Ukrainian Dill Potatoes

Ukrainian dill potatoes are an Eastern European classic and a staple side dish in my personal repertoire. Easy to make, just 4 ingredients. (This recipe is part of my From the Motherland series, where I pay homage to my Ukrainian heritage.)

It’s not exactly breaking news that potatoes are the backbone of Ukrainian cuisine. They’re cheap, filling, and easy to store through the winter, which is how they became the hallmark food of our people. And I am not mad about that.

Growing up, we ate them on a near-daily basis, no matter what the season or time of day – boiled, roasted, fried, stuffed into varenyky, you name it. To this day, whenever I go over my parents’ house for dinner, there’s almost always some type of potato on the table. 

Boiled new potatoes with dill and garlic are one of the most beloved recipes in all of Ukrainian cooking. It’s funny – because the recipe title is the recipe (kind of like “avocado toast”), it seems almost too simplistic to write about… almost.

The combination of these four humble ingredients is truly magical. With each bite of buttery potato, you get a grassy hit of fresh dill and a kick from raw garlic, all brought together by the nutty aroma of unrefined sunflower oil. It’s heaven!

What’s In These Ukrainian Dill Potatoes

This classic dish calls for just four ingredients (five if you count salt)…

• New potatoes
• Lots of dill
• Fresh garlic
• Unrefined sunflower oil (extra virgin olive oil works, too)

About Ukrainian Sunflower Oil

What extra virgin olive oil is to Italian food, unrefined sunflower oil is to Ukrainian. Pressed from sunflower seeds, it has a delicious nutty flavor. Unrefined (a.k.a. virgin) sunflower oil is mostly used for finishing salads, potatoes, beans, and other cooked vegetables (like eggplant “caviar”, for example). Refined sunflower oil, on the other hand, has a neutral flavor and is more suited to cooking.

This special oil is a key component of this four-ingredient dish. You can find it in Eastern European/Ukrainian markets, online, or in the international aisle of some supermarkets (depending on where you live). (If the label is written in Russian, look for the word “нерафинированное”, which means unrefined.) If you can’t find sunflower oil, use a good quality extra virgin olive oil instead.

How to Make Dill Potatoes

Find complete instructions with ingredient amounts in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Clean and Boil the Potatoes

• First, make sure your potatoes are super clean. Since you won’t be peeling them, scrub them well before cooking to avoid biting down on a bunch of dirt later.
• If your potatoes are small, leave them whole; if they’re on the bigger side, halve or cut them into 1-inch chunks. Then place in a pot, and add salt and enough water to cover them by about 2 inches. Cover tightly with a lid and bring to a boil.
• Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently just until they can be pierced easily with a fork, 12 to 15 minutes. Watch them carefully at the end; you don’t want mushy, overcooked taters.

Step 2: Combine the Dill Mixture

In a large mixing bowl, combine the garlic, dill, and sunflower oil. The goal with the garlic here is to get it into the smallest possible pieces and to release its essential oils. A garlic press is ideal, as is a microplane; if unavailable, a very fine mince will do.

Step 3: Dress the Potatoes

When your potatoes are ready, drain them and return to the pot. Let them stand for a few minutes to dry out a bit. Then add to the dill mixture and toss to coat. Note that the potatoes have to be hot in this step in order to absorb the flavors.

What to Serve with Dill Potatoes

These heavenly, garlicky potatoes are the perfect side dish for almost anything. I recommend serving them alongside lentil patties, cassoulet, stuffed portobellos, or this vegan frittata for brunch.