I must confess to something. We’ve been talking here about Polish flavours like mushroom pierogi, bigos, etc. And it may seem to you I’m so into those flavours. Well I kind of am, but only a little bit. I told you I love potato based dishes, so most Christmases and Easters I would eat mostly the only thing that contain potatoes the Russian salad. Everything else (except my aunt cakes) could disappear for me and I wouldn’t mind. My parents would make a huge bowl (by huge I mean a washing-up type of bowl) of salad. To be fair, we have quite big family and my parents like it as well, but still… I would eat the salad like three times a day during holidays. So you see this recipe was evidently missing on the blog.
For me this salad was always basic Polish salad, we just call it veggie salad, what was my surprise to see it’s called Russian salad, although Wikipedia says that traditional Russian salad should include meat. I was even more surprised to get this salad as a side in a Brazilian restaurant. My Brazilian friend said they don’t have a special name for the salad other than veggie salad with mayo.
It is kind of old-fashion salad, but it is still perfect for any party, not necessary for Christmas or Easter. It’s a perfect make-ahead dish, as it tastes better if it spends 24 hours in a fridge. The recipe is very flexible, you can add more carrots if you like to, you can replace peas with corn, you may omit dill pickles or onions for milder taste, you can add boiled celery. Quantities of ingredients are flexible too, you just want to achieve nice colourful spots of green and red.
This is one of those imprecise, but forgiving recipes.
Main rule is to gain enough green and red spots, as it will look pretty. Be careful with strong flavours like dill pickles and onion, they may overpower the salad.
- 6-8 medium potatoes
- 3 carrots
- 2 small root parsley
- 3 eggs, hard-boiled
- 2-3 medium pickled dill cucumbers
- 1-2 apple
- 1 medium onion
- 1 cup green peas, boiled or canned
- 3 tsp Dijon mustard
- 6 Tbsp mayonnaise
- salt
- pepper