Easy Sour Cream Potato Salad Recipe
This is the best Sour Cream Potato Salad you’ll ever make! Creamy, light, and full of flavour, this sour cream potato salad recipe is quick and easy to make. A perfect side for dinner, lunch, picnics and more with family or friends. I just love this easy creamy potato salad, and you will too!
Sour Cream Potato Salad
If, like me, you love sour cream, or you just want to lower your mayo intake, this sour cream potato salad is for you. You can make a regular creamy potato salad into something delicious!
I absolutely love potato salad. I grew up eating Japanese potato salad using Kewpie Mayo. But this light and tangy potato side dish is different. Instead of relying on the intense eggie flavour of Kewpie Mayo, I’ve made this potato salad recipe with sour cream.
I use a simple cooking technique that ensures your potato salad deliciously fluffy, and rich in flavour. And you’ll save on cooking time.
Bring joy into your life and share it with loved ones. Read on!
The best potato for this creamy potato salad
One of the keys to making the best sour cream potato salad is to find the right potato.
LOW STARCH (AKA ‘WAXY’)
This mayo and sour cream potato salad works well with ‘waxier’ potatoes, such as any type of “New” potatoes or red potatoes. These waxier potatoes contain relatively less starch, are high in moisture, and less likely break apart while being cooked. The skin is rather thin and so no need to remove it. (source)
Russet Burbank and King Edward, high starch potatoes, can be used but tend to be ‘floury’ and fall apart when they are cooked. So the texture can be different to the waxy potatoes.
MID STARCH
In North America, Yukon Gold (yellow potato) are good. They can be found throughout the season and are in between waxy and floury potatoes.
For Australian readers, Kipfler and Pontiac work for this potato salad.
Ingredients for potato salad with sour cream
EGGS
I like to add hard boiled eggs. Since the eggs play an important role in this recipe, try to find fresh, ideally organic, and free-range eggs.
VINEGAR
Vinegar is cruicial to this potato salad, and my favourite is Japanese rice vinegar which is a bit sweeter than everyday vinegar. Apple cider vinegar also works well. It’s fruity and pungent, and goes perfectly with sour cream.
PICKLES
I love pickles! And they go perfectly with potato salad. You can use any pickles you have in your pantry. They add a great crunchy texture and create a depth of flavour. I used Japanese yellow pickles made with horse radish (oshinko).
SOUR CREAM
I like sour cream and often use it for a replacement for butter and mayonnaise. You can use any sour cream you have, and I use homemade sour cram. It can be made with two ingredients.
Variations
This creamy potato salad with sour cream is often made with dill. But some people, including my partner Andy, don’t like dill so much. So, I replaced it with chives, and it worked better! But you can use parsley, spring onion or pretty much any of your favourite herbs on this mayo and sour cream potato salad.
Also if you fancy a potato salad with sour cream and with no mayo, you can make it too. You can lighten the sour cream with natural yoghurt.
Let us know how yours works out in the comment section below!
How to Make Sour Cream Potato Salad
This potato salad recipe is quick and straightforward. All you need to do is to make the delicious dressing and chop the ingredients while you cook potatoes.
How to cook the potatoes with sour cream
Do you remove the potato skin before cooking?
Baby potatoes are fine to cook with the skin on as it’s thin and doesn’t distract from the flavour.
For other potatoes, generally, cooking whole potatoes with the skin on, takes a lot of time. You have to cool them down and remove the skin.
So, if you can’t find baby potatoes, remove the skin and cut them into smaller pieces to save cooking and waiting time. Once you’ve cooked them, drain the water and add some heat in the pan to remove the moisture. This one step makes the flavour extra rich and condensed.
Seasoning potatoes
Season potatoes with vinegar and salt while they’re still hot. This way, potatoes don’t become soggy, and you enhance the flavour.
Also add the red onion while the potatoes are hot. This way there’s no need to soak the onion in water to remove the bitterness as the heat will help do that. Let the mix cool down.
Sour cream potato salad dressing
Once you’ve boiled the eggs, separate egg yolks from the whites. Mash the yolk with a fork, and smooth the mix with sour cream, mustard and other dressing ingredients. This way the mix becomes consistent, creamier and more flavourful with egg yolks.
Then add the egg whites and lightly mix them through.
Mixing up
Combine the egg whites, potatoes, pickles and dressing mix with the seasoned potatoes. Mix them up ensuring the dressing and pickles are spread evenly through the potato.
That’s it! Serve immediately, or chill the potato salad in the fridge. Enjoy!
FAQs
Can you make sour cream potato salad a day ahead?
Yes! Also you can save this potato salad in an air-tight container for three days in the fridge. This creamy potato salad is delicious eaten straight away or after chilling it in the fridge for an hour. I find chilling slightly better as the flavour and taste become more settled.
Is potato salad better with mustard or mayo?
Both mustard and mayo do go well with potato salad. I used them both in my Japanese potato salad. The salad is delicious with sour cream, mayo and a hit of mustard combined together!
More Side Dish Recipes
Sour Cream Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Preparation & cooking
- 2 lb potatoes (900g)
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (or rice wine)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar (any: I use cane sugar)
- ⅓ cup red onion (finely diced)
- ⅓ cup pickles (any kind and finely diced)
Sour cream potato salad dressing
- ¾ cup sour cream (or homemade sour cream)
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I use homemade Kewpie Mayo)
- 1 teaspoon mustard (I use Dijon)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt (or kosher salt)
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- ⅓ tablespoons chive (or parsley)
Instructions
Preparation & cooking
- Clean the potatoes with running water, remove the skin and chop them into one inch cubes.
- Place them into a pot. Add water and a pinch of salt, and cook them over the medium heat until the potatoes become soft (but not breaking apart). Keep checking so that you don’t overcook them. It takes about ten minutes.
- While potatoes are cooking, boil an egg, and finely dice red onion. Set aside.
- Separate hard boiled egg yolks from egg whites. Place them into a small bowl. Set aside.
- Chop egg whites and pickles into fine dices. Set aside.
- Once potatoes are cooked, drain hot water from the pan, then add medium heat to remove remaining water on the surface of the potatoes. Turn off the heat once excess water is removed.
- Cut the diced potatoes into half with a spatula in the pan. Sprinkle vinegar, salt and sugar onto the potatoes and season them while they’re still warm in the pan. Set aside.
Sour cream potato salad dressing
- Smooth over the egg yolks with a spatula in a small bowl. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, vinegar and ground pepper. Combine them until consistent.
Mixing
- Make sure the seasoned potatoes are cooled down. Add the sour cream salad dressing, diced egg whites and pickles onto them. Combine all until consistently mixed. You want every mouthful to have a bit of everything in it!That's it! Serve immediately, or chill in the fridge for one hour. Enjoy
Notes
- This potato salad works best with “New” potatoes and read potatoes. No need to remove the skin for cooking. Kipfler and Yukon Gold (yellow potato) also work but remove the skin and chop into one inch cubes.
- You can make this sour cream potato salad one day ahead. It can be saved in the air-tight container for three days in the fridge.
