This potato salad is so incredibly delicious, simple, and make-ahead friendly. I like my potato salads to be nice and acidic/zingy to balance out the starchy potatoes and heavier protein that it’s often served with, but you can decide how zingy you want it to be. Potatoes get boiled and thrown on the grill (if you want) along with some cabbage and scallions. If there’s any vegetable that likes to get burnt/charred it’s cabbage! The smoky charred flavor is sooo delicious! It all gets tossed in a super bright apple cider vinaigrette with some punchy pickled jalapenos for a little extra zing! It’s the perfect side to any protein or this week’s grilled salmon sandwich for Dad!
Ingredient Highlight
Potatoes! The mighty potato! Most of the the nutrient content is in the skins, so keep those skins on if you can. Potatoes are an excellent source of potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, niacin, and fiber. They contain lysine, an essential amino acid that you often can’t find in grains.
Servings 4 People
Prep Time 15 minutes 
Cook Time 27 minutes Ingredients
- 1.5 lb red potatoes or use baby potatoes*
- ½ purple or green cabbage (about 1-1.5 lbs), cut into 2-inch thick wedges
- 1 large bunch scallions
- ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup pickled jalapenos, chopped
- Fresh herbs
- Using the medium size red potatoes are easier to grill, but baby potatoes still work and I prefer their texture.
- You could use any grilled veggie in place of the cabbage. I originally tested this with grilled peppers and it was yummy, but I just love that charred cabbage flavor. See “substitutions” section.
- If not grilling scallions, add some fresh chopped scallions, dill, parsley, or cilantro.
Instructions
- Turn your grill on high heat and let it heat up for at least 10 minutes. Once it’s heated up, reduce the heat down to medium-high.
- In a large pot, add the potatoes, enough water to cover them by 2 inches and generously salt the water (like pasta!). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10-20 minutes (depending on size), or until easily pierced with a knife. Transfer the potatoes to a large cutting board to cool for a bit.
- If not grilling the potatoes, then just cut them into bite sized pieces. To grill the potatoes, cut them in half and brush a bit of olive oil on the cut-side just to lightly coat. Place them cut-side -down on the grill at the same time as the cabbage and scallions (see below).
- Add cabbage wedges and scallions to a large bowl and toss them in 1 tablespoon oil and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add them to the grill, then cover and grill for about 5 minutes. The scallions should be softened and charred in spots and the potatoes should have nice grill marks. Transfer those to a cutting board. Flip the cabbage and grill for another 2-3 minutes, covered, or until charred on the other side, then transfer to the cutting board.
- While the veggies cool a bit, in that same large bowl, whisk together the remaining ⅓ cup oil, vinegar, mustard, and remaining ¾ teaspoon salt. Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces and transfer to the bowl and shake them around to coat. Thinly slice the scallions, removing the hairy root ends, and chop up the cabbage (remove the core before chopping). Transfer to the bowl along with the pickled jalapenos and toss to coat. Taste the salad – if it tastes flat, add another tablespoon of vinegar and/or more salt.
- Serve it up topped with some black pepper.
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Cook 1.5 lbs red potatoes – if you’re not grilling the potatoes for the salad, make sure you warm up the cooked potatoes in the microwave before adding to the salad/tossing in the dressing. Warm potatoes absorb flavor a lot better.
- Cut 1/2 cabbage into 2-inch thick wedges
- Chop ½ cup pickled jalapenos
- Option to make the dressing
Substitutions:
- You could substitute any grilled veggie in place of the cabbage if that’s not your thing. Mushrooms, bell peppers and/or corn would also be delicious.
- Substitute anything pickled for the pickled jalapenos or just leave them out.
- If you don’t want to grill the scallions, you can just thinly slice them raw and add to the salad, but just use one bunch instead of two. Raw onion has a much stronger flavor.
Storage:
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 days.
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- I prefer to warm this salad up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds just to take the chill off.
- Add chopped bacon!
