Carusel Tours
14 December 2020

Olivier Salad or Soviet-Style
Russian Salad Recipe

Olivier Salad
Photo Foodmood.ru

The original recipe dates back to the 19th century and it is associated with Lucien Olivier, the Russian haute cuisine chef of French-Belgian origin. It contained many "luxury" ingredients such as partridges, grouse meat, caviar and crab tails. Although we know these ingredients, Mr. Olivier did not leave a written recipe of his salad.

Before Olivier, other versions of the similar salad had already been described by the English-Italian chef Charles Francatelli and the French chefs Urbain Dubois and Émile Bernard, and they were no less haute cuisine. Restaurants all over the world began creating their own versions of the Russian salad and by the second half of the 19th century it became a very popular dish.

In the Soviet Union, the simplified version was coined without partridges, crabs, anchovies and capers. These ingredients were substituted by affordable and available products that everyone could get. For example, sour and salty capers were replaced by salted cucumbers.

Now we continue to use the simple recipe of Russian Olivier Salad, and although every Russian household has its own version of this salad, here we publish our recipe, which comes from my mother.

Russian salad recipe
Ingredients

3 unpeeled potatoes boiled with salt

300-400 gr of beef or chicken cooked in a broth

3-4 boiled eggs

3 salted or pickled (gherkins) cucumbers

1 raw apple of sweet variety (Golden, Gala, Fuji)

150 gr of canned sweet peas

1 carrot boiled al dente

* 1 pickled pepper (optional)

Mayonnaise

salt to taste

black pepper to taste
When you have all the ingredients ready at hand, the recipe becomes very simple. Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes. Cut the eggs, meat, pickles, apple and carrot in the same way.

Mix all the ingredients, add sweet peas, salt and pepper to your liking.

Dress the salad with mayonnaise. You can make your own homemade mayonnaise if you don't want to use the mayonnaise from shops that has additives. The key is not to add a lot of mayonnaise and to use it only to tie the ingredients.
Tip

If you have prepared a lot of salad, do not season it all with mayonnaise. Leave a part of your salad into a bowl in the fridge and garnish it with mayonnaise later, just before eating.

Use the broth that you will have after cooking the meat for the salad for other dishes - soups or sauces. You can even freeze it, but do not pour it away!

Enjoy your Olivier Salad Soviet-Style and see our other easy Russian recipes that pass from generation to generation in our families!

Text by Alexandra Carusel Tours
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