This vegan German Potato Salad is easy to make and incredibly rich in flavor. Serve it at your next cookout, BBQ, or picnic!
What makes this potato salad shine is soaking the freshly boiled and sliced potatoes in a homemade tangy and savory marinade before adding creamy plant-based mayonnaise. The addition of chopped pickles, fresh parsley, and crisp bites of onion rounds up this dish. Serve this to your family and friends and it will be gobbled up in no time!
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💡 The recipe in a nutshell
- Vegan (no eggs & dairy free)
- The BEST Creamy German Potato Salad
- Easy-to-make
- Enjoy either hot or cold
- Authentic German recipe, made plant-based
- Takes only 35 minutes of active cooking
- Vegan party food
📋 Ingredients
To make vegan German potato salad you need the following ingredients:
Flavoring the potatoes with a marinade makes this recipe authentic and special. To make the marinade, you need the following ingredients:
🔪 Equipment
To make vegan German potato salad, you need a few kitchen utensils:
👩🏼🍳 How to make vegan German potato salad
Make our vegan German potato salad in simple 6 steps.
- Boil potatoes with their skin on. It is important to leave the skin on! This protects the potatoes from soaking up water, and will allow them to soak up the flavorful marinade.
- Prepare the marinade for the potatoes.
- After boiling, rinse potatoes with cool water shortly. Scrape and pull off the peel with a paring knife. Once peeled cut them into slices.
- Add slices to your marinade and let soak for at least 30 minutes (it tastes better if you let it soak for longer).
- Fold in vegan mayonnaise and fresh parsley, and let it steep for one last hour.
- Salt and pepper to taste, serve and enjoy!
🇩🇪 What to serve with German potato salad
German potato salad is versatile, and can equally be eaten as the main or side dish. In Germany, it is popular to bring it to cookouts, and BBQs. It is even a popular dish on Christmas eve for many German families and is served with Würstchen.
Some other serving ideas include:
- Schnitzel
- Sausages
- Currywurst
- Baked, grilled or fried “fish” (there is many great vegan recipes and brands out there such as gardein or omnifoods)
- Try our baked banana cod in olive brine
- With other salads
- Anything grilled
- Vegan pigs in a blanket
- Grilled marinated zucchini crostini
- Broccoli wings
- German vegan Christmas Goose
→ Looking for more vegan German recipes? Then you're in the right spot! Browse our German recipe page for more veganized classics and ideas.
🤔 Can you heat up potato salad?
Yes, you can most definitely heat potato salad to eat it warm! In fact, potato salad can be served warm, cold, or at room temperature. To serve hot, either bake the salad covered in the oven or shortly microwave it.
🌱 Can I make this potato salad oil-free?
For all the whole foods and oil-free folks, I have good news! You can totally make this recipe oil-free, by using our oil-free mayonnaise instead of regular vegan Mayo, which uses oil. Our oil-free mayo recipe uses silken tofu as a base and nourishes you with lots of protein, all essential amino acids, and other nutrients!
Another option is leaving out the mayo entirely. It tastes great without mayo too.
🥣 Storage
Store any leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 - 7 days.
❄️ Can I freeze this potato salad? The answer is yes, you can freeze it. However, please keep in mind that it tastes best fresh and that the taste won’t be the same after freezing and thawing. The texture of a defrosted potato salad tends to be a bit soggy and/or watery.
If you are using our oil-free mayo made with silken tofu, I do not recommend freezing this salad.
📖 Recipe
Vegan German Potato Salad with Mayo
Equipment
- Pot to boil potatoes, kitchen knives, cutting board, glass bowls, kitchen towel
Ingredients
- 1 kg waxy potatoes eg: gold, baby, fingerling (2.2 lbs)
- 100 g gherkins, or pickles (3.5 oz)
- ½ yellow onion (around 100g / 3.5 oz)
- 150 g vegan mayonnaise (7 tablespoon / 5.2 oz)
- 20 g fresh parsley (around 5 tbsp)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Marinade for the potatoes
- 200 ml vegetable broth (6.76 fl oz)
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- A pinch of cane sugar
Instructions
- Cook potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes, or until done. Leave their skin on! While your potatoes are boiling, cut and dice your pickles and onion into little pieces. Add them to a big salad bowl. Once potatoes are tender, drain and rinse shortly with cold water.
- Then peel boiled potatoes. Their skins should slip off easily. To peel a hot potato hold it in a clean kitchen towel-covered hand, then use a paring knife to scrape or pull off the peel. Once peeled cut into thin slices.
- Prepare the marinade for the potatoes by mixing all the ingredients (vegetable broth, mustard, vinegar, and sugar) in a measuring cup or separate bowl.
- Take a third of the potato slices and add to the bowl with pickles and onion. Stir your marinade and then pour over potatoes - use around a third of the marinade. Stir everything vigorously. Continue this process two more times until the bowl is filled and tossed with all the potatoes and all of the marinade. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better), tossing it every other time. Don't worry about it looking too watery, the potatoes will suck it all up.
The provided nutritional information is an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
wonderful creamy vegan German Potato Salad recipe!! love it
This was delicious!
Creamy and delicious! Tried it with dill pickles, which was fantastic, and can't wait to make again with gherkins! Never marinated the potatoes in veggie broth before putting the mayo in...genius! The potatoes soak up SO much flavor 🙂 This will be my go-to recipe for sure, I love it!
Hi Brittany, thank you so much for your feedback! I am so happy to hear you enjoy this recipe.