Name: French Potato Salad
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 3 pounds baby red potatoes; 1/4 cup minced shallot (about 1 large); 1/4 cup white wine vinegar; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 cup capers, drained; 1 tablespoon fresh parsley; 2 tablespoons olive oil; Fresh ground pepper

An adaptation of Julia Child’s classic recipe, this French potato salad is a favorite! It features zingy red potatoes, capers, and parsley.

One of the first cookbooks Alex and I picked up when we wanted to learn to cook? A book by Julia Child. And after reading it, we fell in love with her personality. Her passion for cooking was infectious! She then became our “TV friend” as we binged-watched seasons of her cooking shows from the 1950’s. Recently we made the classic French Nicoise salad, a recipe we learned from Julia. A component of that bowl is this French potato salad, and it was so good that we kept sneaking bits from the bowl! Here are all of Julia’s secrets to the best potato salad.

French potato salad | Potato salad with capers

What is French potato salad?

French potato salad is a vinegar-based salad, instead of creamy like the American version. While the ingredients can vary, it typically includes potatoes, vinegar and olive oil, fresh herbs like parsley or dill, onion, shallot or scallions, and sometimes capers. It’s got no mayo and works for many diets including vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and gluten-free.

We did a version of this French potato salad with dill that’s absolutely fantastic. To add an herby pop, go to our Dill Potato Salad.

Got more parsley to use up? Try more of our Best Parsley Recipes.

Secrets to the best this French potato salad

This French potato salad is incredibly tasty: the sum of its parts equal something much greater than the whole! The red potatoes are salty, tangy, and moist, mixed with just the right amount of salty capers and savory minced shallot. Alex and I truly could not help ourselves from sneaking bites while making this salad: it’s just that good! We could not stop eating it. Here are a few of the elements that make this salad shine:

Let the potatoes stand with vinegar & water, then mix in olive oil. There’s no traditional vinaigrette here! After the potatoes are boiled and drained, you’ll mix them with white wine vinegar and warm water and let them stand for 5 minutes. At first when you mix in the water, the potatoes will be very watery. But never fear! As you gently mix the potatoes, they’ll absorb the water and vinegar and become moist and tangy. Then you can add a touch of olive oil. This method makes for perfectly moist potato salad!
Capers add a salty, briny flavor. Capers add just the right final flavoring to the dish. This was an addition we made to Julia’s salad recipe, as we saw some other French potato salad recipes that incorporated capers.

What else to do with capers? Make more capers recipes like Paprika goat cheese spread, vegan pasta marinara, and Pasta puttanesca.

Ways to serve it!

This French potato salad is perfect for all sorts of occasions and to pair with dishes of all kinds. Here are our top ways to serve it:

Nicoise salad. The hands down best way to serve it: as part of Nicoise Salad! It’s a French main dish salad that’s off the charts good, with boiled eggs, green beans, tuna, olives & greens covered in a tangy lemon dressing.
With salmon. Try it alongside Lemon Dill Salmon or Easy Cedar Plank Salmon.
At a summer barbecue. It’s the perfect summer salad for a cookout or barbecue (here are 9 more summer salads).
With a burger. Class up our Best Veggie Burger or Chickpea Burgers.

This French potato salad recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.