Come spring, we love side dishes that are cool and refreshing. That’s easy with vegetable dishes, but can be harder with starches. Our solution? Pasta salad and potato salad. We aren’t satisfied with just your basic mayonnaise-based dish, either—we look to cuisines from across the world, from Northern Europe to the the Middle East to East Asia. We’ve rounded up our favorite pasta and potato salad recipes.
For a classic American potato salad, look to Jude's Perfect Potato Salad. This creamy salad is made with mayonnaise and hard-boiled eggs and given a zesty kick from Dijon mustard. Want to avoid the mayo? Try dressing grilled red potatoes with an herb vinaigrette.
Crossing the Atlantic to Europe reveals more delicious dishes. German potato salad is a continental classic. Our version features boiled waxy potatoes, bacon, raw onions, and a dressing made of vinegar and bacon fat. Or try a Swedish potato salad with dill and sautéed kohlrabi.
Light, bright pasta salads make great sides. Try tossing orecchiette with rapini and goat cheese and dressing it with extra virgin olive oil. Or make our Greek pasta salad—rotini tossed with briny feta and fresh cucumber and tomatoes.
Pasta salad doesn't have to be limited to European ingredients. Our Moroccan pasta salad is made of couscous and flavored with olive, lemon, and cinnamon. Heading east, try our soba noodle salad. The buckwheat noodles are tossed with crunchy vegetables and dressed with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and fish sauce.
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Find all these dishes and more in our collection of pasta and potato salads.
Pasta salad is a Virginia country-store staple, to which Mason Hereford applies his signature culinary move: elevating humble dishes without sacrificing their essence. Al dente penne gets decked out with lemony buttermilk dressing, sweet peppers, and crunchy seeds. Get the recipe for Pasta Salad with Buttermilk Dressing »
Subarna Bhattachan, a Nepalese chef living in Lawrence, Kansas, folds a purée of cool yogurt, nutty tahini, and spicy red chiles into his fragrant take on potato salad. Get the recipe for Curried Potato Salad »
Roasted sweet potatoes are married with candied ginger in a citrus vinaigrette in a salad recipe from Kansas home cook Sue Ashline. Get the recipe for Sweet Potato Salad »
The flavors of a richly spiced Moroccan tagine come together in this pasta salad, savory and bright with olive, lemon, and cinnamon. Get the recipe for Moroccan Pasta Salad »
Just a few simple ingredients come together for a delightfully punchy, vinegary potato salad that's perfect with any barbecue spread. Get the recipe for German Potato Salad »
If you order one of the spectacular gumbos served at Prejean's restaurant in Lafayette, Louisiana, the wait staff will likely ask: "Would you like potato salad with that?" The version they serve isn't simply meant to be a side; here, it is common for diners to stir the salad right into the gumbo. Doing so cools the gumbo down to room temperature and adds a creaminess that's akin to melting ice cream. Get the recipe for Prejean's Potato Salad »
Boiling potatoes whole and unpeeled means they don't absorb too much water as they cook. Mixing them with an egg yolk and olive oil yields a rich dressing without the heavy creaminess of mayonnaise. Get the recipe for Ignacio Mattos' Potato Salad »
