I love fingerling potatoes! They make great potato salad because they cook so quickly, and their buttery texture is wonderful. It is not your standard mustard or mayonnaise based salad. This quick and easy potato salad with spring onions and buttermilk lemon dressing might just become your favorite way to eat them!

closeup photo of potato salad with a wooden spoon

What You Will Love About This Recipe

Not only is this quick and easy, but it is best served as soon as it’s made! As most of you who have made potato salad know, the longer it sits after combining the ingredients, the better the flavor gets. This potato salad is actually best when it’s fresh and does not sit around for a day or two before eating.

I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted potato salad and realized that I don’t have time to make it the day before, or maybe I just don’t have the energy. But I also know that I won’t be able to make it the day I need it because it doesn’t taste as good since it will not have had time to sit for the flavors to blend.

That is what’s so great about this recipe! The fingerling potatoes take almost no time to cool down once they are cooked, and the buttermilk lemon dressing is a breeze to make. Which means this recipe is ready lickety split, and you can enjoy potato salad without waiting!

This potato salad recipe is a bit of a departure from the usual mustard or mayonnaise based potato salads. Instead, it has a buttermilk based dressing with lemon and fresh dill. I think it’s a nice change!

Chopped Spring Onions

I love these. They appear in farmers markets and some grocery stores in the Spring, as their name would suggest. I’ve been able to find them part way into the Summer, depending on the weather and growing season.

If you can’t find Spring Onions, you can use scallions as a substitute. Keep in mind that scallions will have a less intense flavor than the spring onions. Because spring onions have a more intense flavor, you don’t need a lot for this recipe.

If you are using spring onions, definitely use the green tops. They taste very much like a scallion with a little more punch and add lovely color to the salad.

chopped spring onions with lemon zest and chopped dill

Spring Onions vs Scallions

While at first glance they seem like the same thing, they really aren’t. Scallions have a milder flavor to them.

Spring onions look similar to a scallion, but the white end is a bit more rounded and bulbous. Scallions do not have a bulbous end to them, and the white part is rather small compared to a spring onion.

The bulbous end of a spring onion can be white or even a little pink, both are normal.

Fingerling Potatoes

I like using fingerling potatoes whenever they are available. They can be switched out for larger potatoes in almost any recipe. I love how quickly they cook, and they have a creamy texture that can’t be beat.

If your fingerling potatoes are small enough, you can actually leave them whole. Some may need to be halved or quartered. What you want here is to make sure that whether left whole or cut, that the potato pieces are all about the same size to ensure that they are all cooked in the same amount of time.

Buttermilk Lemon Dressing

I love making potato salad once in a while that doesn’t have a mayonnaise base. There is a little mayo in this recipe, but really just enough to thicken the dressing. You could even try this on a green salad as an alternative to ranch!

You will notice that creme fraiche is an ingredient in this dressing. It has less tang than sour cream, and adds a little thickening to the dressing without using so much mayonnaise. For more information on creme fraiche, check out my post 17 Uses for Creme Fraiche. If you want to make your own, then check out How to Make Creme Fraiche.

The buttermilk base with the lemon may have you wondering if this is tart as well as a bit runny. I can assure you that neither one is the case! This dressing is light and fresh, and thicker than you would expect.

lemon, spring onions, fingerling potatoes, and dill

Ingredients For Buttermilk Lemon Dressing

Buttermilk
Lemon
Mayonnaise
Fresh Dill
Creme Fraiche
Salt and Pepper

What To Serve With Potato Salad With Spring Onions

I love this with sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and as part of a picnic or barbeque menu. For dessert, try my Strawberry Shortcake In A Jar or Cheesecake With Blackberry Lavender Swirl. Rhubarb Lemonade or easy strawberry basil lemonade are great beverage options with this potato salad.

How To Store Potato Salad With Spring Onions

This is a dish best served not long after it’s made. It will not go bad quickly or anything, it’s just best when it is freshly made. I recommend serving it within a few hours after making it at the most, if that long.

Any bowl with a tight fitting lid is fine for storing it until serving.

Recipe Variations

Potato salad is a dish that has many possibilities, and its ingredients are often determined by the heart, or what’s in your fridge at the moment. Feel free to experiment with this recipe a little!

If you can’t find spring onions, try the white part of raw leek thinly sliced (be sure to save the green ends for homemade vegetable stock if you like to make your own). Chopped celery is nice in this salad too (try a little of the celery greens chopped up mixed in with the dressing).

A little chopped green bell pepper would be nice to add as well if you like.

If you are reading this, thank you for being here. I certainly hope you love this dish! If you tried this recipe for potato salad with spring onions, I’d love to hear how it turned out! Just leave a rating or comment below. If you’d like to share this recipe with friends, make it and take a picture and tag me @thecoppertable in a post on Instagram, pin to a board on Pinterest or share on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else you like! If you have not signed up for my newsletter, you can do that below. I have all sorts of exclusive content just for newsletter subscribers, and I’d love for you to join. Happy Cooking!