This Healthy Potato Salad is creamy, flavorful and low fat! Yet it has classic potato salad taste we all crave and is a summer must-cook.
Our other potluck favorites include this low carb cauliflower potato salad, Instant Pot potato salad and Olivier salad.
Healthy potato salad recipe with diced pickles, red onion, fresh dill (of course!) and a creamy dressing consisting of yogurt, a bit of mayo, mustard and vinegar.
So good cold, especially if you pair it with Instant Pot ribs, turkey burgers or slow cooker pulled pork and Instant Pot corn on the cob on a side, this meal is heavenly!
Reader’s Review
My family loves this! I think my husband has eaten every style of potato salad under the sun, but specifically requested this one for his birthday. It’s a hit!
Blaire
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthy: Compared to a serving of traditional potato salad that runs at 530 calories, this healthy potato salad is only 232 calories.
- Simple ingredients: Ingredients you can find at any grocery store, like you would buy for a regular potato salad.
- Classic taste: Tangy, creamy, crunchy and with hard boiled eggs! This side dish is a crowd pleaser despite being healthier.
- Make ahead: This salad tastes even better the next day.
Ingredients for Healthy Potato Salad
These are default ingredients but they can vary on your taste and what’s on hand. See below for variations and substitutions.
- Potatoes: Yukon gold potatoes, red potatoes or baby potatoes. Leave russet potatoes for healthier mashed potatoes. Please see more on potatoes just down below.
- Eggs: I use 3 large eggs but occasionally I add 5 eggs because I love hard boiled eggs in a salad!
- Pickles: Dill pickles vs. sweet pickles are my favorite. You can also use chopped sauerkraut or seeded fresh cucumber.
- Yogurt: Plain yogurt or Greek yogurt with fat content of at least 2% is the best. 0% or non-fat yogurt tastes chalky but can be used.
- Mayo: I am using mayonnaise made with avocado oil. There are many healthier mayonnaise options available on the market today like mayo made with olive oil, Vegenaise, or any organic and natural brand.
- Fresh herbs: I use fresh dill but fresh parsley will be great too.
- Red onion: Red onion is more mild and sweeter than yellow onion.
- Vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper: For tang and taste!
What Are the Best Potatoes for a Potato Salad?
The best potatoes for a potato salad are waxy potatoes with thin skin like red potatoes, yellow potatoes, yukon gold potatoes or baby potatoes. You can also use new potatoes or fingerlings. They are less starchy and hold their shape better in a salad.
However, if you like more mushy potato salad feel free to use the russet potatoes. They are traditionally used for Instant Pot mashed potatoes because there are starchy potatoes and turn out very creamy.
If you really want to you can even use sweet potatoes to make a very healthy potato salad!
How to Make Healthy Potato Salad
Here is a quick overview how to make the best healthy potato salad that is also lower in fat and calories. Full recipe card is located below.
- Cook potatoes and hard boil eggs together on the stove: Combine potatoes and eggs in a medium pot with enough cold water to cover them, place the lid on top and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and cook for 7 minutes.
- Cool the eggs: Remove eggs and place them in a bowl with cold water and ice, so they stop cooking.
- Keep cooking potatoes: For another 10-20 minutes depending on their size and until fork tender. Then drain and let them cool for 20 minutes or so.
- Make the dressing: In a large bowl, combine yogurt, mayonnaise, hard boiled eggs, pickles, red onion, dill, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk.
- Combine ingredients: Then add cool chopped potatoes and gently stir until well mixed together.
- Chill the salad: Place salad in the refrigerator and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
Tips for Best Results
It’s mostly advice about the potatoes.
- Do not salt the cooking water: Add potatoes to a pot with cold water to cook. And do not add salt. As soon as salt touches food, it starts leaking moisture. This tip helps to prevent dry potato salad.
- Let potatoes cool almost completely before mixing with mayo and yogurt to get rid of moisture completely. My grandma always cooled her cooked potatoes outside. Adding potatoes that are too warm could result in watery potato salad!
- Add vinegar while potatoes are cooling and toss them around: Acid penetrates into the flesh of potatoes adding that punch of flavor we all crave. I do so, if I remember.
- To hard boil eggs separately: If you have leftover potatoes to use or for some reason you want to cook eggs separately, here are tutorials how to hard boil eggs on the stove, prep hard boiled eggs in Instant Pot or make air fryer hard boiled eggs.
Substitutions and Variations
Here are a few ideas how to make this potato salad your own based on your personal taste and ingredients you have on hand.
- No mayo: This recipe calls for a touch of mayo for authentic taste. You can use only yogurt but be ready for different taste. Some readers have added a touch of avocado oil with the yogurt for more rich and creamy taste, yet healthier.
- If you do not have pickled ingredients: Add diced fresh cucumber or radishes. Just like pickled veggies add crunch and flavor, so do fresh vegetables, just a different one. Make sure to seed the cucumber with a teaspoon to prevent watery potato salad.
- Capers: Substitute pickles or sauerkraut with capers and a bit of fresh lemon juice.
- Add celery: I think celery is a personal taste. I add it if I want to but more often I save it for my healthy tuna salad.
- Green onion or white onion will work great in place of red onion.
- Mustard: Potato salad is like a hot dog, classic American food made with yellow mustard. If you are out, Dijon mustard works and makes it a fancy potato salad.
- Vinegar: I would highly recommend to stick to traditional white vinegar. Next best contender is white wine vinegar. Apple cider vinegar has distinct taste and can be used if you have to. And if pickle juice is all you have, go for it.
- Add crumbled baked bacon for an earthy bite. This is when I would be also adding sour cream, chives and cheddar cheese. A loaded potato salad which may result in using the term “healthy” loosely but I think life is about balance!
Serving Recommendations
Serve potato salad cold as a healthy side dish! The following recipes go well with it for a complete summer BBQ:
- Sides: Grilled zucchini or Mexican bean salad.
- Protein: Grilled chicken breast or ground chicken burgers.
- Other cold salads: Healthy coleslaw and healthy macaroni salad.
Can I Make Potato Salad Ahead?
First of all, I highly recommend to make this healthy potato salad in advance and let it rest for best taste! It is super important to refrigerate it for 3 hours or overnight to allow flavor to build on. That’s when all ingredients penetrate each other.
This is what makes this potato salad a superb make ahead and leftover salad. Either way, you can store it covered in the refrigerator for 3-4 days before or after making it. Like borscht soup, it tastes even better next day.
I do not recommend to freeze it as potatoes do not freeze and thaw well. Their texture is very unpleasant upon defrosting.
FAQs
According to Healthline, potatoes contain a lot of potassium (especially skin and right underneath), vitamin C, vitamin B and fiber. Potatoes help reduce inflammation, treat kidney stones and diarrhea, and prevent heart disease.
In addition this potato salad is low fat. Compared to a classic version at 530 calories, this recipe contains only 232 calories.
Cook potatoes for a potato salad whole and unpeeled, this makes potatoes less watery. If you want, you can peel potatoes after they are done cooling and dice them.
More Healthy Salad Recipes to Try
- Healthy shrimp salad
- Healthy pasta salad
- Vinegret salad
- Healthy chicken salad
- Healthy egg salad
- Healthy broccoli salad
Healthy Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds baby potatoes, Yukon gold or red potatoes
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup pickles, sauerkraut or fresh cucumber, diced
- 5 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup dill, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon any light color vinegar
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2%+ fat
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- To cook potatoes and eggs on the stove: In a large pot, add potatoes, eggs and enough cold water to cover. Cover with a lid, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 7 minutes.
- Remove eggs with a slotted spoon into a bowl with ice bath. Keep cooking potatoes more depending on their size: baby potatoes – 10 minutes, medium size – 20 minutes, large size – 25 minutes. Or until fork tender.
- To cook potatoes in Instant Pot: To Instant Pot, add 1 cup cold water and basket or trivet with potatoes. Cook on High Pressure with Quick Release: baby potatoes – 10 minutes, medium 12 minutes, large – 15 minutes. Then you will have to make Instant Pot eggs separately or boil them on the stove for 7 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and let cool for 20 minutes uncovered.
- Meanwhile, to a large salad bowl add chopped hard boiled eggs, pickles, red onion, dill, mustard, vinegar, yogurt, mayo, salt and pepper. Gently stir to combine.
- Cut potatoes (peeled or leave skin on) into desired size pieces, some like them cut into 2-inch cubes for a chunky salad and some like diced potatoes for more mushy consistency. Add to the bowl and gently stir salad again with a large spoon.
- Chill salad for at least 3 hours or overnight before serving. Serve cold with Instant Pot corn on the cob, grilled chicken breast or turkey burgers.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Do not freeze.
- I used avocado oil mayo. 0% yogurt will lack flavor, so use at least 2% fat yogurt.
- If using fresh cucumber, remove seeds with a teaspoon.
- If using sauerkraut, chop it coarsely.
- Dijon mustard will work and any mustard I use is wet, from a bottle.
- You can also add diced celery or crumbled bacon.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My family loves this! I think my husband has eaten every style of potato salad under the sun, but specifically requested this one for his birthday. It’s a hit. When I don’t have plain Greek yogurt, I substitute sour cream and it tastes equally as delicious!
So nice of you to say, so happy your husband loved it! Sour cream would be delicious in this recipe, I can totally imagine that!
Due to my husband’s recent heart attack, I changed our diet and this potato salad recipe fit right in… best of all it’s delicious. I’ll be making more of your healthy recipes! Thank you!
I am so happy to hear you both enjoyed this recipe!
Delicious and easy to prepare! Thanks
So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi. This looks good! I wonder whether the dressing you devised would work for what I knew as ‘Ensalada rusa’ a.k.a. Russian salad. This is sometimes known as Oliver salad, which was supposedly created by a French chef in Russia more than a century ago. It consists of gently cooked cubed potatoes and carrots, to which blanched peas are added. It sometimes has olives and pimentos. To this is added mayonnaise, in its most simple form. What do you think? You can see a recipe here: https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/ensalada-rusa-oliver-salad/ Thanks.
Hi Martin! I LOVE Oliver salad so much! I am planning on posting my recipe next month but I will tell you how I make it. Yes, cubed and boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs. Diced pickles and any cooked sausage like kielbasa or ham. Blanched peas or even thawed frozen peas or canned like traditional recipe. All eye balled. Then I add a bit of mayo and a lot of yogurt, salt and pepper to taste. THE BEST!!! Enjoy!
Olena,
I loved the Notes. Very helpful!
Sally
Thank you!
Oh wow this is so nice i am going to make this salads for my family they gonna love it .
thank you very much i really like cooking especially now that i have you , thank you very much .
So glad to hear! Can’t wait to hear how they like it 🙂
I followed this recipe to the T, except, I used 1/2 cucumbers and 1/2 chopped pickle. Delicious! We loved it. Thank you!
Fantastic! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!