This cold Chinese Potato Salad is our favourite Asian appetizer featuring crunchy shredded potatoes.

Our homemade Chinese Shredded Potato Salad recipe is quick and easy to make at home, ready to serve in under 30 minutes.

It’s the perfect healthy vegan salad or side dish to serve at a Chinese lunch or dinner, infused with a refreshing and slightly spicy flavour.

Shredded potatoes are boiled then quickly chilled in ice water before being tossed in a flavourful dressing of sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, scallions, chili and Sichuan peppercorns.

Save this story to Pinterest!

Save our Chinese Shredded Potato Salad recipe to Pinterest!

What Is Chinese Potato Salad?

Cold salads are commonly served in Chinese cuisine at the start of a meal.

One of the most popular is Chinese Shredded Potato Salad, which has a refreshing and slightly spicy flavour. The cold salad is typically served like Middle Eastern meze, in small bowls before the main course arrives at the table.

In Chinese cuisine, potatoes aren’t typically considered a staple food or main starch, rather they are treated like any other vegetable that you can prepare as a seasoned dish to go with rice.

Thinly sliced into “slivers or shreds”, the potatoes are usually cooked until al dente, tender but still crunchy.

The secret to making this dish is to soak the shredded potato and rinse off as much starch as possible. You want to cook them just long enough so they’re no longer raw but still crunchy to bite into.

This al dente style potato texture is rarely found in Western cuisines, where potatoes are eaten starchy and soft or fried and crunchy. It’s a beloved cooking style in Chinese cuisine and called shuang cui, or “refreshingly crunchy.”

Authentic Chinese Potato Salad recipe ingredients.

Travel to Hong Kong by Cooking Chinese Potato Salad at Home

I love traveling through Asia.

My first visit to Asia had me living in South Korea for a year as a teacher and it’s where I was first introduced to fermented vegetables like kimchi.

After my contract ended in Seoul I travelled throughout southeast Asia for 6 months, visiting the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Growing up in Markham, home to Canada’s largest community of Hong Kongers, helped me fall in love with Chinese Potato Salad at a young age. The popular cold salad is served at many Chinese restaurants, of which there are a plethora in Vancouver, Mississauga, Scarborough, Markham and Montreal.

I’ve eaten my way through some of Hong Kong’s best restaurants during my 5 visits to the bustling East Asian city. After chowing down on a cool bowl of Chinese Shredded Potato Salad in the iconic dishes birthplace, it became one of my favourite Chinese restaurant take out dishes to order at home.

Whether you’ve gobbled up Chinese Potato Salad in Hong Kong or your local neighbourhood restaurant, it’s no wonder the cold salad is so popular throughout China.

You May Enjoy These Hong Kong Travel Stories…

Shock shredded potatoes in ice water after cooking.

My Family Loves Chinese Shredded Potato Salad

My family has always loved ordering Chinese takeout. It helped that we lived in Markham with so many Cantonese restaurant options at our doorstep.

We typically order Chinese takeout on Christmas Eve as my mom likes to avoid having to do a lot of dishes around the holidays. Christmas dinner takes an entire day for us to prepare so enjoying take out the night before the big day is a yummy tradition, which involves very little clean up!

I love asking friends what their families favourite Thai, Indian or Chinese takeout orders were growing up. So much of our love for food is passed down by our parents. When a friend mentions a family-favourite Chinese takeout dish I’ve ever tried I always add it to my to do list!

My family’s classic Chinese takeout order always includes Egg Rolls, Crispy Ginger Beef, Singapore Chow Mei Fun and Chinese Potato Salad.

On a warm summer day I spent the morning making this Chinese Shredded Potato Salad recipe. I had a bag of potatoes in the cupboard and all the ingredients were in my pantry so it was easy to throw together in under 30 minutes.

On a hot day, this cold Chinese style potato salad is a refreshing healthy option for vegans and vegetarians.

Toss cooled shredded potato with scallions, oil, vinegar, dried red chili and Sichuan peppercorns.

Where To Eat Chinese Potato Salad

If you live in a large North American city you’ll likely have access to a local Chinese restaurant that serves authentic Chinese Potato Salad.

Haven’t traveled to China before? It may be helpful to first sample this cold potato salad at a local restaurant to better understand how it is served. You can determine the ideal size to cut the potato slivers, how spicy to make the vinaigrette and other dishes to serve at the table.

In Toronto, popular Chinese restaurants that may serve Chinese Shredded Potato Salad include Not Just Noodles, Rol San, Chop Chop, Swatow, Hutaoli, Yueh Tung Hakka Restaurant and Crown Princess.

Chinese Shredded Potato Salad Photo Image.

Health Benefits

Our Chinese Potato Salad recipe is packed full of healthy ingredients!

Potatoes are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Studies have linked potatoes to a variety of impressive health benefits, including improved blood sugar control, reduced heart disease risk and higher immunity.

A useful source of copper, calcium, manganese, and phosphorus, sesame seeds help support circulatory, digestive and skeletal health.

Scallions are a humble vegetable packed with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Regular consumption of onions can help boost digestive health and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.

Chili has been proven to help reduce the duration of sickness, prevent heart disease, and promote weight loss.

A good source of bone-strengthening vitamin K, cilantro is also rich in antioxidants that help protect the eyes from damage by free radicals.

Garnish Chinese Potato Salad with fried dried red chili and chopped cilantro.

Recipe Cooking Tips

This restaurant-style Chinese Potato Salad recipe is quick and easy to make at home. We’ve included a few tips and tricks to get you started:

Use a sharp French Knife to slice the potatoes into “slivers or shreds.” You want them to look like matchsticks so they are easy to grab with chopsticks.
Do not skip the step requiring you to wash the shredded potato under cold water. This is essential to remove the starch before boiling.
When boiling ensure you do not overcook. You want the texture of the potato slivers to be similar to al dente pasta, not soft but still a bit crunchy.
Have a large bowl of ice water ready to shock the potatoes so they cool immediately and do not continue cooking.
We’ve used rice wine vinegar in this recipe but you can substitute for white vinegar, apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.
We recommend cooking the dried chili and Sichuan peppercorns in flavourless canola oil but you can use another oil like avocado oil instead. You want to ensure the oil is flavourless so it takes on the aromatics of the chili and peppercorns. Do not use olive oil.
We’ve garnished the salad with fried dried chili and chopped cilantro. You can also add fried shallots or fried garlic chips for additional texture.

What To Serve with Chinese Shredded Potato Salad

There’s nothing more comforting on a hot day then forking through a refreshing bowl of cold Chinese Shredded Potato Salad.

You can enjoy the chilled salad all on its own as a light lunch or breakfast but we like to serve it as part of a larger Chinese feast. Portion out the salad into small bowls for each guest to enjoy as an appetizer before the main courses arrive at the table.

If you’re hosting a multi-course dinner serve Chinese Potato Salad with your favourite noodle or rice dishes, and entrees featuring pork, chicken, beef or seafood.

Now you're an expert on how to make easy Chinese Shredded Potato Salad! — Now you’re an expert on how to make easy Chinese Shredded Potato Salad!

Storage

If you have leftover Chinese Shredded Potato Salad you can store them in the fridge in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

Do not freeze as when thawed the potato will fall apart and turn mushy.

You May Also Enjoy These Salad Recipes…

How To Make Chinese Shredded Potato Salad

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Chinese Potato Salad

How to make traditional Chinese Potato Salad. Our easy vegan recipe features shredded potatoes, dried red chili, rice wine vinegar, scallions, cilantro and peppercorns.

Servings:

Calories: 180kcal

Ingredients

2 Yukon Gold Potatoes peeled
2.5 tsp Kosher Salt divided
1/2 tsp White Sugar
1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
4 tsp Sesame Oil
2 Scallions white part only, chopped
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
3 Dried Red Chile cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 tsp Sichuan Peppercorns (30)
2 tbsp Cilantro chopped

Instructions

Cut the potato into 1/8 inch thick slices then cut them into matchsticks.
Wash the shredded potato in a strainer under running water to remove extra starch and obtain a crunchy texture.
Cook the shredded potato in a large pot of boiling water with 2 tsp of salt for 2-3 minutes. Transfer out, shock in cold water until cooled and drain.
Place the potatoes in a large bowl and add the remaining 1/2 tsp salt, along with the sugar, vinegar and sesame oil. Stir to combine, then place the green onions on top.
In a small skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the chiles and peppercorns. Roast the spices in the oil for around 30 seconds, until the spices turn dark in colour and are fragrant. Carefully strain the spices out from the oil and discard.
Pour the hot spicy oil on top of the green onions and potatoes. Mix together and serve, topped with cilantro and chili crisp.

Nutrition

Some of the links in this story use affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through our site, Dobbernationloves will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support helps us to produce comprehensive content.