Looking for a side dish? What can be better than a easy potato salad recipe? Nothing!
This salad is loaded with fresh herbs, minced garlic. This NO MAYO potato salad recipe won’t compromise on taste.

It’s already summer in my part of the world. With everything going around the world, it’s hard to think of summer and the luxurious outdoor activities associated with summer! But we are trying not to let our spirits go low during this crisis period.
Today we had a small picnic setup inside our home. Set up a small tent in one of the rooms, cooked a few basic dishes that can be packed for picnic. Went minimalistic and cooked with whatever I had and can use from the pantry.
Our home picnic menu included cottage cheese grilled on stove. Potato salad with herbs and no mayo. Simple grated carrot sandwich(my mom’s favorite after school snack). We packed everything in boxes and headed to the picnic room.
With music around, kids setting inside the tent and we outside it, enjoyed the simplest yet the most delicious picnic lunch inside our home.
I’m so thankful to have a luxurious ingredient like cottage cheese or even milk right now. Three days back we had very limited supply of milk which was just enough for kids. So I and hubby had to skip coffee for few days. But I was thankful kids had their milk. Today we were able to get few cartons of milk and cottage cheese delivered home. I and hubby enjoyed half cup of good coffee in the morning.
We have been living minimalist with few basic essential ingredients for more than three weeks and it feels fine! We have not been having eggs, meat or cheese and everything is good! Cooking mostly Indian vegetarian dishes. Kids aren’t complaining, so yay!
I had no idea to buy cottage cheese, but the delivery guy was incredibly nice to call me up yesterday to check if I would like to have cottage cheese delivered too as he had stock. So we got lucky and enjoyed the grilled paneer (cottage cheese).
Believe it or not, I had shot this herby salad recipe 2 years back! And I had completely forgotten about it. I remembered about it today as I cooked up a salad for our home picnic. Though I had and used much lesser herbs today, the actual recipe is loaded with fresh herbs.
If you do have herbs in your garden or in your fridge definitely do ahead and try this easy salad recipe. It’s easy to make, easy to customize and is totally delicious! Bonus point you don’t need mayo. Not sure if you think that as bonus or not! But it definitely was for us as we had no mayo in the fridge!
If you are wondering how to make potato salad without mayo, the answer is CASHEWS! The creamy component to this salad comes from cashews.
If not as delicious as the classic salad, this version which is basically mayo free won’t disappoint you, take my words! And you’ll be kicking up the flavors a lot, so taste is definitely not compromised. Presenting you guys the mayo-free herb potato salad recipe.
Ingredients Needed
Below pic shows all ingredients you’d need to make this salad.
Small Yukon gold potatoes or fingerlings are best for this recipe. They hold their shape after absorbing all the creamy sauce.
Along with fresh parsley, fresh basil, fresh dill leaves you can use chives too.
For seasoning – use salt, freshly ground pepper, red chili flakes and fresh lemon juice (not shown in pic)
Cashew Mayo – whole cashews soaked in hot water and then ground into buttery creamy cashew mayo. To make the best cashew mayo, blend soaked cashews with yellow mustard, olive oil, white wine vinegar with a clove of roasted garlic and pinch of kosher salt.
Add on’s:
Mince some dill pickles and use it in your salad.
Bacons – slice up crispy bacons and add it to your salad! Bacon + Potatoes = HEAVEN!
How To Make Potato Salad
It’s very simple to make a salad that will impress all! Here’s how you make this salad –
Cashew Mayo: Soaking cashews in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes is crucial. Your cashew mayo will turn creamy and luscious! Don’t settle for bland cashew mayo. Season and add flavors to it. Using high powder blender, blend soaked cashews with yellow mustard, roasted garlic clove, kosher salt, good quality olive oil and a dash of white wine vinegar.
Prep Herbs: Cut fresh herbs like basil, parsley, dill leaves and chives.
Boil Potatoes: Scrub and clean potatoes to get rid of dirt. Leaving the skin on, cut potatoes into half leaving the skin on. If potatoes are large quarter them. Place them in large sauce pan filled with water. Bring it to boil. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
Drain and Cool Boiled Potatoes: Once potatoes are cooked to fork tender, remove it from stove. Drain the potatoes into a colander. Rinse it under cold tap water to stop it cooking further.
Cook’s Tip : If you that person who hates potato skin, you can peel them off at this stage.
I love this salad with potatoes skin on.
Make The Salad: To the warm potatoes add cashew mayo, fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste, red chili flakes and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Gently toss everything together.
Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.
How Long To Boil Potatoes For Potato Salad
Waxy potatoes are best for making the salad. It holds it’s shape after cooking making it soft and creamy plus when you mix in with creamy ingredients it’ll hold it’s shape. Yukon gold potatoes are best.
Love the traditional way of cooking potatoes, cut into halves or quarters depending on their size, leave the skin on and boil in water. Cover potatoes with half inch water above them in a sauce pan and cook for 8 to 12 minutes. Depending on the size of the potatoes cooking time might vary. You need to cook until potatoes are tender when a fork is inserted in the middle.
Can I Make Potato Salad in Advance?
Usually potato salad is served cold making it a great make ahead salad. You usually make the salad a day or two ahead and store it in fridge to chill.
But herb potato salad needs to be tweaked a little bit if you want to make ahead. Herbs in the creamy potato salad after a day or two will begin to wilt and loose it’s freshness and color. To make this salad ahead, cook potatoes, add in seasoning and cashew mayo, stir everything. But do not mix in the herbs. When you are ready to serve, toss fresh herbs into the salad and serve.
How Long Does This Salad Last?
Refrigerated potato salad will last for 2 day at max for 3 days. At room temperature, potato salad should be served within 2 hours.
Tips For Making The Best Salad
Picking the best potatoes: Use starchy/waxy Yukon gold potatoes. It’ll hold it’s shape even after cooking, even when it’s soft.
Taste like classic salad: Remember the classic potato salad recipe tastes? It has that wonderful tangy taste to it. You achieve that by adding a dash of white wine vinegar along with fresh lemon juice.
If you don’t like classic tangy taste of this salad, use just lemon juice.
Mix In herbs: If you storing this salad for a day or two in the fridge, mix in fresh herbs when you are ready to serve. Herbs will be fresh.
Seasoning to your taste buds: Potatoes take in salt and pepper very well. You cannot serve this salad without generous amount of salt and pepper seasoning. But don’t just stop there, use red chili flakes or smoked paprika if you like a little kick in the salad.
ARE YOU A POTATO LOVER? TRY THESE:
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Easy Herby Potato Salad Recipe (No Mayo)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pound baby potatoes Yukon gold is best
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- ¼ cup dill leaves chopped
- 3 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
- 2 tablespoon chives chopped
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Red chili flakes optional
For Cashew Mayo
- ½ cup cashews whole
- 1 tablespoon yellow dijon mustard
- 5 tablespoon olive oil good quality
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic roasted
- Pinch of kosher salt
Instructions
- Cashew Mayo: Soaking cashews in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes is crucial. Your cashew mayo will turn creamy and luscious! Don’t settle for bland cashew mayo. Season and add flavors to it. Using high powder blender, blend soaked cashews with yellow mustard, roasted garlic clove, kosher salt, good quality olive oil and a dash of white wine vinegar.
- Prep Herbs: Cut fresh herbs like basil, parsley, dill leaves and chives.
- Boil The Potatoes: Scrub and clean potatoes to get rid of dirt. Leaving the skin on, cut potatoes into half leaving the skin on. If potatoes are large quarter them. Place them in large sauce pan filled with water. Bring it to boil. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.
- Drain and Cool Boiled Potatoes: Once potatoes are cooked to fork tender, remove it from stove. Drain the potatoes into a colander. Rinse it under cold tap water to stop it cooking further.Cook’s Tip : If you that person who hates potato skin, you can peel them off at this stage.
- I love this salad with potatoes skin on.
- Make The Salad: To the warm potatoes add cashew mayo, fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste, red chili flakes and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Gently toss everything together.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- Picking the best potatoes: Use starchy/waxy Yukon gold potatoes. It’ll hold it’s shape even after cooking, even when it’s soft.
- Taste like classic salad: Remember the classic potato salad recipe tastes? It has that wonderful tangy taste to it. You achieve that by adding a dash of white wine vinegar along with fresh lemon juice. If you don’t like classic tangy taste of this salad, use just lemon juice.
- Mix In herbs: If you storing this salad for a day or two in the fridge, mix in fresh herbs when you are ready to serve. Herbs will be fresh.
- Seasoning to your taste buds: Potatoes take in salt and pepper very well. You cannot serve this salad without generous amount of salt and pepper seasoning. But don’t just stop there, use red chili flakes or smoked paprika if you like a little kick in the salad.
Comments & Reviews
Laura says
Perfect side dish for a bbq or a dinner party! love it, thank you for the recipe!
Nicoletta De Angelis Nardelli says
Love the look of this potato salad! I have never been a fan of mayo, so the cashew one is awesome. And all those herbs, yum!!
Jyothi Rajesh says
Thank you
Elaine says
This looks perfect – definitely the recipe I need to try to see if I can replace my current go-to with this one. Delicious and easy to follow – just what I need!
Jyothi Rajesh says
Thank you
Tammy says
I love this mayo alternative. So much healthier and it sounds delicious! What a wonderful summer side salad ^_^
Jyothi Rajesh says
Thank you
Leslie says
Cashew mayo is genius!! I would have never thought to do that! Such a great idea for this recipe!
Jyothi Rajesh says
Glad you liked it.
EA at The Spicy RD says
This looks amazing! I love all the fresh herbs you used-perfect since I’m growing lots of them in my garden right now. I am a big fan of potato salad-love the swap with cashew mayo for regular mayo!
Jyothi Rajesh says
Glad you liked it
Chef Dennis says
This Potato Salad recipe is the bomb! It make me want to have this right now. And I’m sure my wife will also enjoy a plate of this.
Gloria says
What a great salad for a bbq party. I sure hope to have LOTS very soon. This would be a hit with my guests.