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overhead shot of potato salad with feta creme fraiche dressing, sugar snap peas and garnished with chive blossoms.
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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.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time12 minutes
Roast head of garlic (optional)45 minutes
Course: Salad
Cuisine: European-inspired
Keyword: creme fraiche, creme fraiche potato salad, feta and creme fraiche potato salad
Servings: 4
Calories: 259kcal

Ingredients

Creme Fraîche Dressing (instructions listed below, click link for more recipe details)

  • 1/2 cup creme fraîche can sub sour cream
  • 2 oz feta cheese crumbled
  • 1/2 cup mixed fresh herbs (heaping) parsley, dill, basil
  • 1 head of roasted garlic (6-8 cloves) roasted ahead-see notes or sub garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt can include celery salt if you have
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper powder can sub black pepper cracked or powder
  • 1/2 large lemon juiced about 1/4 cup of juice

Salad Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs small new potatoes can sub any potato
  • 2 cups sugar snap peas can sub fresh pea pods

Instructions

  • Roast head of garlic by cutting top bit off so cloves are exposed and wrap in foil, then cook for about 45 minutes on 350. It is done when garlic cloves are soft and can be squeezed out of their skin. See notes.

Make the creme fraîche dressing

  • Add 2 tbsp of water into the 1/2 cup of creme fraîche, and whisk to uniform consistency.
  • Crumble feta into dressing.
  • Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into dressing.
  • Use a fork to smoosh the garlic so it will mix well.
  • Add lemon juice, onion powder, salt and pepper.
  • Chop mixed herbs nice and small, so they are pleasant to eat (don't leave larger leaf pieces, rather, chop enough that herbs are almost finely chopped). Add to dressing.
  • At this point, stir well and taste. Add salt and pepper as desired (I don't season much with salt, especially with the feta in this dressing).

Prepare rest of salad ingredients

  • Bring pot (3 qt) of water to a boil. While you wait, prep the veggies.
  • If using small new potatoes that are about the size of gold balls then cut in half. If your potatoes are bigger, cut into chunks a bit smaller than golf balls.
  • Prep the sugar snap peas by washing, trimming of stem end as little as possible, and cutting in half diagonally. If the peas inside are big/mature and fill the pod you may be able to take off one half of the pod, and leave peas attached but exposed for fun.
  • Drop sugar snap pea pods into boiling water for barely a minute. Then use slotted utensil of some type to skim them out of the water and plunge into a bath of ice water in a bowl to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry.
  • Sprinkle the pea pods with a little olive oil and lemon juice and let them marinate in a container while you cook the potatoes.
  • Bring the pot of water back to a boil and add the potatoes, cooking for barely 10 minutes, depending on the exact size of your potatoes. You want them tender, but they should not yield to your fork too easily. You want the flesh to remain firm and not mushy. Drain and plunge into ice water or place in fridge to cool.
  • Mix the creme fraiche dressing with the potatoes. Top salad with marinated sugar snap peas, but DON'T add any of the marinade liquid. Garnish with snippets of fresh herbs.

Notes

Optional Roasted Garlic-cut the top off of a head of garlic, drizzle with a tad of oil, wrap in foil and bake in oven at 350 for an hour. The cloves will become soft and sweet, a perfect flavor for the dressing. You can use garlic powder if you don't have time to roast a head of garlic. It adds a nice flavor, but I've made it both ways.

Nutrition

Calories: 259kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 475mg | Potassium: 902mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin C: 67mg | Calcium: 160mg | Iron: 3mg | Magnesium: 61mg | Net Carbohydrates: 33g