French Potato Salad

This French potato salad is a delicious simple side dish that’s bright and tangy, packed with capers and fresh herbs. An adaptation of Julia Child’s classic recipe, it’s a summer favorite that’s perfect for cookouts!

One of the first cookbooks I picked up when I was learning to cook was a book by Julia Child. After reading it, I fell in love with her personality: her passion for cooking is infectious! She then became my “TV friend” as I binged-watched her black-and-white cooking shows from the 1950’s.

A few years ago I made Nicoise salad, a recipe I learned from Julia, and a component of that bowl was this French potato salad. It was so good that I kept sneaking bites from the bowl! Now when summer rolls around, this French potato salad is what I make: it’s light, simple, no mayo, and everyone always loves it: even more than the classic creamy kind!

5 Star Reader Reviews

“This is the best potato salad I’ve ever made. YUM. It’s my new go-to. Wow. Interesting method but turns out fantastic.” -Stephanie

“The easiest French potato salad I have made. I like the addition of capers. I cooked the potatoes in the pressure cooker and they turned out perfectly.” -Kn

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s a true crowd-pleaser. The tangy-briny-herby flavor is hard to stop eating: everyone I’ve served it to loves this combination.
Make-ahead friendly. You can mix it a full day in advance and it tastes even better the next day.
Works for many diets. It’s vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free so it’s great for cookouts with many types of eaters.

French potato salad | Potato salad with capers

What is French Potato Salad, Anyway?

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.

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

Ingredients You’ll Need

Baby red potatoes: Their thin skins and waxy flesh hold their shape after boiling. It’s worth finding the right thing for this recipe — yellow skin potatoes also work.
White wine vinegar. Bright but not aggressive. As a substitution, you can also try red wine vinegar though again, it’s worth finding the real thing.
Capers. These give the salad a salty, briny pop. They’re a berry of the caper bush that’s native to the Mediterranean and sold pickled, in small thin bottles. See my best caper recipes for more info.
Shallot. The flavor is milder than yellow onion, with a hint of garlic. (You can also make a great shallot vinaigrette with leftovers.)
Fresh parsley. Adds a fresh and peppery kick. Here’s how to store parsley so it doesn’t go limp. You can also use dill and make this dill potato salad.
Olive oil. My go-to heart healthy all-purpose oil.

Tips for Making French Potato Salad

This French potato salad is incredibly tasty: every time I make it I truly cannot help myself from sneaking bites: it’s just that good! Here are a few tips for this salad:

Start the potatoes in cold, salted water. This is the move for any boiled potato: cold water means even cooking from the inside out.
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!
Don’t skip the capers. Capers add just the right final flavoring to the dish. This was an addition I made to Julia’s salad recipe, as I saw some other French potato salad recipes that incorporated capers. It really makes it shine!

How to Serve French Potato Salad

This French potato salad is perfect for all sorts of occasions and to pair with dishes of all kinds. Here are my 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, and greens covered in a tangy lemon dressing.
With salmon. Try it alongside my Lemon Dill Salmon, Easy Baked Salmon, or Grilled Salmon.
With chicken. Add my grilled chicken thighs or best chicken burger.
At a summer barbecue. It’s the perfect summer salad for a cookout or barbecue (here are 30 more summer salads).
With a plant-based main. Class up my veggie burger or portobello burger.

Make-Ahead and Storage Tips

This is a great make-ahead salad: you can mix it up to a full day in advance, keep it in the fridge, and pull it out about 30 minutes before serving so it can come back to room temperature. Leftovers store for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.

A quick word on warm-vs.-cold: I usually serve this at room temperature, which is when both the potatoes and the seasonings taste their best.

Dietary Notes

This French potato salad recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.