Creamy Pesto Potato Salad

5 from 2 votes

This fragrant and creamy pesto potato salad loaded with fresh basil is so easy to make, it's a great make-ahead salad, or you can whip it up fresh in under an hour.

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Total Time40

Course: Lunch, Picnic Food, Salad

Cuisine: American, Salad

Servings: Servings

Calories: 630kcal

Author: Kate O'Malley

Ingredients

2 lb potatoes
⅓ cup fresh basil leaves
¼ cup heavy cream
½ cup mayonnaise
1 garlic clove
¼ cup parmesan cheese
½ cup walnuts or pine nuts
½ teaspoon salt adjust to taste
3 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions

Prepare the Potatoes

Before cooking the potatoes, you need to choose if you want to keep their skin or not. If you like the texture, keep it. If not, peel them before the next step.
Chop the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
Fill a pot with cold water and add the potatoes. Bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until fork-tender, but not too soft, so they hold their shape well.
Do not overcook the potatoes, as they will not hold their shape or become mushy.

Make the Pesto Dressing

While the potatoes cook, prepare the pesto dressing: You’ll need a hand mixer or blender to make the dressing.
Add basil leaves, cream, mayonnaise, garlic clove, walnuts, salt, olive oil, and ground pepper and blend until you have a well combined and smooth consistency.
Add parmesan cheese to the dressing mix and stir to combine.
Once the potatoes have cooled, combine them with the creamy pesto. Optional: add some roughly chopped fresh basil and whole or rough chopped walnuts for extra flavour and texture.

Notes

Recipe Tips & Variations

Choose a waxy potato, such as a red new potato, over a white starchy potato.
Make sure you let your potatoes cool properly before adding the dressing.
If you feel the dressing is too thick, add olive oil or mayonnaise.
You can switch heavy cream to sour cream or a light version of either.
To make this recipe vegan-friendly, replace parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast and heavy cream and mayonnaise with vegan mayo.
You can switch walnuts for pine nuts

Storage

Keep leftover potato salad covered in the fridge for up to three days.

Nutrition