Best Ever Vegan Baked BeansCreamy Vegan ColeslawVegan Greek Orzo SaladMexican Grilled CornVegan Macaroni Salad
