This easy warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves makes a fresh green Mediterranean style potato salad with a zingy dressing of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar. It’s a fantastic side to chicken schnitzel, fried chicken, grilled fish or skewers, and while wonderful served warm, it also tastes delicious chilled.
If you’re making our delicious chicken schnitzel recipe with crunchy coating with parmesan and lemon zest, and, if you have leftovers, this chicken schnitzel burger recipe, please try this warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves. If you’re a lover of recipes with potatoes, particularly potato salads, you’ll adore this herby warm potato salad.
They’re a perfect match thanks to the fresh green taste of this potato salad, courtesy of the celery leaves and their crispy stalks, the gloriously pungent garlic chives, and the breezy flavours of the sea thanks to the anchovy fillets and capers. Not a celery leaf lover? Try flat leaf parsley, or Continental parsley, as we long called it in Australia, instead.
Wash it all down with a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc and it makes a sublime meal. And if you’re a place where the weather’s warm and a warm potato salad doesn’t appeal, pop it in the refrigerator and serve the salad chilled too. As a reader has asked, you could make this the day before serving, saving the fresh greens to add at the last minute.
This potato salad also works brilliantly with fried chicken, and we have recipes for spicy Burmese fried chicken and fiery Nashville-style southern fried chicken. And if you’re keen on the schnitzel, but not this salad, try our warm German potato salad. Or this creamy Japanese potato salad? More potato salad recipes right here.
Now let’s tell you more about this warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves.
Warm Potato Salad Recipe with Anchovies, Capers, Chives and Celery Leaves
My warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves makes a fresh green Mediterranean style potato salad with a zingy dressing of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar. We lived in the Middle East for many years and were lucky to often spend our summers somewhere on the Mediterranean so these flavours have a special place in my heart.
Even though I love this potato salad with chicken schnitzel and fried chicken, It’s fantastic with grilled fish and barbecued meats, such as Greek chicken souvlaki and Lebanese beef kofta kebabs. The salad is perfect for serving as part of a Mediterranean style feast, which you can kick off with an array of mezze-style starters and serve this alongside plenty of salads and flat breads.
If you are having a casual gathering on the weekend and feeding a crowd, we have lots more Mediterranean recipes here, from Spanish soups to Italian salads, and plenty of Middle Eastern recipes here, which include everything from classic dips such as hummus and salads like tabbouleh and fattoush, to homemade chicken shawarma and spicy potatoes.
Funnily enough, I was originally inspired by Irish-Australian chef Colin Fassnidge’s herby potato salad recipe, only we can’t get most of the ingredients his recipe calls for here in Cambodia, so this salad is the result of substitution. While my salad has turned into quite a different potato salad, I reckon it’s just as delicious.
I’ll tell you more about how I adjusted the chef’s herby potato salad recipe to create my easy Mediterranean-style warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves in the tips below, as it will give you some options to really make this salad your own.
Tips to Making this Warm Potato Salad Recipe with Anchovies, Capers, Chives and Celery Leaves
Just a few tips to making this warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves, and a dressing of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar. Let’s talk ingredients.
Potatoes
The chef uses kipfler potatoes, which we can’t get here in Cambodia. Plus the waxy potatoes we get here are mostly from Australia and ridiculously over-priced. That means I often use starchy potatoes in salads, or those potato varieties in between waxy and starchy in my potato salads, which is what Asian cooks typically use, as in the Japanese potato salad I linked to above.
Anchovies and Capers
Colin Fassnidge’s herby potato salad recipe calls for large pickled white anchovy fillets, which I’ve never found in Cambodia (but how I’d love some!), so I’ve used salt-cured anchovy fillets.
The chef also recommends capers, which he says to rinse, drain and chop, so he’s using large capers, whereas I’ve opted for baby capers in wine vinegar, which I not only don’t drain, but I use the brine, which adds a bit of tang. These are tiny capers, so you get a lot more caper-y flavours throughout the whole salad.
Fresh Herbs
When it comes to herbs, the chef’s recipe calls for fresh thyme, tarragon and flat leaf parsley, along with garlic chives. We’ve no shortage of chives here in Southeast Asia, but fresh thyme and tarragon are hard to come by and when available, they’re just not great quality and not the same as the fresh Mediterranean herbs.
We do get celery leaf, which we just love, so I’ve used the leaves and stalks which add crunch and texture, and fantastic fresh green flavours, especially when combined with loads of sliced garlic chives.
The Dressing
As for the dressing: the chef’s recipe calls for extra virgin olive oil (perfect), lemons – which we can get here sometimes, but I also tried the juice of limes, which are always available and were fab – and apple cider vinegar.
We prefer wine vinegars, and I tested white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar and a tarragon flavoured wine vinegar, and while they all worked, I ended up settling on a sherry vinegar from Jerez. It’s a Borges Vinagre de Jerez sherry vinegar, and it’s absolutely perfect in this potato salad.
Seasoning
I’ve suggested sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste, because we love salty but you may find the salad salty enough from the capers and anchovies.
I actually have a cracked black pepper problem (an allergy of sorts), so often opt for white pepper, which I adore, but cracked black pepper is just so good with this warm potato salad recipe.
Warm or Chilled?
Lastly, let’s talk temperature. As per the chef’s herby potato salad, which he likes warm as he says the “warmth (of the potatoes) will help absorb the flavour of the dressing”, I completely agree. The starchy potatoes soak the tangy, sweet and sour flavours of the dressing right up.
As you fold the dressing in, you get a bit of creaminess from the starchy potatoes. Just don’t stir too much or you will get the mashed texture of a Japanese potato salad. Unless you want that texture of course! Enjoy!
Warm Potato Salad Recipe with Anchovies, Capers, Chives and Celery Leaves
Ingredients
- 400 g potatoes - pref. starchy, peeled and diced 2cm cubes
- 10 anchovy fillets - roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp capers - small
- 50 g celery leaves and stalks - roughly chopped – or flat-leaf parsley
- 50 g bunch of chives - sliced, 1cm length
- 1 lemon - juice only
- 2 tbsp sherry vinegar – or red/white wine vinegar
- 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt and fresh ground cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot of hot water over medium-high heat, boil the diced potatoes until just-cooked – about 8-10 minutes or so – taking care not to over-cook them.
- Drain the diced potatoes and set aside.
- To a big salad bowl, add the capers, chopped anchovy fillets, roughly chopped celery leaves and stalks, sliced chives, lemon juice, sherry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, and stir to combine well.
- Add the warm diced potatoes to the bowl, gently combine, add sea salt and fresh ground cracked black pepper to taste, and serve immediately.
Nutrition
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And please do let us know in the comments below if you have any questions. And if you make our warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves, we’d love to hear how it turns out for you.
I made this salad and it is now our “go-to” potato salad😀😀😀 we LOVE it!!!
We recently had a family over with 3 younger boys who were “fussy” eaters. I took the anchovies, ~half the herbs (celery leaves, parsley and chives), the olive oil (I used ~200 ml), the lemon juice, sherry vinegar and puréed the sauce. The potato salad was a huge hit (1 kid had 3 helpings)……. Almost no leftovers, which was terrific😀😀😀
Hi Bunny, fantastic! I so love hearing this! Isn’t it a great salad?! I was going to make my nanna’s old-fashioned Australian potato salad tomorrow, but now you’ve got me craving this one again. Thank you so much for dropping by! Lovely to see you here :)
Hi Laura,
i am planning to make this for a large crowd. How far in advance can I prepare this?
Hi Maryanne, I often make this one at the last minute and let it sit wrapped in a tea towel on top of the stove, so it’s still warm when serving, adding the greens at the last minute. But you could certainly prepare the salad the day before, and you could even boil the potatoes the day before prepping the salad and keep them in the fridge in a sealed container. But do leave out the greens and add those as close as you can to serving for that fresh taste. Perfect for spring/summer when serve chilled and lovely warm for autumn/fall. Enjoy!