Creme Fraîche Potato Salad with Herbs and Feta

This recipe uses creme fraîche for a less oily potato salad with tang. Along with lemon, feta and herbs the dressing is all that’s needed to create a fresh take on potato salad, after topping it with crunchy lemony sugar snap peas.

roast garlic (optional): 45 mins

make creme fraîche dressing: 15 mins

Why this recipe works

I don’t know about you, but I think typical potato salad leaves a lot to be desired, unless you are looking for a way to carb load with ease :). I love potatoes, especially the little ones, the “new” potatoes, about the size of a golf ball (in our grocery store The Little Potato Co. sells lots of them- not an affiliate link). When I created my Creme Fraîche Dressing and fell in love with its lack of oiliness, I immediately thought of dressing potatoes with it, for a new version of potato salad. As if the tangy, lemony flavor of the dressing wasn’t enough, I tossed blanched sugar snap peas in some lemon and a tad of olive oil for a marinated sugar snap pea vibe, and added them to the potato salad for the perfect tangy crunch. It’s lowkey awesome 😉

Ingredient Notes

• Potatoes- you can use the small new potatoes I’m using/recommending, or you can use any potato, cut into golf ball size and boiled until just barely tender (overcooking makes for mushy potato salad). I love the small new potatoes for their less starchy tenderness.
• Creme Fraîche Dressing- the recipe card sends you over to my separate recipe for this dressing. It takes just a few minutes to crumble feta and chop fresh herbs, and mix the dressing up with a fork. For extra specialness, I indicate roasting a head of garlic to squeeze into the dressing. If you prefer, you can use garlic powder. If you only have fresh garlic on hand, you can use it, but I’d only crush in 1/2 of an average size clove, otherwise it can overtake the flavor profile.
• Sugar snap peas- these are the small fresh pea pods with fresh peas inside. They are not always readily available. You can use regular fresh pea pods as a substitute. See recipe card and notes for how to prepare them for the salad. They are not essential but they add a lot to the salad, in terms of crunch and color.

Step-by-step instructions

First, head over to my recipe for Creme Fraîche Dressing and take a few minutes to stir that together. As mentioned, ideally you roast a head of garlic (maybe the night before when making dinner?), so you can stir that into the dressing.

Bring a pot of water (3 qt size) to boil while you make the dressing.

After you set the dressing aside (you can chill it while prepping the potatoes and sugar snap peas) prepare the potatoes by cutting new potatoes in half, or quarters or whatever amount you need based on the size of your potatoes. Golf ball or slightly smaller sized chunks work well.

I like to prepare the sugar snap peas in one of two ways:

• Cut them in half on the diagonal, exposing a bit of the peas inside.
• If the peas are mature and fill the pod, you can break away one half of the pod, exposing the cute little peas, still attached to the other half of the pod.

I’ve not had luck lately getting sugar snap peas with big peas inside, so in the photos here, they are sliced in half (or left whole if too small).

When the water boils, drop the prepped sugar snap peas in, and blanche for barely a minute. This will make the peas bright green, take a bit of the raw flavor away, but leave them crunchy.

Use a slotted spoon or spatula to sift out the peas and plunge immediately into a bowl of ice water that you have prepped and placed next to the pot. Let them chill a few minutes then drain and pat dry.

Toss the sugar snap peas in a drizzle of olive oil and spritz of lemon and allow them to marinate while you complete the salad. I like to add a few drops of jalapeno tabasco for heat which gives the salad some more individuality, but you do you, add a pinch of cayenne, some red chili flakes, or nothing at all.

Allow the water to come to a boil again and add in the potato chunks, cooking until just barely tender. Be sure to taste along the way. You want the potatoes cooked and fork tender, but just barely. Overcooking the potatoes will make for a mushy salad. You should be able to cut through them with a fork, but they should not yield to the fork too easily.

I like to drain the potatoes and plunge into an ice bath as well, to be sure and stop the cooking process, but you can also drain and place in the fridge to cool down, either way.

The final step involves mixing the full amount of the creme fraiche dressing with the potatoes, then topping the whole thing with the marinated sugar snap peas (don’t add any leftover marinating liquid). I also like to snip some herbs over the top of the salad.

Tips for making this recipe

• Make ahead- You can make the dressing ahead and let it chill for a day or three, and you can blanch the sugar snap peas ahead (they will yellow a bit from the lemon juice, however, so don’t do that ahead). Heck even the potatoes can be cooked at your leisure, allowing you to pull the whole salad together for a show stopping presentation in a matter of minutes.
• Leftovers- this salad does well for up to three days of leftovers in the fridge.
• Sugar snap peas- as you can see, I am not tossing the peas into the salad with the dressing. Rather, they are tossed on top of the salad, so they remain green and their flavor contrasts a bit with the rich tang of the potatoes in the dressing.