A warm roasted potato salad made easily in the air fryer! With the optional addition of pesto and asparagus, drizzled with a flavorful pesto mayonnaise sauce! This is easy to put together in the air fryer and a makes for a tasty and versatile side dish.
Introducing an Easy Roasted Air Fryer Potato Salad!
Potato salad… but hot and crispy! This is such a winner! If you’re looking for new ways to enjoy air fried potatoes, turning them into a warm salad with pesto mayo is my new fave. In this recipe we expand a little on the potato salad by adding some peppers and asparagus (air fried in the same basket as the potatoes – easy!) and give it a Mediterranean feel with the pesto spiked sauce.
The potatoes are crispy, the peppers are melty, the asparagus is tender and the onions are zingy – all of these veggies are living their best life today! With the addition of flavorful shaved cheese and a dreamy creamy pesto mayo sauce, there is just a lot to love here. And yet – only eight ingredients! I could have kept going and adding more to this recipe but these eight ingredients hit the sweet spot for me. They offer plenty of variety while keeping the recipe very simple to make.
Ingredient Notes
Just eight ingredients go into this air fryer potato salad recipe! And there’s a lot of flexibility here too. The peppers and asparagus are optional – you can keep this just to potatoes if you’d rather, or you could add other veggies of your choosing.
- Potatoes: Baby or new potatoes work best here, I like to halve the smaller ones and quarter the larger ones.
- Peppers: I use pointed peppers and slice them into rings, but sliced bell peppers would work well too.
- Asparagus: The perfect summery addition! I chop them into small pieces as shown but you can leave them whole depending on the presentation you prefer. Consider something like broccolini if it’s not asparagus season.
- Red onion: Some finely diced red onion gives a fresh zing to this, though green (spring) onions or even lots of chives would do the job.
- Cheese: Shaved pecorino is my favourite here, but any hard cheese like manchego or parmesan will work. Crumbled feta could also work well.
- Mayonnaise + basil pesto + dijon mustard come together to make the delicious pesto mayo. Note that this recipe makes more pesto than you are likely to use for the salad, so you can save a little for sandwiches or burgers.
Other great topping ideas: Olives, toasted pine nuts or pistachios, fresh herbs, lemon wedges for squeezing… these would all be delicious additions!
Other sauce ideas: If pesto doesn’t match the vibe of your feast, you can really flex this any which way by mixing something different into your mayo. Harissa? Tikka masala sauce? Truffle oil? Sundried tomato pesto?
The Process
It’s not a “set and forget” kind of air fryer recipe because we have to add the ingredients in stages, sorry! But it’s very straightforward. Just set the timer fresh each time you add an ingredient and you won’t be able to mess it up.
The most efficient way to make this recipe is to start the potatoes cooking before chopping any of the other ingredients. You then have time to chop the peppers, asparagus and onion + prepare the pesto mayo while the potatoes get their head start cooking. Doing this means you have to work quickly and have everything gathered beforehand. You may prefer to prep it all in advance and multitask a little while it cooks, the choice is yours.
Other Recipe Tips
- Drizzling the dressing vs. tossing it all together: I like to drizzle the dressing over the top of the salad, as pictured, because it allows the bits that aren’t covered in pesto mayo to stay crispy, and it keeps every bite a little different. If you want to toss it all together in a bowl like a more traditional potato salad, I’d just suggest that you let the veggies cool down a little before you do that to stop the mayo from getting too hot, which can mess up the flavor and texture a little.
- If you have a two-drawer air fryer: You can make this recipe by cooking the potatoes in one drawer and the peppers and asparagus in the other.
- To make this recipe in the oven: Heat the oven to 200F / 400F. Roast the potatoes in a large baking dish tossed with olive oil and salt for about 50 minutes. Add the peppers for the last 15 minutes of cooking time, and the asparagus for the last 8 minutes of cooking time.
Pair me with…
This potato salad makes a great side dish for these lunch or light dinner options!
Air Fryer Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 18 oz (500 g) baby or new potatoes, small ones halved, larger ones quartered
- 1 small bunch (200 g) asparagus , chopped
- 2 (200 g) sweet red peppers, sliced into rings
- 3 tbsp red onion, finely diced
- 2 tbsp pecorino or other hard cheese, shaved
- olive oil, for cooking
Pesto Mayo Dressing
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp pesto
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 190C.
- Prepare the potatoes by tossing them in a bowl with olive oil and salt.18 oz baby or new potatoes, olive oil
- Add the potatoes to the air fryer basket set to cook for 15 minutes. (Keep the prep bowl to one side – you will use this for the peppers and asparagus too)
- Meanwhile, prepare the pesto mayo by whisking together all ingredients in a small bowl.4 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tbsp pesto, 1 tsp dijon mustard
- Once the air fryer is finished with its first 15 minutes, give the potatoes a shake. Toss the peppers in a little olive oil, and then add them to the air fryer basket. Set for another 10 minutes of cooking.2 sweet red peppers
- Toss the asparagus in a little olive oil, and then add them to the air fryer basket. Set for a final 5 minutes of cooking.1 small bunch asparagus
- Spoon the potatoes, peppers and asparagus out of the air fryer basket onto a serving dish. Drizzle with the onions, cheese and pesto mayo. Serve immediately.3 tbsp red onion, 2 tbsp pecorino or other hard cheese
