Easy & Simple Vegan Herbed Potato Salad (Healthy + Dairy Free!)

This incredibly easy and secretly vegan herbed potato salad is the perfect healthy side dish for any barbecue or cookout! Full of fresh herbs and zest, absolutely no one will miss the mayo nor dairy in this potato salad!

Why you’ll love this easy vegan potato salad

This is my all time favorite healthy potato salad to bring to any barbecue or summer cookout, and I just know it’s about to be yours too.

Not only is this simple vegan potato salad made with only a few ingredients, but there’s also nothing fancy to it: just potatoes, avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, and herbs. Yet, when combined together, you get the creamiest, zesty and flavorful herbed potato salad that anyone will love, vegan or not.

Yes, that’s right! This healthy potato salad is also entirely mayo-less and egg-free and dairy free. And like my roasted sweet potato lentil salad and mediterranean lentil salad, we’re using the simplest ingredients. There’s no tofu, nor expensive specialty products. Just classic and simple ingredients!

If this is your first time making potato salad, then you’re in for a treat. This is truly the best vegan herbed potato salad out there!

What kind of potatoes are best for potato salad?

Did you know that there’s a bit of science behind potato salad? I actually didn’t until I began researching for creating my own recipe!

There are a two main categories that most people consider when making potato salad: starchy potatoes and waxy potatoes. Starchy potatoes include Russet and Idaho while waxy potatoes include fingerling and Red Bliss.

For this particular herbed potato salad, I actually went with baby Russet potatoes, and I’ll tell you why. I personally love a crispy roasted potato salad. I know, I know, this is deviating from the classic, but hear me out. The crispiness of the potatoes with the creamy herbed avocado dressing is just unparalleled. And then you avoid the issue of water logged soggy potatoes when using a starchy potato!

However, if you want to go the most traditional route for this potato salad, you can absolutely use waxy fingerling potatoes and steam them (more on that below!).

Ingredients & Swaps:

You don’t need much to make an amazing and super fresh and light potato salad. For this particular recipe, you’ll need:

• Baby potatoes: I personally love the rainbow baby potatoes- I think they’re so cute and perfect for this dish! Just buy a pound at your local farmer’s market or grocery store (or two pounds…this recipe is very scalable!), and you’ll be set.
• Ripe Avocado: now for the avocado, we want a really ripe avocado. It can still be a little firm, but too firm won’t work, because we’re going to be using the avocado basically as a replacement for the mayo. Check out this guide here for determining how ripe your avocado is. Your avocado should be soft to touch and the stem should easily fall off.
• Olive oil: a good olive oil goes a long way, I always say! Olive oil is also such a great fat and has so many benefits to it, there’s no need to skimp on a good macronutrient! I know a lot of times people associate “healthy” with being “low fat,” but it doesn’t necessarily have to be low fat in order to be healthy. This potato is packed with vibrant nutrients, and we’re using two whole fat sources here.
• Fresh Herbs: the herbs that I used for this herbed dressing are basil, parsley, and dill. You can also add in some cilantro if you’d like as welL!
• Lemon: a fresh squeeze of lemon juice not only keeps this herbed potato salad tasting really fresh, but it also will help prevent the avocado from browning!

How to make an easy herbed potato salad from scratch:

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

This vegan potato salad couldn’t be easier to make. No need to boil nor steam the potatoes: we’re simply going to roast! Then when the potatoes are cooling, we’ll make the dressing.

The roasted potatoes:

1. Cube the potatoes and lightly toss them in olive oil or cooking oil and sea salt.
2. Spread the potatoes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roasted until crispy.
3. Remove from the oven and allow the potatoes to cool while you prepare the herbed dressing

The herbed avocado dressing:

1. In a food processor, pulse the avocado until smooth.
2. Add in the herbs, lemon juice, sea salt, and pepper, and blend again until smooth.
3. Toss the potatoes in the dressing and serve!

Is it better to boil or steam potatoes for potato salad?

This goes back to which potatoes are best to use for potato salad. It all comes down to preference and method. Since I used russet baby potatoes, I actually didn’t boil or steam the potatoes at all: instead, I roasted the potatoes for a crispy potato salad! Personally, I enjoy this type of salad so much more.

However, other people prefer something else. For instance, my brother loves this healthy potato salad using fingerling potatoes and steaming the potatoes. If you’re going to go with the waxy variety of potatoes for this vegan potato salad, then I definitely recommend going the steamed route, as this will prevent any water logging of the potatoes.

Will non-vegans love this mayo-less potato salad?

Absolutely anyone will love this healthy vegan potato salad, vegan or not. And trust me, they won’t miss the mayo nor the dairy!

In fact, when I first made this recipe several years ago, we brought it to our Fourth of July party with family and friends…without telling them that it was vegan. We just said it’s a “green potato salad!” And guess what?

People were asking for the recipe! And what’s more, they were shocked to find out it was vegan, eggless, and dairy free 😉

How long will vegan potato salad last?

After you’ve dressed this herbed potato salad, it will last for up to 3-4 days in the fridge covered. However, if sitting out at a barbecue, this vegan potato salad will be good for 2 hours in a cool and shaded area.

You are just going to absolutely love this easy and simply vegan potato salad. It’s undetectably healthy and the perfect easy side dish for Fourth of July, Memorial Day, barbecues and cookouts, and more!

Need a sweet treat to go with this? Try this paleo vegan ice cream, these incredible vegan chocolate chip cookies for a homemade vegan ice cream sandwich, and if it’s summertime, these easy vegan strawberry shortcakes!

Happy potato salad making!

More vegan side dishes you’ll love:

Healthy Pasta Salad

Easy Vegan Dinner Rolls

The Best Vegan Garlic Bread

Summer Peach and Tomato Panzanella Salad

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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