Potato Salad with Parsley

This salad is soft and easy to eat, though not as moist as one with mayonnaise. It keeps beautifully for 4-5 days, though – making it an excellent dish to leave with an older person who might take a few days to finish it. 

 

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

I actually have two potato salad recipes. One is my pride and joy, the one I’ve been specifically asked to bring to potlucks, the complex recipe with many ingredients that everyone asks me about. This isn’t that one.

That one has mayonnaise…

See, there is a place for mayonnaise in salad, but its place is not stashed in a tupperware in my bag so I’ll have a reliably gluten free complex carb at the barbecue (when everyone else is eating the macaroni salad and burger buns)  or something to eat if I can’t get home in time for dinner. Or just as part of the lunch I’ll have in a park between gigs after my bag has been sitting behind a counter for three hours. Or simply because half the dishes on the picnic table have mayonnaise – and I want to serve something different. (And vegan, when that’s an issue…)

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

I’ve always known that potato salad did not need mayo – in fact, I grew up eating it without. I don’t remember my mother ever making potato salad – but it was one of the things she’d occasionally buy at the deli across the street. Every once in a while – if she was particularly busy, or we planned to go somewhere, or it was just too hot to want a hot dinner, she’d send one of us across the street to buy salad, and perhaps sandwiches. Corned beef on rye, more than an inch thick, or ham and Swiss with mustard. Or maybe a pound each of chicken salad, and a superb shrimp salad. A big sour dill pickle. And always, coleslaw, and potato salad without mayonnaise… (They sold it with, as well – she preferred it without.)

It’s sometimes called German potato salad – and in fact the deli was owned by an older German couple, which might be why they made it that way. (Yes, they made all their salads, which were excellent.) But that name is more specifically used for a salad made with bacon, and often served hot, so I don’t use it for this. This is just potato salad with an oil and vinegar dressing, and maybe herbs, if I have some.

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

Right now, I’m still cooking with some of the herbs I froze last summer. I’ve long finished the basil and oregano, but I still have some parsley, and some mint (which will go into iced tea any day now, if it keeps warming up!) So I ended up with the measurements and pictures being a bit off… Tell you what I’m going to do – I’ll describe this the way I made it this time, with notes about changes you would make with fresh herbs, but then I’ll write up the proper Recipe the way I make it with fresh herbs, since most people are more likely to do it that way.

My parsley had been pureed with olive oil and frozen in ice cubes – roughly two tablespoon amounts. I poured a quarter of a cup of olive oil into a measuring cup and added a cube of parsley to thaw – this was more than I would need for the amount of salad I made, but I will use the rest for Herb Salad Dressing. Another time I might cut the cube in half…

For this purpose, I cooked my potatoes whole. I used white potatoes – the ones you usually get in a big bag that just says Potatoes, as if there were no other kind…  Yukon Gold would be lovely, russets not as good for this use. I scrubbed and trimmed two pounds (and, this time of year, they’re starting to need a good bit of trimming… watch out for soft spots and sprouting eyes) covered them with water, and brought to a boil, then simmered. Depending on their size, they’ll probably take between ten and twenty minutes – check after 10, make sure they are tender to a sharp knife. Then drain, and let them begin to cool.

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

Now, this is an extra, purely optional step, but I think it makes a great difference. When they are just cool enough to handle, cut them in big rough chunks – I usually just quarter them. Then sprinkle them with a little vinegar – a tablespoon for this amount. Toss them gently (you don’t want to mush them) to distribute the vinegar and then let them cool completely. The vinegar soaks into the potato, and gives it more flavor. This time I used cider vinegar, another time I might use wine vinegar.

Now, the normal process, with fresh herbs, would go like this – cook your potatoes, quarter, sprinkle with vinegar, cool. Mince parsley, mix it with two tablespoons of olive oil and one of vinegar. Cut the potatoes in bite sized pieces, toss with the dressing, let rest to marinate, serve. (This sounds like too much vinegar – it isn’t. And the amount of oil potatoes absorb can vary – add a drizzle more, if you need to.)

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

What I in fact did was to sprinkle the second tablespoon of vinegar over the quartered potatoes, then pour about half the oil and parsley mixture over them. Which at this point looked much too oily… Then I took this food chopper. I’ve had it for many years, I have no idea now where I got it, it doesn’t seem to be a tool other people have, but I find it very useful for tasks like this – because it both roughly chopped the potatoes and, in the process, mixed the dressing in quite well. (It may be intended for meat? But I use it for potatoes, and vegetables, and I used it as a pastry cutter for years…) Anyhow, it made quick work of the potatoes.

I rather like the variation in size of the pieces, with the interesting texture. If you’re going to use a nice normal knife, though, make sure you cut the potatoes before adding the oil (and making them all slippery…) and then toss them well. Refrigerate the salad a few hours to let the flavor soak into the potatoes. It’s better the next day (which makes it a very useful recipe to make in advance, or make for a week of lunches…)

Somehow the simple recipes seem to take the longest to explain… This really takes almost none of your time at all – the longest step is cooling and marinating. For variety, instead of parsley try dill or chives. If you have to use dried herbs, just use one teaspoon, and mix them with the vinegar, instead of the oil, while the potatoes cook, to refresh them. Or use spice – mustard is classic – instead of herbs.

And so, now I have a nice big bowl of potato salad in the fridge, ready to be packed for my first salad lunch of the season!

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

 

Potato Salad with Parsley

Anne Murphy
Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Course Salad
Cuisine American
Servings 2

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds white potatoes
  • 2 T cider vinegar divided
  • 2-3 T olive oil
  • 2 T finely minced parsley

Instructions
 

  • Cook potatoes in their skins.
  • When cool enough to handle, quarter. Sprinkle 1 T vinegar over them, stir gently to distribute. Let cool completely, marinating in the vinegar.
  • Mix remaining vinegar, 2 T oil, and parsley, let sit to meld.
  • Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces. Toss with the dressing, adding up to another T of oil if you find it is needed. Chill before serving.

Potato salad made with an herbed oil and vinegar dressing - excellent for lunch boxes, picnics, and anyplace you want a lighter salad - and no mayo!

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27 thoughts on “Potato Salad with Parsley”

    • I really just like having both recipes – I find I use them at different times. I hope you enjoy it!

    • I’ve found that there are more suggestions out there for freezing herbs than for how to use them once you have them… LOL I can do this with the frozen herbs, or with fresh, and it’s all good…

  • Yum, well I can honestly say I’ve never come across a potato salad WITHOUT mayonnaise so this sounds absolutely delicious! What a great idea to add vinegar for extra flavour in the potatoes. Love how you can substitute all kinds of different herbs to mix up the flavour each time. Definitely saving this one!

    • Thank you! Enjoy it!

      I got that technique with the vinegar from – some cookbook, I don’t remember what – more than 30 years ago, and I’ve used it ever since. It’s subtle difference, but people always comment that my potato salad tastes a little different, a little brighter… and I think it is well worth it.

      And totally do this with different herbs. I love dill…

    • LOL I’m with you – I like them both, too! I use them for different things, or in different moods – and thought I’d start with the less well known variation.

      And than you! (Yes, easy is a major point…)

  • This reminds me a little of my German Potato Salad recipe with the vinegar and oil. I love mayo in my potato salad, but sometimes it’s good to have something different.

    • Yes, definitely related, but since that term is often used for a specific variation I decided to avoid it. I make it both ways – depends on why I want it…

    • Thank you!

      I grew up with, and for years used, parsley purely as garnish – so rarely “bothered with it.” But in the last few years I’ve been learning how really wonderful it is, how much flavor it adds!

  • Hello there! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe at Healthy Vegan Fridays! It’s going to be featured this coming week =)
    I love potato salad! I typically make mine with vegan mayo, but I think the sound of yours is nicer & lighter. Sounds like a perfect potluck accompaniment.
    I especially like your tip about soaking the cooked potatoes in vinegar to give them more flavour. As someone who *loves* vinegar, I will definitely be trying this out =)
    Thanks for linking up! I look forward to seeing more of your recipes. I’m pinning & sharing this one. Have a great week Anne!

    • Thank you! And enjoy it!

      I’m not vegan, so many of my recipes are not – but enough are that I’ll drop periodically – and I’m always delighted to see what other people do!

  • Sounds easy and yummy! Thank you for sharing it with us at Savoring Saturdays! Hope to see you back again this weekend!

  • 5 stars
    I love potato salad, but I can’t eat mayo, so I love that this is mayo free! Great tip on letting the vinegar soak into the potatoes, and I bet the parsley adds a nice flavour. Can’t wait to make this one for a summer BBQ!

  • Potato salad is such a wonderful staple for all kinds of events, and the addition of parsley is so nice and fresh!

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