Damn Delicious Vegan Potato Salad
- Updated on May 10, 2017
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Barbecue season. The only time my cravings for meat really ever come back. And the reason this vegan potato salad was born.
I think the main reason for my craving is the terrible quality of the veggie and vegan sausages or burgers available.
In my (humble) opinion they all taste like old boots, and if they don’t have the consistency of cardboard then they’re almost guaranteed to involve egg – and who knows where that egg came from?
A chicken presumably, but not a happy one I’m sure. Most companies don’t even bother to write ‘egg sourced from organic/free range chickens’ or similar, and that’s really not a good sign.
I even gave in to a burger at a BBQ last year (it was being thrown away anyway, I decided better in my belly than the bin) and it was awful. It’s how this vegan potato salad came to be.
Where am I going with this? Well, now the key to a good BBQ for me involves all sorts of meat-free side dishes.
Potato salad is an all-time classic, and meat eater or not, it’s a hard push to beat a BBQ that comes with potato salad. The fact it’s vegan is a bonus.
This potato salad is there to put my (and possibly your) cravings to an end. After telling our new professional chef of my BBQ dilemmas, he introduced me to this wonderful dish.
South German in style (well, without the beef broth), it’s fresh and tangy with a sweet offset that hits just the right spot.
It doesn’t use any oil (or mayo either, obviously) so it’s a perfect light dish if you’re looking to keep the calories a little lower over summer.
Vegan Potato Salad – Pro Tips
There are a couple of things you can do to make your vegan potato salad EVEN better.
- ‘Oversalt’ the potatoes while boiling – the potatoes need a lot of salt to get full flavour out of them.
Make sure you taste the potatoes after boiling: then you will know how much salt you need to add to the dressing. - Remember to season the salad while it’s still warm, it will soak up the taste way better than when it’s cold.
This applies to almost everything in cooking – a great tip to take with you. - The salad will taste even better on the second day, so this is something you can prepare one or two days ahead (and save time when you need it).
So there you go. Reinvigorate your barbecues with some proper potato salad – you’ll never miss meat again. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Jansen!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs potato (2 lbs = 900 g)
- 2 small red onion
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ cup vinegar
- â…” cup water
- 2 tsp agave syrup (or maple syrup)
- Salt to taste
- 1 bundle radish
- 4 spring onions
- ½ cup parsley, fresh
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 4 pickles
Instructions
- Optional: peel the potatoes. We generally do this only if the skin doesn’t look good (most of a potato’s nutrients are in the skin)
- Boil the potatoes in salty water. If you don’t add enough salt the potatoes will taste like nothing. After 15 minutes check if they are done by pinching them with a fork. If it’s easy to pierce through they’re done.
- Tip the potatoes into a sieve and let them cool for 5 minutes or so, then slice them roughly into 0.2 inch/5 millimeter pieces (see picture for slice size)
- For the dressing: dice the onion, grate the garlic and put it into a small pot. Add vinegar and water and let it simmer it until the onions are tender.
- Once the onions are tender add agave syrup, mustard and salt.
- You will get some crumbles and offcuts from the potatoes. Put this into the dressing because this will bind nicely.
- Finely slice the radish, chop the spring onions, pickles and parsley.
- Now assemble everything in a salad bowl. Mix well, taste test and if necessary add more salt to your liking.
- Done!
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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42 comments
I wasn’t too sure about the recipe but decided to give it a try (minus the agave because I prefer a savory potato salad) and it is so good!
Really happy to hear that, Anna!! This is a staple side at BBQs over here in Germany, well south Germany. The Northern love adding mayonnaise to their potato salads 😉
Delicious! Omitted the parsley for personal preference, and added a bit of smoked paprika. My family devoured it! Thanks for the terrific recipe!
Love it! I bet the paprika was amazing. Happy to share, thanks for writing!
Hi, I’m going to make this salad for a vegan bbq on Saturday and was wondering if it can be made ahead and stored in the fridge?
Hi, yes it can! It probably tastes even better when made a day or early :). Enjoy!
Aldi recently put potatoes on sale for just $1.49 for 10 pounds. For a big family of vegans, 30# of potatoes isn’t too many, right? So, I’ve been making potatoes in a huge variety of ways! I made your potato salad and loved it! My kids are eating it by the bowlful! I followed your directions except that I didn’t saute the onion and I added some finely chopped red pepper. I like that satisfying crunch. I also added just 2 Tbsp of tahini and stirred it in at the end. The addition of radishes was brilliant! Very nice bits of spicy goodness! Thanks! It’s definitely on my “make again” list!
Ha, wa great idea about the tahini, Hope! Actually that makes me realize we don’t use that ingredient that often in “non-arabic-style” dishes. We should! Have a great weekend 🙂
How would this be with balsamic vinegar instead? Sweeter I’m sure, but wondering if it would still go with everything else…?
I would say it would be great! I love balsamic vinegar so I’ll rarely say it’s a bad idea anyway, but I bet it would fit really nicely in here 🙂
Does it matter which type of vinegar? If it’s not specified then I usually assume it means plain white vinegar. But when I click on the link it takes me to Malt Vinegar.
Hiya Deb, I’ve used both in this recipe and each is equally delicious! I generally take malt as first choice as it takes away my homesick pangs 🙂
I’m in the US and am wondering about vegetable names. I think the “spring onions” in this recipe are what we in the US call “scallions” or “green onions” To show you what I mean, here’s the web address of a page that has a photo. (Sorry–you’ll have to paste it in your browser because I couldn’t figure out how to insert a link or photo):Iis that right?
Also, are the “small red onions” the same thing that Americans generally refer to as shallots? Again a web address of a page that has a photo of what I think of as shallots: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/conservor-shallots/all-garlic
So glad to find your site as my daughter is vegan and I’m still learning how to cook for her!
Hi Beth, and welcome! Great to have you here, and glad you’re finding it useful for your daughter! So, from looking, yes green onions are definitely those type of scallion. A red onion is just that – I don’t think it’s quick the same as the red shallot. ‘Small’ is more to give indicator of size, really. I guess half a ‘normal’ red onion would be appropriate too. Unless I’m way off – do you have regular red onions in your area?