Nutrition
Calories: 250kcal | Carbohydrates: 27.5g | Protein: 15.2g | Fat: 8.2g | Fiber: 3.2g
If you love potatoes but are trying to hit a protein goal, this High Protein Loaded Potato Salad is for you!
Servings
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 pounds Baby Potatoes (no need to peel)
- 1 High Protein Vegan Bacon Bits
- 1/2 cup Vegan Shredded Cheddar Shreds I used Violife
Dressing
- 1 block Extra Firm Silken Tofu Mori-Nu 12.3oz package
- 1/2 block Firm Tofu
- 1 Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 tbsp Water
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Fresh Dill finely chopped
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of water.
- Rinse the baby potatoes, and cut them in half (no need to peel them). You can also use normally sized potatoes, just make sure you cut them small. Add these to the boiling pot of water. Cook for about 20 – 25 minutes, or until fork tender.
- While you're waiting on the potatoes to cook, make the High Protein Vegan Bacon Bits recipe linked above.
- In a blender, blend together all of the ingredients listed under the Dressing section (except for the dill) until very smooth.
- Finely chop the fresh dill. Stir this into the dressing by hand; you don't want this to turn lime green!
- Mix together the cooked potatoes, "bacon" bits, blended dressing and shredded cheese together.
- You can either eat this now or wait until it has cooled off in the fridge!
Equipment
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Did you make this recipe?Mention @proteindeficient.vegan
This High Protein Loaded Potato Salad is perfect for potlucks, family get togethers, backyard BBQs, and just for eating throughout the week! Unlike most potato salads that use mayonnaise, we use a silken tofu and firm tofu combo for the dressing! Because we use both, it ends up really creamy and sticks to the potatoes really well. This is a Loaded Potato Salad so we’re also using vegan bacon bits and cheese! If you are leaning more Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB), you could omit the shredded vegan cheddar!
This is a pretty quick Potato Salad to whip up and is great for meal prepping. Because it’s loaded with protein, you could even eat this as a whole meal! My favorite part about this recipe is how many layers of flavor it has – you have a creamy mayo-ish based dressing with fresh lemon and dill, a smoky and salty flavor from the bacon bits, and a cheesy flavor from our vegan shredded cheese!
Ingredients
- Baby Potatoes – I really like baby potatoes for this High Protein Loaded Potato Salad for a couple of reasons – we don’t need to peel them, they’re freaking adorable, and you can actually buy bags that are pre-washed, so it’s a bit of a time savings! You could definitely use normal potatoes for this instead. If you’re going to do that, just make sure to cut them into bite sized pieces!
- High Protein Vegan Bacon Bits – sorry for linking to this recipe, but I really like to keep the recipes clean, uncomplicated and easy-to-follow. These are my favorite vegan bacon bits – they’re really easy to make, taste awesome and are high in protein! They also don’t require any super specialty ingredients like liquid smoke; we’re able to build that bacon-y flavor with spices and other ingredients you probably have in your house already!
- Vegan Shredded Cheddar – I really like Violife shreds for this. There are other great vegan cheeses too, if you have another one you prefer more! You can also omit this if you’re following a WFPB diet.
Dressing
- Extra Firm Silken Tofu – if you’re new to vegan cooking and haven’t used silken tofu before, let me tell you some things! There are two types of silken tofu – refrigerated, which you can find by the other tofu options, and shelf-stable which can typically be found in the International Foods aisle at most grocery stores. You can also find the shelf-stable variety online; my go-to brand is Mori-Nu! The refrigerated silken tofus are all around 40% protein on a calorie basis, but with the shelf stable ones, you have even more options. I really like the Extra Firm Silken Tofu option because it is a little over 60% protein on a calorie basis and every little bit counts! Silken tofu is the perfect substitute for creamy dressings because it’s just as creamy as mayo but it has much less fat and way more protein. I feel like this is basically a nutrition hack!
- Firm Tofu – we are also using firm tofu in this recipe, because it helps the dressing be thicker and cling to the potatoes better. Firm Tofu can be found in the refrigerated tofu section. You don’t really need to press it for this recipe because we’re blending it.
- Lemon Juice – you can either use one fresh lemon worth of juice or whatever the equivalent is in pre-squeezed lemon juice – I’m guessing about 2 tablespoons.
- Nutritional Yeast – is there anything cooler than nooch? This is a shelf-stable ingredient you’ll find in many vegan recipes. It can be bought at most grocery stores and also online! It adds a nice savory, cheesy flavor to foods and also has an awesome amount of protein!
- Apple Cider Vinegar – I used Apple Cider Vinegar in this recipe, but really any subtle vinegar will work. If you don’t have Apple Cider Vinegar, you could use something like Rice Vinegar or White Wine Vingear instead.
- Salt – adjust to taste.
- Sugar – I think it adds a bit of sweetness that the dressing needs.
- Garlic Powder, Onion Powder – these are a must for me! Especially since we are using tofu as the dressing base, it’s important to season it well so that it has a good flavor!
- Fresh Dill – you can also use dried dill but I really like the flavor fresh dill adds to a dressing.
Instructions
- First things first – we’re going to get a large pot of water boiling.
- While you’re waiting on the water to boil (because if you watch it, it literally won’t boil – water is very shy), rinse the baby potatoes, and cut them in half. I guess you can peel them if you want but I didn’t. You can also use normally sized potatoes if you don’t have baby potatoes or you just hate baby potatoes – just make sure you cut them small. Add these to the boiling pot of water. Cook for about 20 – 25 minutes, or until fork tender. I just stab them when I think they’re about done, and see if the fork goes in and pulls out easily. You don’t want them to cook or you’ll end up with some weird mashed potato salad.
- While you’re waiting on the potatoes to cook, make the High Protein Vegan Bacon Bits recipe linked above. This one is pretty easy to make and take about 20 minutes so you can do this at the same time as your potatoes are cooking.
- In a blender, blend together all of the ingredients listed under the Dressing section until very smooth. This includes the silken tofu, firm tofu, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, water, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder. Don’t add the dill yet.
- Finely chop the fresh dill. Stir this into the dressing by hand – you don’t want this to turn lime green!
- Mix together the cooked potatoes, “bacon” bits, blended dressing and shredded cheese together.
- You can either eat this now or wait until it has cooled off in the fridge!
Silly Little Haiku
Potato Salad
But let’s make it high protein
Tofu for the win
Author
Protein Deficient Vegan
This potato salad is so creamy! I could eat a barrel of this stuff.