Fennel Potato Salad Recipe
Quick Overview: Fennel Potato Salad Recipe
- ⏱️ Prep time: 20 minutes
- 🍳 Cook time: 25 minutes
- 🕒 Total time: 45 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 6
- 📊 Calories: ~488 kcal per serving
- 🔥 Cook method: Boil potatoes whole, then toss cold with fennel and dressing.
- 👩🍳 Flavor profile: Creamy and tangy, with a crisp, anise-sweet snap from fresh fennel.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy
- 🥗 What it is: Classic potato salad built with fresh fennel, scallions, and dill in a creamy dressing.
- ✅ Why it works: Boiling the potatoes whole keeps them from turning waterlogged, and holding the dressing back until serving keeps the fennel and scallions crisp.
- 🔪 Key equipment: Large pot, sharp knife or mandolin for the fennel.
- 🌡️ Serve it: Warm right after mixing, or chilled from the fridge.
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients for Fennel Potato Salad
- New red potatoes: these are just young, thin-skinned potatoes with a subtle, slightly sweet flavor and waxy texture that hold very well together. Yukon Golds work as a substitute, but skip starchy potatoes like russets.
- Fennel: look for a bulb that feels firm and heavy for its size.
- Fresh dill weed: use fresh, not dried, for this one. Dried dill won’t give you the same bright, grassy flavor.
- Mayo: use the mayonnaise that you know and like the flavor of since it’s prominent in the potato salad dressing.
How To Make Creamy Fennel Potato Salad
- Boil the potatoes whole. Cooking them uncut keeps the skins intact and stops the potatoes from soaking up excess water, which is what leads to a mushy salad. They’re ready when a fork slides in easily but the potato still holds its shape.
- Cool completely before cutting. Warm potatoes crumble under a knife and absorb dressing unevenly. Let them cool until they feel fully cool to the touch, not just cool on the surface, for clean, even cuts.
- Shave the fennel thin, like an onion. Halve the bulb lengthwise, then slice it crosswise as thin as you can. Thin slices soften just enough in the dressing without turning fibrous, and you should be able to see light through each piece.
- Taste the dressing before you toss it. The sugar and vinegar need to balance fennel’s anise punch. Adjust for a flavor if needed.
- Toss the dressing in thoroughly, then chill or serve. Mix until everything in dressing evenly, be gently so you don’t mash the potatoes but leave them chunky.
Ways to Serve Fennel Potato Salad
This salad is a natural fit for a backyard cookout. A few of my favorite pairings:
- Serve it alongside grilled salmon with garlic butter for a lighter summer dinner. Or try it with grilled salmon with brown butter citrus sauce for something a little richer.
- Pair it with grilled chicken made with my Greek chicken marinade or my ultimate chicken marinade for a bright, herby cookout plate.
- Set it next to chicken souvlaki if you’re building a Mediterranean-style spread.
- Bring it to a cookout with the best burgers or the best chicken burgers for a classic backyard barbecue plate.
Fennel Potato Salad Recipe FAQs
Raw fennel has a mild anise, or licorice, flavor with a crisp, celery-like crunch. Once it’s tossed in the creamy dressing, that flavor mellows into something more subtle and sweet.
While the whole point of this potato salad is fennel, yes you can. Thinly sliced celery or cucumber will give you a similar crunch if fennel isn’t for you, though the salad will lose its signature flavor twist.
Yukon Golds are a good substitute for new red potatoes.
Yes. You can make the full salad, dressing mixed in, up to a day ahead. Store it covered in the fridge and give it a quick toss before serving.
To keep the fennel crispy, refrigerate the dressing and potato salad separately. Then mix the dressing and salad together just before serving. This will help keep the fennel and scallions crisp.
Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it holds for 3 to 4 days. The fennel and scallions will soften slightly the longer it sits.
Yes, this salad is good served warm right after mixing or chilled from the fridge.
More Potato Salad Recipes To Try
- Parmesan Dill Potato Salad
- Southern Potato Salad Recipe
- Roasted Garlic Asiago Potato Salad
- German Potato Salad Recipe
- Dill Pickle Potato Salad Recipe
- Loaded Baked Potato Salad
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Fennel Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs new red potatoes
- 1 medium fennel
- 1/2 red onion
- 2 stalks of scallions (green onion)
- 2 tbsp minced fresh dill weed
Potato Salad Dressing:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 – 1 1/2 tbsp white granulated sugar
- 1/8-1/4 tsp black pepper to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse potatoes and place them in a pot (do not cut the potatoes!). Fill the pot with cold water, making sure potatoes are covered.
- Add a generous amount of salt to the water. Cook potatoes in salted, simmering water (over medium heat) until fork tender but not falling apart. Drain off the water and cool potatoes completely before cutting.
- Cut potatoes half or quarters (depending on the size) and add to a large mixing bowl.
- To cut fennel: Place the white fennel on its side on the cutting board and cut off the green shoots close to the white bulb. Cut the fennel bulb in half, lengthwise. Place the bulb half cut side down and slice it across, thinly, like you would an onion. Discard the root. Note: you can use the fennel shoots to flavor the water while cooking potatoes. Just add 2-3 stalks.
- Slice red onion thinly, chop scallions, and mince dill weed. Combine vegetables and potatoes in a mixing bowl, season with some salt, and mix with the dressing until evenly coated.
- You can choose to serve this potato salad still warm or cold.
- If you want to serve it cold, don't add the dressing to the salad but refrigerate both separately. Mix the potato salad with the dressing right before serving. This will help keep the fennel and onions crisp. (Note: cut the onions and fennel only about 2 hours before serving or it will start to get wilt.)
Notes
Nutrition
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Categories:
4th Of July Recipes, Backyard BBQ Recipes, Father's Day Recipe Ideas, Gluten Free Recipes, Potatoes, Side Dishes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
This is a fantastic salad. I added diced boiled egg and crispy bacon bits. It got a 10 out of 10 from our guests.
Look yummy recipe. i can try recipe 🙂 thank you willcook
Thanks 🙂