We love this easy red potato salad recipe, with its creamy dressing, red potatoes, and lots of fresh herbs. Trust me, you’ll want to make it again and again.
Potato salad is one of my favorite side dishes. It’s easy to make, tastes better when made ahead of time, and everyone loves it. We have a few potato salad recipes on Inspired Taste, such as our original creamy potato salad or this mayonnaise-free lemon herb potato salad.
This red potato salad recipe is a mash-up of the two salads I mentioned above. The dressing is rich and creamy, like our original salad, but we bump up the herbs with a generous handful of parsley, dill, and chives. It’s incredible!
Key Ingredients
- Red Potatoes: I love using smaller red potatoes since I can cook them whole. Chopping them does help them cook a bit quicker, but potatoes that have been cooked whole taste better and are fluffier in the middle. I do not peel my potatoes for this red potato salad.
- Vinegar: My trick for the best red potato salad is to scatter vinegar over the cooked potatoes while they are still warm. It’s incredible how much of a difference in flavor the vinegar makes. I use red wine vinegar for this salad, but apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, and even dill pickle juice work well. I use pickle juice in the video!
- Celery and Pickles: Both add a fresh crunch. I love dill pickles, so we always add them, but you can leave them out or use bread and butter pickles instead.
- Fresh Herbs: I use a lot of fresh herbs in this salad and love it! I use parsley, dill, and chives.
- Creamy Dressing: Have you heard the statement, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? Well, that’s how we feel about our favorite potato salad dressing. We use this dressing in our original potato salad recipe and love it so much that we don’t see a reason to change it. Our readers love it, too! You’ll need 3 ingredients: mayonnaise, sour cream, and mustard.
How to Make Red Potato Salad
Cook your potatoes in a big pot of water and add a good amount of salt. The water should taste salty. Salting your water is essential since it seasons the potatoes. Without it, they will taste bland, even after tossing them in your dressing.
Then, when the potatoes are cooked and cool enough to handle, scatter a couple of tablespoons of vinegar over them.
To put the salad together, make your dressing. Remember, it’s only three ingredients! The mayonnaise adds richness and flavor (try homemade mayo), the sour cream lightens up the heaviness of the mayo and adds some tanginess, and the mustard adds more tanginess and a little color. (I use yellow mustard.)
Then, toss your potatoes with the celery, pickles, and fresh herbs. I gently toss everything together, being careful not to mash the potatoes too much in the salad. It’s delicious right away, but if you have the time, pop it into the fridge overnight. This salad gets better over time!
What to Serve with Red Potato Salad
I’m such a fan of this creamy red potato salad and love that it takes full advantage of fresh summer herbs! Thanks to the red skins, it’s beautiful on a serving table. It’s perfect for all of your summer gatherings and cookouts. I love it next to grilled steak, grilled chicken, burgers, and hot dogs.
It’s also perfect with other sides like our Italian pasta salad, this orzo salad, or my favorite broccoli salad!
Creamy Red Potato Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Small potatoes are best for this red potato salad. This way, the potatoes maintain their natural moisture and sweetness. We prefer the texture when cooked whole, but you can chop the potatoes if you’re in a pinch for time or if your potatoes are large.
If you don’t have red potatoes, use other waxy potatoes, such as Yukon potatoes, white or creamer potatoes, and fingerling potatoes. These are quick-cooking, and since they are already small, there’s no need to chop them before cooking them. Russet or baking potatoes will also work, but the salad’s texture will be less creamy.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
2 pounds (907g) small red potatoes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or dill pickle juice
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
1/4 cup (58g) mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard, substitute Dijon or whole grain mustard
2 celery stalks, finely chopped, about 1/3 cup
1 to 2 medium dill pickles, finely chopped, about 1/3 cup
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover with 1 ½ inches of water. Season with salt (use one teaspoon for every quart of water).
2Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer (boiling the potatoes can cause them to hit one another and break apart). Cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork.
3Meanwhile, set up an ice bath. Add cold water to a medium bowl filled with ice. Drain the potatoes and then place them into the ice bath.
4When cool enough to handle, chop the potatoes into bite-size chunks and add them to a large bowl. Scatter the vinegar over the potatoes and lightly season with salt.
5Stir the mayonnaise, sour cream, and mustard in a bowl.
6Add the mayonnaise mixture, celery, pickles, and herbs to the potatoes. Gently stir to combine, being careful not to mash the potatoes too much.
7Season with salt and pepper to taste. If you have the time, refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving (it’s tastes better).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Make potato salad up to 3 days in advance. Keep covered in the refrigerator.
- Sour cream: Substitute 1/2 cup crème fraîche for the sour cream.
- Dried herbs: You can use dried herbs for this salad. We recommend adding one to two tablespoons. I especially love dill and chives.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Delicious! I’m having some the morning after our BBQ and it’s even better! So I definitely recommend this recipe as a great one for making the day before. I ended up using Greek yogurt cuz it’s the closest I had to sour cream and it’s great! I went with sprinkling pickle juice on the potatoes, love this, and I did 1 Tbsp of dried dill, 1Tbsp dried parsley and the recommended amount of fresh chives and for me the herbyness is perfect. Thanks for a great recipe!
Perfect potato salad, exactly what I was looking for!
I love this variation of potato salad. Creamy and packed with those herby flavors. Using the dill pickle juice was a great idea. We had it with your fall off the bone ribs last night plus your amazing barbecue sauce. So good!
Hi I am new to your channel and I enjoyed looking at your recipes. I love the way the potato salad was made so easy and simple. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Joanne, I would love to try your lovely recipes but over this side of the pond, we tend to use metric measurements. Is it possible for you to include that please?
Hi Helen, We try to add metric measurements to most recipes. Glad you found us!
I am English and, although I don’t mind dill pickles, my husband is not too keen, therefore what would you think to adding chopped pickled onions? Also I do not have dill to hand, can I use fresh oregano instead?
Here in Cyprus, where I live, you just buy potatoes, there are no varieties and no seasonal differences either just ‘patates’ – ‘potatoes’!
Hi Julia, Pickled onions are an excellent substitution. Fresh oregano is fine, but use a bit less since it is quite strong.
Delicious! It was a big hit, might add egg next time.
I was thinking of trying homemade ranch dressing, any thoughts on it?? I am excited to make this
Hi Marian, We love homemade ranch, here’s our easy recipe.
I made this dish as close to recipe as possible. So delicious! great tips thank you.
Excellent! We love this simple potato salad so much.
I don’t use recipes very often but was asked to bring potato salad for tomorrow’s 4th celebration. I wanted to use red potatoes so looked it up & found this recipe. I made it today for tomorrow, hubby & I tasted it, very good just different from my usual way of making it. I have never made potato salad without eggs or onions. Thanks for the recipe.
First, I love your recipes and have added many to my monthly meal rotation. Thanks for sharing! My question – and the instructions, you say to put your potatoes into an ice water bath and then pinch off the skins. However, in your pictures, potato skins are still on the potatoes. I love leaving the Redskins on the potatoes, just want to make sure that there isn’t a better way/flavor if you take them off or leave them on. Thanks for the update!
Hi Barbara, Thanks for your comment and we are sorry the recipe was confusing. You are correct that the potatoes do not need to be peeled. That was a mistake in the recipe. I have fixed it now.
Can Greek yogurt be substitute for sour cream?
Hi there, Greek yogurt is a little bit more tangy than sour cream, but yes, you can use it in this recipe.