This potato salad recipe is excellent for family gatherings and picnics. No one will ever realize it’s a low-fat, healthier vegan version. I promise, if my family can’t tell, yours won’t either.

Southern cooking with mayonnaise

I am from the Carolina’s where potato salad, cole slaw, and tomato sandwiches are necessary meal staples. This was a real issue for me after switching to a plant-based lifestyle, because you know what all these foods require right? Mayonnaise!

The Southern potato salad recipe I had used for 35 years called for mayo, and that wouldn’t work anymore due to the eggs and oil. This was a very sad realization for me.

But did it have to be? I decided to search for a compliant, heart-healthy mayonnaise option that would allow these foods to continue to be a part of mine and my family’s lives.

Unfortunately, I quickly found out that store-bought mayo options–though they were vegan–were certainly not healthy. They contained lots of artery-clogging oil and loads of fat.

Then, I ran across a recipe from Dr. John McDougall‘s wife, Mary McDougall.  She had this Easy Eggless Low-Fat Mayo recipe that taste delicious.

One of my first tests was to try it in my decades-old Southern potato salad recipe. It’s a recipe that has been in my family for years. I remember my grandmother preparing it for Sunday dinners after church when I was a child.

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Ingredients in potato salad

• potatoes
• onion
• pickled relish
• mayonnaise
• yellow mustard
• garlic powder
• parsley
• smoked paprika
• salt & pepper

Sometimes I make this with red potatoes and leave the skins on for more nutritional bang!

One medium red potato has about one-third of our daily Vitamin C requirement, plus four grams of protein and three grams of fiber. Leave the skin on, because that is where most of the goodness resides.

Nutrition in red potatoes

A medium, red-skinned potato that’s baked measures about 2.25 to 3.25 inches in diameter.

If you eat the skin and flesh of the potato, you’ll get 153 calories, 3 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of fat, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This makes potatoes a good fit for low-fat diets. 

Red potatoes also provide you with a variety of vitamins to maintain your health. A medium red potato provides 36 percent of the daily value of vitamin C. Your body needs vitamin C to form collagen — an essential connective-tissue protein — to fight infections, to help iron and copper absorption and to maintain healthy bones.

You’ll also get 19 percent of the daily value for vitamin B6, 13 percent for niacin and 12 percent for folate from red potatoes. These B vitamins aid in energy metabolism, cell growth and repair, keeping skin and nerves healthy, and they help prevent certain neural-tube birth defects in babies.–LiveStrong

Not only that, but it was great in cole slaw and on tomato sandwiches (the ultimate test) too!

When I take this potato salad to family get-togethers, the bowl is always empty when I bring it home!

Other great Southern recipes

• Carolina Red Cole Slaw
• Creamy Potato Soup
• Country Cornbread

Plant-Based Vegan Starter Kits $27

Yield: 6 servings

Country Potato Salad Vegan

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This Country Potato Salad recipe is excellent for family gatherings and picnics. No one will ever realize it's a low-fat, healthier version. I promise, if my Southern family can't tell, yours won't either.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 medium-large potatoes
• 1 small onion, (purple onion makes it prettier)
• 1 Tbsp sweet pickle relish
• 1 Tbsp (heaping) low-fat mayo, recipe below. I use heaping Tbsp.
• 1 tsp yellow mustard, (not dry mustard)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp parsley flakes
• 1 pinch smoked paprika
• 1 tsp salt, or to your taste preference
• Black ground pepper

Instructions

1. Peel, wash, and dice potatoes. Add to a large pot of boiling water. Allow to cook on medium high until potatoes are tender, approximately 20 minutes.
2. Drain cooked potatoes.
3. Add all other ingredients--onion, low-fat mayo, mustard (this is the refrigerator kind, not dry ground), garlic powder, parsley flakes, paprika, salt, and pepper.
4. Mix all together thoroughly and serve.

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• 
  McCormick Smoked Paprika, 0.9 oz

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 185 Total Fat: 1g Carbohydrates: 41g Fiber: 4g Protein: 5g

To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.