Jamie Oliver salmon and potato salad is hot smoked salmon flaked over Jersey Royals dressed in a lemony yoghurt dressing, with cucumber, fennel tops and fresh basil. It takes 30 minutes, serves 4 and is naturally gluten-free.
Oliver published this on his official website (jamieoliver.com) and calls it “a posh twist on good-old potato salad.” The dressing is just natural yoghurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil — nothing cooked, nothing complicated — but it transforms plain boiled potatoes into something you’d happily serve at a dinner party.
The tip Oliver flags is the one that makes or breaks the whole dish: season the potatoes while they’re still hot because “they’ll absorb more flavour.” He drizzles olive oil first, waits five minutes, then stirs the yoghurt dressing through. That two-step approach coats every potato evenly instead of leaving the dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl.
Jamie Oliver Salmon And Potato Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes15
minutes460
kcal30
minutesThere’s no actual cooking of the fish here since the salmon comes hot smoked and ready to flake. Oliver keeps the ingredient list to eight items, making this one of the simplest summer meals on his site.
Ingredients
800g Jersey Royals, scrubbed clean
200ml natural yoghurt
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
½ a cucumber
½ a bunch of fennel tops
½ a bunch of fresh basil (15g)
400g hot smoked salmon, from sustainable sources
Directions
- Boil the potatoes: Cut any large potatoes in half. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the potatoes. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes until nicely cooked.
- Make the dressing: Meanwhile, mix the yoghurt with the lemon zest and juice, a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper and a lug of extra virgin olive oil.
- Dress the potatoes: Drain the potatoes well, tip into a mixing bowl and season immediately with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil and, after 5 minutes, stir in most of the dressing. Leave the potatoes to cool.
- Prepare the vegetables: Peel and halve the cucumber lengthways, remove the seeds and cut into ½cm slices. Roughly chop the fennel tops.
- Assemble: Add the cucumber and fennel to the potatoes, pick in the basil leaves and mix well.
- Serve: Divide the salad evenly between four plates and flake over the salmon. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
FAQs
Is this the same as Jamie Oliver’s salmon salad with 5 ingredients?
Oliver has several salmon salad recipes across his books and website, and some of his 5 Ingredients versions use a similar approach. This particular recipe has eight ingredients rather than five, but it feels just as simple because most of the work is boiling potatoes and mixing a dressing. There’s no marinading, no oven time and no complicated assembly.
If you want to strip it down further, the fennel tops and basil could be replaced with a single herb. The core of the dish is really five things: Jersey Royals, yoghurt, lemon, olive oil and hot smoked salmon. The cucumber and herbs dress it up, but the potato salad salmon combination works even without them.
Can I use cold smoked salmon instead of hot smoked in this potato salad?
Oliver specifies hot smoked salmon because it’s firm enough to flake into chunky pieces that hold their shape on top of the dressed potatoes. Cold smoked salmon (the thin sliced kind you’d put on a bagel) is too soft and silky for this job. It melts into the warm potatoes and disappears rather than sitting as a distinct layer.
If you prefer cold smoked, let the potatoes cool completely before adding the salmon and lay the slices over the top in ribbons rather than flaking. It becomes a different dish at that point, closer to a smoked salmon and potato salad you’d find on a Scandinavian table, but it still tastes good with the lemony yoghurt dressing.
How is this different from a salmon niçoise salad?
A classic niçoise uses tinned or fresh tuna, boiled eggs, green beans, olives and an anchovy vinaigrette. Oliver’s version swaps all of that for smoked salmon, Jersey Royals and a yoghurt dressing, so the flavour profile is completely different. The niçoise is sharp and Mediterranean; this is lighter, creamier and more British in character.
Oliver does have a salmon niçoise recipe elsewhere on his site if that’s what you’re after. The two salads share the idea of fish over dressed potatoes, but the dressings, herbs and supporting ingredients take them in opposite directions. This one is a summer lunch; a niçoise is closer to a composed dinner plate.
Can I use regular new potatoes instead of Jersey Royals?
Jersey Royals have a waxy texture and a buttery, earthy flavour that holds up well in a dressed salad. Standard new potatoes work as a swap, but they’re slightly less sweet and their skins aren’t as thin. Baby Charlotte potatoes are the closest alternative because they have that same firm bite that doesn’t crumble when you toss them in dressing.
Avoid floury potatoes like Maris Piper or King Edward for this recipe. They break apart when boiled and turn to mush the moment you stir anything through them. The whole point of Oliver’s potato salad is distinct pieces coated in yoghurt, not a bowl of broken starch.
Can I make this smoked salmon and potato salad ahead?
The dressed potatoes keep well in the fridge for up to a day, and they actually taste better after sitting because the yoghurt soaks in further. Add the cucumber, fennel and basil just before serving though, because they go limp if they sit in the dressing for more than an hour or two.
Flake the salmon on top at the last minute. If it sits on the dressed potatoes, the moisture softens the flakes and they lose that satisfying chunky texture. I prep the potatoes and dressing the night before, then assemble the fresh bits and salmon in about 5 minutes when it’s time to eat.
What else works well alongside this salad?
Oliver positions this as a standalone summer lunch, but it sits comfortably on a bigger table too. A green salad with peppery watercress or rocket balances the richness of the salmon, and crusty sourdough on the side turns it into a more filling meal for hungrier guests.
I’ve served this at barbecues as a side for six instead of four, and it holds up on an outdoor table for a couple of hours without wilting. The yoghurt dressing doesn’t split or separate the way mayo does in the heat, which is another reason Oliver’s choice works so well for a summer setting.
