I love potato salad, but this Greek Potato Salad is quite different from what I’m used to. This version adds fresh herbs, red onion, capers, and feta cheese to the potatoes and uses a lemon-olive oil dressing. And it’s the author’s mom’s recipe. That makes me think about my mom’s potato salad…
You see, my family used to grill all the time during the summer, and Mom’s potato salad was practically mandatory. It was a typical Southern-style recipe: peeled red potatoes, celery, pickles, and hard-boiled eggs in a dressing made of mustard and mayonnaise and a liberal sprinkle of paprika and a few other spices. Perfect to pair with Dad’s spicy grilled country ribs!
I’m going to pair this recipe with this Greek Marinated Flank Steak with Tzatziki Sauce recipe. It calls for grilling, I don’t have Dad’s prowess with the grill. Instead, I’m going to try it with the air broil setting on my Ninja Foodi.
Make my mum’s Greek Potato Salad once and it will become your go-to side dish for all picnics and barbecues. This healthy potato salad contains no mayonnaise, is gluten free, vegetarian and Slimming World friendly too!
The Ingredients
I needed almost everything in this recipe, and all the ingredients were easy to find at my regular grocery store. Both times.
Both times? you might ask. Well, according to the repairman my refrigerator (and freezer) decided to get stuck on the defrost setting and not return to cooling. I don’t think I noticed there was a problem until the ice in the icemaker disappeared. And we were eating improperly cooled food the whole time 😳
We were very, very lucky not to get food poisoning. Needless to say, we had to toss almost everything—hundreds of dollars of food. But it did give us a chance to deep clean the refrigerator (gotta find the bright side!).
Getting back to the ingredients, I want to add that I made sure to buy a block of feta in brine. I had to go to the deli section to find it, but it was worth a little extra—I bought the store brand. Tip: Feta in brine is so much better than the dry crumbled feta, and crumbling it yourself is ridiculously easy to do with your fingers.
The Process
When it came time to make this Greek Potato Salad recipe, I was ready to eat! I was ready for a home-cooked meal after having to eat takeaway for the past couple of days.
I started off by halving the potatoes and boiling them in a large saucepan. No peeling was needed, so it took me 9 minutes to prep the potatoes and get the water to a boil. I had fork-tender potatoes 20 minutes later.
I prepped the remaining ingredients while the potatoes boiled. There are several, and I wanted them ready when I needed them. I juiced the lemon, chopped the herbs, and measured out the oregano, olive oil, and capers. I also crumbled the feta and used a mandoline to thinly slice the red onion.
Once the potatoes finished, I drained them using a large colander and then spread them on a cutting board to cool for 10 minutes.
Once they were cooled enough I spread them onto a large platter and added the prepped ingredients on top. I followed the recipe except for the amount of onion. The red onion I used was very large, and I thought all of it would overpower the rest of the flavors. I did generously sprinkle it onto the potatoes, but I still had plenty left.
Also, the feta before the other toppings so they wouldn’t get lost underneath the cheese. I finished up with the olive oil and lemon juice. A few lemon wedges on the side, and my Greek Potato salad was ready to serve.
Timing
The recipe lists 5 minutes of prep time, 20 minutes to cook, and 25 minutes total. Here’s how my time was spent on it:
- 9 minutes to prep the potatoes
- 21 minutes to cook and drain the potatoes and prep the other ingredients
- 10 minutes to cool potatoes
- 4 minutes to assemble the salad
- 44 minutes total
That’s quite a difference, and it’s mainly in the prep time. I think the time difference is because I included time for the water to come to a rolling boil. That took a bit longer than having the potatoes.
The recipe doesn’t seem to include time to cool or assemble either, just time to cook. Not including cooling time isn’t unusual, so I am not counting it to rate the timing. That said, be prepared to spend a little more time on this than what is shown, but believe me when I tell you it’s worth it!
