Give Your Summer Potato Salad A Nutty Upgrade With This Mayo Swap

There are lots of ways to boost a classic potato salad, and many of them involve swapping the standard mayo for something a little more exciting. This can be as simple as tossing the tubers with rich, tangy Greek yogurt or a Dijon-spiked vinaigrette, or you can add green goddess dressing to potato salad to give it a vibrant color and a brighter taste. But, if you've never tried ditching the mayo in favor of tahini, then you're missing out on a deeply flavorful potato salad that delivers next-level nuttiness. 

Yukon Golds are a firm favorite when choosing the right variety for potato salad, and they work especially well with tahini. The potatoes have a naturally nutty flavor that's rich and buttery, and the toasted sesame seed paste effortlessly complements and amplifies these qualities. Its smooth texture blends seamlessly with the spuds, adding a deliciously delicate creaminess.

To properly prepare potatoes for salad, start cooking them in cold water for the best texture and dress them while still warm so they absorb the maximum amount of flavor. To make the tahini dressing, mix ¼ cup of the nutty paste with a couple tablespoons each of warm water and a neutral oil such as grapeseed. Add some lemon juice for a bright, zingy, citrusy note. You can throw in a few extra ingredients to amp up the flavor even further.

With its creamy, nutty, earthy notes, tahini is a great base for building a super-flavorful potato salad dressing with just a few extra ingredients. Try blitzing the paste in a food processor with some olive oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic, and aromatic fresh herbs — parsley, mint, and basil work well. Or try anise-like tarragon or citrusy, grassy dill. This latter herb also complements the usual potato salad stalwarts, including pickles, scallions, and celery.

Fancy spicing things up? Harissa paste brings the heat thanks to the hot chili peppers and spices it contains. It also has a wonderful earthiness that goes great with the tahini. Go for crushed red pepper flakes and some Dijon mustard for a sharp spiciness, or add your own choice of spices — cumin is ideal, since it already has some nutty notes of its own.

Alternatively, you can play with the sweet-savory balance in a tahini potato salad. Add a tablespoon of white miso paste, which always makes food taste better. The umami-rich ingredient really beefs up the creamy tahini. Salty capers can also make a tasty addition. Or, since tahini is also a key ingredient in candy such as halva, add a little extra sweetness to your spuds. A touch of honey works beautifully with the toasty sesame flavors present in the tahini, especially when it's featured alongside some tangy yogurt and sharp lemon juice. Make your own hot honey for a little extra heat or go for maple syrup to add some caramel complexity — just include some mustard, if you want to incorporate more of a classic honey-mustard profile.