Lebanese Potato Salad (2024)

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What is Lebanese Potato Salad

In Arabic, potato salad is calledsalatat batata or batata salatawhich translates to potato salad.

Put simply, this salad features boiled potatoes mixed with dry and fresh herbs, dressed with freshly squeezed lemon and extra virgin olive oil. The result? A light, tasty, and healthy potato salad that pairs well with various dishes.

It's a great side dish, free from mayo, dairy, or cream, making it naturally vegan and gluten-free.

About TheIngredients

Potatoes that can be boiled or steamed are perfect for this salad, the best types are all-rounder potatoes, red potatoes or russet potatoes. There are loads of Lebanese recipes containing this ingredient such as coldpotato kibbehorbatata harrawhich are spicy potatoes.

Flat-leaved fresh parsley should be chopped small. It is best to discard the hard stalks, the soft stalks can be finely sliced and used in this salad, as these contain a lot of flavor.

Spring onion (scallions or green onions) are finely sliced and add the most delicious umami flavor. These can be replaced with shallots, white or red onion.

Dried ground mint, a little of this goes a long way and gives salata batata a minty coolness. You can swap this out for fresh mint leaves that are finely sliced, however, in my family, we prefer dried mint.

Fresh garlic clove, whilst completely optional, is quite delicious. Only a small clove is needed which is crushed prior to tossing through the salad. I have also made this salad with frozen crushed garlic and it worked out well. As it is only a small amount, the garlic defrosts quickly when at room temperature.

Extra virginolive oil(affiliate link) it is important to use seriously good olive oil as it is imperative to the taste and can alter the taste.

Fresh lemon juice is as important as olive oil, avoid using store-bought lemon juice as it can sometimes taste bitter and contain unwanted ingredients.

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper can be added to taste.

Be as liberal as you want with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (I don't know of any Lebanese family that measures as it is all done to taste)

If you'd like a bit of a chili kick, add some red pepper flakes to taste.

How To Make Lebanese Potato Salad

Boil The Potatoes

There are a few ways to boil potatoes, and I usually decide based on how my day is going.

After washing the potatoes, you can either boil them whole or peel and cube them into 1-inch chunks before boiling.

Whichever method you choose, place the potatoes in cold water, then bring it to a soft boil over high heat.

Then reduce to medium heat and boil until fork tender (the boiling time varies depending on the size of each potato, check them regularly).

Once the boiled potatoes have cooled enough to handle, peel the skin (or you can leave the skin on, I prefer the skin off) and cut the potato into bite-sized chunks, think of 1-inch cubes.

Chop The Herbs

Trim off hard stalks and chop parsley which should not be coarse or fine. Do the same to the fresh mint if you are using this. Slice off the roots off the spring onions and then slice thinly.

​Whisk The Dressing

In a small bowl whisk lemon juice, salt, black pepper, olive oil, crushed garlic cloves and dried mint together.

​Toss and Serve

In a large mixing bowl, add the potato chunks and all other ingredients, including the dressing. Gently toss everything together, taking care to preserve the shape of the potatoes.

Serve this at a bbq, or family gathering with foods such as skewered tofu and eggplant dip.