French Potato Salad
A classic summer side, this potato salad borrows from flavors of the Mediterranean with dill, lemon and capers. Cook potatoes a day ahead for easy assembly. If you don’t like dill, try thyme or tarragon. For more herbs, add chopped parsley and even a little fennel seed for more Mediterranean flavor. For brighter lemon flavor, use zest as well.
Servings: 8
Calories: 143kcal
Equipment
- A large pot to cook potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes 5 large potatoes
- ½ cup finely chopped celery 2-3 ribs
- ⅓ cup finely chopped shallot substitute onion
- 1-2 tablespoons capers rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill
- ½ tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or thyme sub 1 teaspoon dried
- ¼ cup mayonnaise or Vegenaise
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 large garlic clove finely minced or zested
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
Cook potatoes
- Scrub potatoes and leave peel on. Place potatoes in a medium pot and add a little salt. Cover with cold water and bring to just under a boil. Turn down heat and simmer potatoes until completely tender when pierced with a thin metal skewer like a cake tester, 18-20 minutes. Drain potatoes, cool and refrigerate until cold. Gently peel potatoes with a paring knife, the skins almost slide off. You can do this a day ahead and keep potatoes refrigerated. Note - You can also peel potatoes when they are just cool enough to handle, then refrigerate whole.
Finish potato salad
- Dice cold potatoes into approximately ¾″ cubes and place in a medium bowl. Add celery, shallot, capers, dill, parsley. In a small bowl, stir or whisk together the vegenaise, lemon juice, garlic, and mustard until smooth, then gently fold into the potatoes until the they are well coated. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed, and add extra lemon or herbs if desired.Keep potato salad covered and refrigerated until serving time. May be served chilled or closer to room temperature.
Notes
- If you like hard boiled eggs in potato salad, add a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs. Try my method for making perfect easy peel hard boiled eggs.
- Don't like Dijon mustard? Use your favorite old fashioned yellow mustard if preferred.
- No fresh herbs? Use dried herbs at ⅓ to ½ the amount of fresh, but try to get at least fresh parsley for color and better flavor.
- No shallots? Use finely chopped red onion. After chopping, rinse them in cold water to remove some of the pungency, the dried well before adding to the potato salad.
- For vegan potato salad, be sure to use a no-egg mayo.
Nutrition
Calories: 143kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 174mg | Potassium: 535mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 38IU | Vitamin C: 24mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg