Potato salads tend to be a little ho-hum.

Not much flavor going on.

Too much damn celery aka the most worthless veg of them all… besides fennel, which is just plain narsty.

(Yes, narsty with an “r”.)

Or mayo.

Even though salads in general have a healthy reputation, potato salads can drift towards the heavy end of the spectrum.

So, the main issues at hand here are:

A. Blandness, like sand

(Actually sand might even have more flavor than some potato salads, although probably not in a good way…)

B. Fattiness

A slightly offensive word these days, but I’m trying to be persuasive here, so bear with me.

In order to combat the lack of flavor problem, get some fresh herbs involved, plus spices, and crunchy pickles!

Pickles > celery

Side note: Have you heard of pickle juice shots before? I can’t do regular shots but maybe if some pickle juice were mixed in there with the hard A, I could manage.

Ha.

Who am I trying to kid?

If you happen to whip up some potato salad and have some leftover pickle juice, maybe give that whole pickle juice shot idea a go and let me know how horrible (or lovely, for the sake of persuasiveness) the whole experience was.

Anywho.

So now that we’ve added some flavor, let’s focus on the health factor.

Simply swap in vegan mayo for the regular mayo!

I promise, you won’t even be able to tell the difference.

Actually you’ll be able to decrease the amount of vegan mayo, because we’re also adding some Dijon, pickle juice, and fresh lemon juice to help sauce up this thing.

Win win.

I do add a few hard boiled eggs to my salad to up the protein, and well, because I love eggs.

But if you’re actually vegan or actually just despise eggs, go ahead and leave them out and adjust the amount of “sauce” you add accordingly.

Okay, enough with the rambling.

To make this healthier potato salad, you’re going to boil some Yukon Golds in salty water until tender but not mushy. We’re not making mashed potato salad guys. Let them cool a bit so you don’t burn off your hands, then break the potatoes up into reasonably sized chunks. (Use your best judgement here, as always.) Let those puppies cool completely before stirring in your sauce. For the sauce, in a large bowl combine creamy soy-free vegenaise, spicy dijon mustard, zesty lemon juice, tangy pickle juice, crunchy pickles, sliced scallions, a bit of red onion, fresh parsley and dill, cayenne pepper for a kick, salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Gently fold the potatoes into your sauce, then toss your chopped up hard boiled eggs in there too. Chill until chilled.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you’re really trying to be a pill, go ahead and use regular mayo.

P.P.S. And if you’re the saucy sort, use a full cup of mayo instead of only 3/4 cup.

P.P.P.S. My inspo came from Tyler Florence’s recipe. He likes capers and reg mayo, apparently.

P.P.P.P.S. I actually have nothing against real mayo.