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This was delicious! My whole family loved it! Thanks for a fun twist on potato salad
Robin
Smashed Potato Salad Was My Favorite Lunch This Month.
As a basic girl born and raised in the Midwest, these are three top-tier restaurant items for me:
- a shreddy, choppy salad
- crispy golden French fries
- runny, drippy, housemade ranch dressing.
This salad is for anyone who loves that combo. It is a spin on the viral smashed potato salad – but more lettuce-forward instead of being a picnic-style potato salad. Doing it this way preserves a bit of the crispiness of the potatoes, but it’s also just really pleasant to eat with all the tender-crunch bites.
I had this for lunch several times this month, and every bite just carried me to a really joyful place. I want this for you.
It’s tangy, bold, substantial but also light and shreddy at the same time. We added tuna one night for dinner (extra protein, husband-led initiative) and it worked great. Delicious. But I’m emotionally attached to it as-is – just the pickley salad, the potatoes, and the creamy ranch as a trio. My besties.
Hope you love this!
How To Make This Potato Salad (Video)
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Crispy Smashed Potato Salad
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings as a side 1x
Description
Pickley salad, crispy potatoes, and creamy ranch – this smashed potato salad is the perfect summer combo!
Ingredients
Crispy Smashed Potatoes
- 24 ounces baby yukon gold potatoes
- 1 tablespoon salt
- avocado oil spray
- 2 tablespoons McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning
Salad
- 2 hearts of romaine, finely chopped
- 1 cup dill pickles, chopped
- a quarter of a red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)
Dressing
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon pickle juice
- 1 tablespoon freeze-dried dill (or 1/4 cup fresh, chopped)
- 1 teaspoon McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Potatoes: Bring a pot of water to boil. Add salt and potatoes; cook until the potatoes are fork-tender (15-25 minutes, depending on size).
- Veggies: While potatoes are cooking, chop all your salad ingredients.
- Dressing: While potatoes are cooking, whisk all your dressing ingredients.
- Smash: When potatoes are done and cool enough to handle, use the back of a flat drinking glass to smash each potato (1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness). Gently slide it off the potato in a flat motion to prevent sticking.
- Roast: Arrange the potatoes in a single layer in the basket of an air fryer; spray well with avocado oil, coat with the seasoning, and spray again with oil. Air fry at 375 for 15 minutes, or until golden, craggly, and crispy. (You may need to do this in batches; you can also do this in the oven – see notes.)
- Serve! Toss the romaine, pickles, and onions in the dressing. Toss half of the crispy potatoes in the salad (they may break into smaller chunks as you toss it), and reserve the other half to scatter across the top. Crunchy, fresh, creamy, so so yum.
Equipment
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Buy Now → Notes
The potatoes can also be baked at 375 for 30-45 minutes, until they’re crisped and golden to your liking.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: potato salad, smashed potato salad
Turned out great! First time actually making a salad from scratch, had to make my own mayonnaise
But definitely worth it.
Thanks again!
The sodium is TOO HIGH, an irresponsible level. I made this, removing as much salt as I could. It tasted good and everyone who ate it liked it. Here is what I did:
No salt added to the water or potatoes. I rinsed the dill pickles before and after chopping them to remove as much salt as I could. For the seasoning on the potatoes I used a 1oz. Dry ranch dressing mix. I put the smashed potatoes in the oven using a tater tot pan with an elevated screen. I did not add the pickle juice to the dressing, but added 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar. I made it go r a group event and there was none left.
This salad is sooo good! My toddlers, teen and very picky husband loved it! I didn’t have the McCormick salad seasoning so I made it from a google recipe. So easy to make and delicious. Thank you for this recipe!
My son gave up salad for lent… this completely changed his mind, he wanted seconds! I did add crispy bacon into the mix though to sway him.
Such a great salad! I made it for our family Easter get together and everyone raved! I did make a couple of swaps based on what I had and family preferences. 1st, I used pickled banana peppers in place of pickles and used Penzy’s garden salad seasoning instead of McCormicks.
I have a feeling we’ll be eating this a lot this summer with various riffs. Already I’m thinking about making it with capers, adding chicken/beans/salmon. Some crumbled bacon would take this over the top.
The math is not working on this recipe. Allegedly 40 minutes with 20 minutes of prep time and 20 minutes of cook time. I’m boiling the potato for 20 minutes, allowing it time to cool, doing more prep, and then air frying it for another 15 minutes per batch. Prep time 30 mins cook time 60 mins in real life, plan on 90 mins. We ate dinner late tonight.
This was even better than expected. I microwaved the potatoes instead of boiling to save time, then air fried as directed. The dressing is SO good
This salad was a complete home run in our house! Added some cheddar cheese for some added protein. My whole family devoured this-even my picky toddler ate a deconstructed version!
This is such a delish salad! And I make the dressing all the time for other veggies as well – so yummy and even my picky kids request it all the time! Delish.
This was a HUGE hit! My whole family devoured it in just a couple minutes. I will definitely be making it again. Thank you for this recipe!
The salad and dressing were killer! But I was not impressed with how the potatoes turned out. Did exactly according to the recipe but the Salad Supreme burned before the potatoes actually crisped up. And that was at the 10 minute mark so they weren’t even in there for the full 15 minutes. I used avocado spray oil and sprayed them once, out of the seasoning as instructed, and sprayed them again. I think next time I’ll just crisp the potatoes up by themselves and add some of the seasoning right at the end. I like the idea of one commenter had about using tater tots. That’s fail proof! I’m in love with that dressing, though! Definitely see that being used a lot.
This looks awesome. I can’t wait to try it. Are the potatoes hot when served, or are they at room temperature?
Either works, we think they’re best when warm!
This was freaking delicious. The dressing especially. The dill flavor with the seasoning made me think of eating a burger and fries haha. Thank you for the recipe!
This was delicious! My fiancé and I said it would be such a great summer pairing with burgers. We added diced avocado & hard boiled eggs. Would definitely make again!
Oh that sounds delicious!
Made this as a dinner meal with chicken on top and was so good and filling, and also good the next day for lunch eating it all cold too. Added in some finely chopped cabbage to use what I had in the fridge and this recipe is very forgiving/open to changes which is great!
I just made this and it’s delicious.
Love the flavor combos!
This was so crunchy, delicious, and filling! The only substitution I made was using pickled red onions (another fav POY fridge staple), just a personal preference over raw onion. 10/10 cannot wait to make again! My potatoes were especially tiny and I really enjoyed it for extra crispness.
Do you toss the warm potatoes in with the lettuce right away, or let them cool first? Just wondering how the temperature affects the texture and flavor of the greens
We let them a cool a little bit!
10/10! No notes!
This was a delightful lunch! The crispy potatoes and pickles with the creamy dressing created a lovely balance of texture and flavor. I packed up the leftovers separately – salad w/ pickles and onions, dressing and potatoes and then just gave the potatoes a couple mins in the air fryer and I got to have the same fresh crispy experience all week!
So glad you enjoyed it! And great tips regarding the leftovers.
This was amazing! I love pickle salads and this surprised my whole family with its deliciousness (crispy potatoes are even better than croutons!). My 9 year old had seconds. Will keep in regular rotation! Thank you!
This salad is AMAZING! Such a great dressing and love the pickle addition! I didn’t have McCormick’s seasoning, so I googled the ingredients and threw together what I had. It was perfect!
So glad you enjoyed it, and great pivot on the seasoning!
This salad was incredible! It took longer than I normally like to spend on a salad, but it was totally worth it. We had it as the only side with grilled steaks and it was the perfect combo of fresh, creamy, and crunchy. My husband and daughter loved it too. I will definitely make it again!
Is there something I could substitute for the mayo in the dressing? Thanks!
Unfortunately not, it really gives the dressing body!