Olivier salad – An indispensable attribute of the Russian New Year

The New Year is behind us, but this is not a reason to refuse to try to make a traditional Russian New Year salad called Olivier. In restaurants around the world, this salad can sometimes be found under the name “Russian salad”. Discover the story of this salad in the USSR and the recipe in our today’s article.

A little history of the salad

Olivier salad is undoubtedly the most popular salad in Russia and in the former Soviet Union and not only during the New Year’s celebrations.

The name of the salad comes from the name of the French chef who came up with this recipe – Lucien Olivier. And in fact, the original recipe was made of totally different ingredients: grouse, crayfish, capers, and olives. But in Soviet times, Russian women could not even dream of such rare products, so they used the ones that were on the shelves of Soviet stores: boiled sausage, eggs and pickles.

This salad has become a symbol of the Soviet New Year and continues to remain so.

Ingredients

To make the salad you will need:

Potatoes: 4
Carrots: 2
Onion: 1
Boiled sausage: 300 g
Eggs: 4
Can of green peas: 1
Salted or pickled cucumbers: 3
Mayonnaise: 300 grams
Salt, pepper, fresh herbs (parsley, dill): to taste

Preparation

1. Wash the potatoes and carrots thoroughly. Put them in a pot with cold salted water without peeling. Boil until ready.

2. Boil the eggs for 8-10 minutes (they should be well cooked).

3. Cool and clean the cooked vegetables and eggs.

4. Peel potatoes and carrots and dice them. Peel and chop the eggs. Also dice sausage and cucumber. Peel and finely chop the onion.

5. Throw the peas in a colander to drain all the water.

6. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, add salt, pepper, mayonnaise and stir. Sprinkle with fresh herbs. Optionally, you can replace the pickled cucumbers with fresh ones, add fresh sweet pepper, olives.

The salad is ready, you can serve. Bon appetit! 🙂