This egg-free Southern potato salad comes from Abi Cowell’s Easy Southern Potato Salad, published on Very Veganish, a site built around whole-food plant-based cooking. Cowell writes it as a version of the potato salad her family has always made for summer gatherings in Houston, Texas, with the chopped hard-boiled egg left out and a vegan mayonnaise standing in for the standard kind.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds russet potatoes (about 8 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 cups celery, sliced thin
- 1/2 cup white onion, minced
- 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
- 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise, store-bought or homemade
- 1 1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Method
- Add the cubed potatoes to a medium-large pot, cover with cold water, and add a little salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, until just barely fork-tender. Cowell is specific about not overcooking them, since that starts turning them into mashed potatoes instead of salad.
- Drain in a colander and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- Add the celery, onion, relish, vegan mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper. Mix gently with a large spoon, being careful not to mash the potatoes.
- Cover and refrigerate until cold, then serve chilled. Cowell notes it keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days, and doesn’t recommend freezing it.
Potato and Relish Options
Cowell’s notes give some room on two ingredients without changing the egg-free dressing. For the potatoes, she uses russet for a more traditional, tender texture, but suggests red, new or baby potatoes — thin-skinned enough to leave unpeeled — for a firmer bite, while ranking Yukon gold last on her own list for this particular salad. For the relish, sweet pickle relish is what the recipe calls for, but she notes chopped dill pickles or chopped cornichons work as substitutes, with a little extra pickle juice added to taste if the sweetness needs replacing. Neither swap touches the mayonnaise, which is the ingredient actually doing the egg-free work.
Why This Version Is Egg-Free
Cowell’s recipe changes two things about a traditional Southern potato salad: it drops the chopped hard-boiled egg entirely, and it replaces standard mayonnaise — made with egg — with a vegan mayonnaise, which by definition contains none. She’s direct about the distinction in her own ingredient notes: “vegan mayo contains no egg, whereas standard mayo uses egg.” That swap in the dressing is what makes the dish egg-free; the potatoes, celery, onion and relish were never an egg risk to begin with. The recipe also happens to be dairy-free and, with an oil-free vegan mayo swapped in, oil-free too, but those follow from the vegan approach rather than being the point of the recipe.
The Mayonnaise Is Where Labels Matter
Vegan mayonnaise is a category, not a single formula, and Cowell’s own notes point out that most store-bought versions are made with oil rather than resembling a traditional egg-based mayo in any way. That’s straightforward for an egg allergy, but it doesn’t say anything about other allergens: Cowell separately suggests a cashew-based mayo for an oil-free version of this same salad, which would introduce a tree nut that the standard recipe doesn’t have. Anyone assembling this for a guest with a diagnosed egg allergy should still check the label on whichever vegan mayonnaise actually goes in the bowl — brands and formulas vary and change, and this recipe’s egg-free status describes the dish as Cowell wrote it, not any specific jar bought at a specific store.
Reaction severity and individual triggers vary from person to person. Serving this salad “prepared without egg as published” is not the same as a guarantee, and the label of the exact mayonnaise used should be checked by the person with the diagnosed allergy, or someone they trust, before it’s served.
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