Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello! My name is Natalia and I will show you a vegetarian version of the Russian salad Olivier,
which is served at the New Year's Eve celebration in Russia.
The main ingredients in the Russian Olivier salad are boiled potatoes and boiled eggs.
Here you can see the boiling potatoes. I am using butter potatoes and red potatoes, but you can also use golden potatoes.
You can mix different kinds of potatoes. I am boiling them with skin on and peel skin
off when the potatoes are done, so they are tastier that way. And the eggs are regular large sized eggs.
For the vegetarian version, we will need portobella mushrooms, which replace
salty ham used in the traditional version; sour pickles or pickles in brine, which are
not regular pickles—they are not marinated in vinegar but in brine. This comes from Poland, for example.
Also, sweet peas, a fresh onion, red, white or yellow,
mayonnaise, of course,
and I use some cilantro, but you can use dill or any other herbs you like.
Portabella mushrooms are cut in fairly large cubes because they will cook down.
So the mushrooms are chopped in medium sized pieces.
We cook the mushrooms until they get brown.
While the mushrooms are being cooked, the potatoes seem to be ready, so we remove the water and let them cool down for a little bit.
You can tell that the mushrooms are ready--they are brown and all the water has evaporated.
We will use half an onion.
It will add some spiciness to the salad but it is up to you to use it or not.
And in cilantro, we will remove the leaves from the stems and cut only the leaves.
We will use only the leaves.
I like to use cilantro because it adds color to the salad; I also like to combine fresh ingredients with cooked ingredients.
Now we are chopping cilantro as finely as possible.
And then we peel the potatoes.
Watch out: they might be a little bit hot.
And at this point we cut the potatoes into cubes and place them directly into the salad bowl.
I usually use about four large potatoes for the salad that will serve four people;
a little more mushrooms—let's say five or six, portabella mushrooms, half an onion;
four eggs; one can of peas;
around six, seven cucumbers; and mayo up to your taste.
And then we are cutting the eggs in pretty small cubes and place into the salad bowl on top of the potatoes.
And now we will chop the cucumbers; it will provide a nice saltiness to the salad.
Put them into the salad bowl. I tend to chop off the end, just for the aesthetic reasons.
And like I said... you can use six, seven, eight pickles... depending on the size.
And the last step is to mix all of the ingredients together.
Add peas. I poured out the water beforehand. Here we go, adding the mushrooms;
onions;
cilantro. Beautiful colors.
Add several spoons of mayonnaise.
Some creaminess.
This is pretty much it. We add some extra salt.
Stir it a little bit more.
And now we can serve the salad.
So the salad is ready! Приятного аппетита (Bone Appetite)!