Today we’re making a light-and-bright, Italian-style potato salad, with super simple ingredients for an incredibly tasty side dish.
Is Italian Potato Salad Healthy?
The short answer is yes, it is beneficial for your health.
Our Italian potato salad is cholesterol-free and rich in vitamin C, providing 31% of your recommended daily intake.
With potatoes as the main ingredient, this salad recipe can help you stay fuller and avoid those weight-gaining snacks while also providing you with many health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, blood sugars, and decreasing the risk of other chronic diseases.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the ingredient list!
Ingredients for Italian Potato Salad
For this delightful dish, you’ll only need some common veggies, herbs, and spices that you can easily find in any supermarket or local store.
For the salad:
- Baby potatoes: These sweet-tasting little luxuries with their soft and waxy texture are perfect for making salads.
- Rosemary: This fragrant herb is added to the boiling water when cooking the potatoes to enhance their flavor.
- Cherry tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes are small, making them ideal for adding to your salads. You can go with regular bright red cherry tomatoes that are juicy and slightly sour, or you can go with the chocolate cherry tomatoes used in this recipe. These dark red darlings have a sweeter and more complex flavor profile.
- Green beans: These hearty greens will make your salad a whole lot fresher.
For the dressing:
- Olive oil: Use cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt: A bit of salt added for a savory note.
- Pepper: Add ground black pepper for that extra pungent taste.
- Red wine vinegar: The tangy and complex flavors from red wine vinegar give our salad a delicious kick.
- Parsley: The aroma from parsley helps brighten up the entire dish.
What Is the Best Kind of Potato for Salad?
Since potatoes are the star of this dish, picking the right type for the best results is vital. That’s why we recommend using baby potatoes for making salads.
These little angels are not only bright in color but also in flavor. Their sweet taste comes from the sugar which hasn’t yet turned to starch.
Unlike regular potatoes that have a thicker skin and a more starchy texture, baby potatoes have a thinner skin and a waxy, creamy texture and retain their shape better when boiled.
How to Prepare Ingredients for This Salad
- Potatoes: To prepare the potatoes, simply quarter them. You can adjust the size depending on your preference, just make sure that they are all evenly cut to ensure the same doneness when boiled. For a more aesthetically natural look on the plate, there’s no need to peel the potatoes in this recipe.
- Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes, especially chocolate cherry tomatoes, work beautifully in salads for their juiciness and sweetness. Cut them in half for perfect bite-sized pieces.
- Green Beans: These green squeaky-snap beans add life to our potato salads and are fun to bite into. To prepare, you just need to rinse them through, trim off both ends, then cut them in half.
How to Serve Italian Potato Salad
Your summer barbecues will never be the same again with this classic Italian potato salad on the table.
Just imagine each bite filled with light and savory potatoes, juicy sweet cherry tomatoes, and squeaky green beans.
This dish is perfect for a light lunch on its own, or for dinner, it goes beautifully with a grilled main course.
How to Store the Leftover
If your salad is already dressed, then you can keep it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Any longer and the vinegar in the dressing will quickly spoil the salad.
If you want to store them for a longer period you can separate the salad and the dressing. This will help your salad stay fresh for 2 to 3 days.
How to Make Italian Potato Salad
This bright and savory Italian potato salad is a perfect accompaniment to your summer family barbecues.
- cook TIME 15 mins
- prep TIME 5 mins
- total TIME 20 mins
- COURSE Side Dish
- CUISINE American
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 232 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tbspred wine vinegar
- 24 ozbaby potatoes (quartered)
- 0.3 tspsalt
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 2 tbspparsley (chopped)
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
- 4 ozchocolate cherry tomatoes (halved)
- 1 tsprosemary
- 6 ozgreen beans (trimmed and halved)
- 1 tbspminced garlic
INSTRUCTIONS
Bring a pot of water to a boil, then add 1 tsp rosemary and 24 oz potatoes. Boil over low heat for 15 minutes. Remove the potatoes and let them cool off.
To the same boiling pot, add 6 oz green beans. Continue cooking for 2 more minutes. Drain them and set aside.
Make the dressing while waiting for the potatoes and the green beans to cook. Add 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 tbsp garlic, and 2 tbsp parsley into a mixing bowl, then stir to combine.
In a medium/large bowl, put the tomatoes, the potatoes, the green beans, and the dressing together and give everything a gentle toss.
Plate and serve!
NUTRITION
Tuyet Pham
Chef, Culinary Consultant
Luna Regina
Writer, Author
Natalie Butler, RD, LD
Nutrition Reviewer