This is my family's favorite healthy potato salad with eggs, crunchy celery and creamy yogurt-mayo dressing. It's light, savory and perfect for summer picnics.
It's hard to think of a more all-American summer side dish than classic potato salad. My family always has a dish of this creamy, tangy and totally delicious potato salad at all get-togethers. It's great at a barbecue alongside Grilled Pork Chops. It's ideal for a picnic in the park with Smashed Curry Chickpea Lettuce Wraps. Or it's perfect for a night in with Summer Tomato & Zucchini Quinoa Pizza.
You truly can't go wrong with a great healthy potato salad.
How to Make Classic Potato Salad
This dish is served cold, so the first thing you want to do is cook the eggs and potatoes so they have some time to cool before dressing the salad.
You can cook the eggs and potatoes at the same time in two separate pots. The eggs will be done after about 10 minutes for just-cooked-through hard-boiled eggs. You don't want to overcook them or the yolks will come out chalky and grey.
When cooking potatoes, it's important not to let the water boil. Keep it at a low simmer. Otherwise, the texture of your potatoes can become dry.
While the potatoes and eggs cool, you can mix up the creamy mayo and yogurt dressing.
Ingredient Notes
Here are some things to keep in mind about the ingredients for this healthy summer salad:
- Potatoes. The best potatoes for this are gold or russets. They're starchy and absorb the flavors in the dressing really nicely.
- Eggs. If you want to make egg-free potato salad, you can replace the eggs with chickpeas or omit them altogether.
- White onion. If you don't like the taste of raw onion, a more mild scallion is a good substitute. Or you can soak the onion n cold water for 10 minutes to remove some of the bite.
- Mayo. Feel free to use vegan mayo if you like.
- Yogurt. You can use Greek or coconut yogurt for the dressing, just make sure it's not flavored!
- Red wine vinegar. You can sub white wine or apple cider vinegar too.
- Yellow mustard. Another mustard, like Dijon or whole-grain, will also be nice in the salad.
- Paprika. Use sweet paprika, not smoked. I find that smoked paprika tends to overwhelm the delicate creamy flavors in the salad.
Make-Ahead Potato Salad
This salad actually tastes better if you make it ahead of time. It needs to chill for at least 2 hours, but you can make it a day before serving. The salad will last for up to three days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Vegan Classic Potato Salad
If you want to make this salad vegan, here are some simple swaps:
- Use chickpeas or white beans instead of hard-cooked eggs (or simply skip the eggs)
- Use vegan mayo
- Choose vegan unsweetened yogurt
More Summer Salad Recipes
- Grilled Vegetable Salad for Summer
- Strawberry Spinach Salad with Toasted Quinoa
- Blueberry Quinoa Salad with Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette
If you make this healthy potato salad recipe, be sure to let me know what you think with a comment below. I hope you love it as much as my family does!
Mom's Favorite Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 lbs gold/russet potatoes
- 6 eggs
- 1 medium sweet white onion
- 6 celery stalks
- ½ cup mayo
- ¼ cup unsweetened yogurt
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon paprika (not smoked)
- Generous pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped scallions
Instructions
- Boil the eggs and potatoes in separate pots for 20 minutes. Drain the water from both pots and allow the eggs and potatoes to cool.
- Once cool to the touch, peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized chunks and add them to a bowl.
- Peel the eggs and cut them into chunks as well. Add them to the bowl.
- Dice the onion and celery and add both to the bowl as well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, unsweetened yogurt (greek or coconut are my fave), red wine vinegar, mustard and parika. Add a generous pinch of salt and pepper in as well.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and fold together. Taste and add a touch more salt and pepper if desired.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
- When ready to serve, sprinkle with a touch of paprika and finely chopped scallions.
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