This Easy Potato Salad recipe is perfect for the summer months ahead! We ditched the typical mayo and pickle-laced cold potato salad for a vibrant California avocado Green Goddess dressing poured right over warm baby Yukon gold potatoes. Light, bright, and tangy this potato salad is perfect for a simple side dish at dinner or poolside gatherings!
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This easy potato salad is my family's new favorite dish for summer. It tastes great and is super simple to make and has only two key components, the potatoes and the Green Goddess Dressing. Without them this dish isn't possible, so let's break them down shall we?
First up, let's talk potatoes
What kind of potatoes are best in a warm potato salad recipe?
There are three main categories of potato, each one has its own characteristics and flavor profiles. All are delicious, but not all are worthy of this warm potato salad recipe.
Waxy Potatoes
This type of potato has minimal starch and retains its shape when boiled. Their thin skin means that peeling them for potato salad is completely up to you and your preferences. Waxy potatoes are smoother and less gritty, and mealy on the inside than starchy potatoes. When used in cold or warm potato salads, they stay tender yet firm and don't fluff up much, unlike their starchy potato cousins.
Best of Both World Potatoes
While these potatoes have more starch than waxy potatoes, they can still hold their own in cold or warm potato salad. Also known as all-purpose potatoes, these in-between varieties make a great substitute for waxy potatoes because of their medium moisture and starch content.
Starchy Potatoes
This type of potato has thick skin and a drier, more mealy texture. They don’t hold up well to boiling or mixing because they take on more water than waxy potatoes when cooked. When used in potato salads, they soak up lots of dressing and create an ultra-creamy potato salad, which is fine if that's your thing. We prefer a bit more texture. I personally mostly use starchy potatoes for dishes like mashed potatoes.
Which Potatoes will work best in this easy potato salad recipe?
When making potato salad, but especially warm potato salads either waxy potatoes or potato varieties that fall in the "best of both worlds varieties" are best.
Waxy Potato Varieties:
New, Red Bliss, Kennebec, or fingerling potatoes.
All Purpose (best of both) Varieties:
Yellow Finn, white, and Yukon Gold potatoes
Avocado Basics
Let's move on to where the flavor really happens, my California avocado-laced Green Goddess Dressing!! Seriously, I could slather this sauce on everything. (and I do!) Clearly, the key ingredient in this dressing is the avocado, so let me answer a few basic avocado questions for you!
* Pro-tip: California Grown Avocados are in season from spring through summer. If you don't see California Avocados in stores during this time frame, just let your produce manager know your preference! Really, it is that easy - they will stock them for you!
*The best way to tell if a California Avocado is ripe and ready for immediate use is to squeeze the fruit in the palm of your hand gently. PLEASE, for the love of Pete, don't squish or poke the avocado. Ripe, ready-to-eat fruit will be firm but will yield to gentle pressure.How to tell if an avocado is ripe?
You can store ripened avocados in the refrigerator uncut for two or three days.
My friend Jerry James Stone conducted a pretty impressive experiment on how to store an avocado half. He shared all of the results from lemon juice to vinegar; the good, bad, and even the ugly. The resulting video is totally worth a watch.
Hungry for more California Grown avocado recipes that aren't guacamole? We have you covered!
Crunchy Avocado Tacos
Say hello to your new favorite taco! Crispy, golden avocado wedges are the perfect pairing for refried beans and cool iceberg lettuce! Wrap it all up in a cheese "frico"-dilla and you have a winning dinner that everyone will rave about!
Kid-Approved Fruity Avocado Toast
Avocados and fruit pair perfectly together atop this Spring inspired toast that is so easy to make your kids can basically assemble the entire dish by themselves.
If you've made our Easy Potato Salad Recipe with Green Goddess Dressing or any of the other recipes on our site, don't forget to rate the recipe and let me know what you thought in the comments below, we love hearing from you!
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PrintEasy Potato Salad recipe with Green Goddess Dressing
This California avocado-laced Green Goddess potato salad is served warm so that the flavors of the herbs and the dressing literally burst to life when they hit your palette!
If you've made our Easy Potato Salad Recipe with Green Goddess Dressing don't forget to rate the recipe and let me know what you thought in the comments below, we love hearing from you!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Boiled
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
For the Easy Potato Salad
2 pounds baby Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned
kosher salt, to taste
1 cup California Avocado Green Goddess Dressing, recipe follows
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
1 lemon, zested
optional garnishes: basil leaves, tarragon leaves, edible flowers, salad greens like arugula or spinach
For the California Avocado Green Goddess Dressing
1 Haas avocado, pit and skin removed
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons capers, rinsed
juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup roughly chopped basil leaves
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon Italian parsley leaves
½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt or more to taste
¼ teaspoon black pepper or more to taste
Instructions
To make the Easy Potato Salad
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place the unpeeled potatoes in a vegetable steamer basket and lower it into the boiling water. Cook the potatoes until tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 20 - 25 minutes. Drain the potatoes and allow to cool slightly. Meanwhile make the California Avocado Green Goddess Dressing.
To make the California Avocado Green Goddess Dressing
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until as smooth as you desire. Stir in salt and pepper - just seasoning to taste.
To assemble the Easy Potato Salad
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle cut them into halves or quarters and place them in a large bowl. Add one cup of the California Avocado Green Goddess Dressing to the bowl and stir to coat.
To serve, line a platter with fresh greens and herbs if desired then top with dressed potato salad. Garnish with basil leaves, tarragon leaves, and edible flowers if using. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 big scoops
- Calories: 358
- Sugar: 2.5 g
- Sodium: 421.3 mg
- Fat: 17.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.5 g
- Protein: 6.9 g
- Cholesterol: 10.8 mg
Keywords: potato salad, easy potato salad, Green Goddess Dressing, Green Goddess, avocado, Baby Yukon Gold potato
More Frequently Asked Questions about California Avocados.
Yes, Hass avocados are a California Native! Hass avocados were discovered in La
Habra Heights, California in the 1920s by Rudolph Hass. Every Hass avocado in the
world can trace its lineage to the original Mother Hass Tree. Hass avocados account
for about 96 percent of the avocados grown in California.
California avocados are cultivated with uncompromising dedication to quality and
freshness, by more than 3,500 growers, on approximately 54,000 acres throughout
Central and Southern California. The Golden State’s terroir and coastal climate of
this region provide ideal growing conditions to produce delectable avocados.
Anonymous says
Adding to my previous reply, I give due diligence to chives I'm assuming are part of the green goddess but I originally mean meaty allium, maybe even go crazy with blanched leeks! I'd settle for thinly silvered (mandolin) red onions...again it's called cooking! You can put in effort and have fun.
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Brian Staring says
Such a great idea...warm potato salad with green goddess but why must all recipes today be "easy"? It's called cooking and should, if done properly, require a minimum amount of effort. Any potato salad should have an egg element (apart from the mayo) and an allium. Also, I would definitely think of a mushroom component with a warm salad.
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