Russian Cooking – Russian salad, an absolute must for the New Year’s Celebration

As the time is getting closer to winter holidays I can’t stop thinking of the festive menu for the New Year’s Eve. In Russia (where I come from) we don’t really celebrate Christmas, it is a religious holiday so it’s not that popular, but what we do love is New Year’s Eve. It is still my favourite holiday of the year. And like roast dinner for Christmas here, we have our own traditional ‘essentials’ for the festive dining table: several salads, generously dressed with mayonnaise – beloved ingredient of Russians, meat dish, meat aspic – delicious cold dish, which takes quite a lot of time  to prepare but is worth it, piroshky and a lots more.

Salads are an absolute must for a proper New Year’s celebration, and the ‘king’ among them is Olivier salad, which is more commonly known as Russian Salad in Europe. Like a lot of dishes in Russian cuisine it is very easy to make but it is rather time-consuming. But it is always worth an effort! All you need to do is boil meat (turkey or chicken fillet) potatoes, carrots and eggs, cool them and chop them into small pieces, you will also need to chop cucumbers and some onions. Then all you need to do is mix them all together and add mayonnaise. To make this dish a bit lighter, so you don’t have to rush into the gym after the holidays, you can use reduced fat yogurt. There are, however, many variations of this salad, and you can experiment with ingredients as much as you like. Olivier Salad is definitely going into my festive menu this year!

To learn more about Russian cuisine why not go on One Day Russian Cooking Course in Moscow? I bet you haven’t tried most of our specialities! Borscht, Olivier salad, or piroshky is only a tiny fraction of Russian cuisine, and you will be impressed by the variety and uniqueness of our food. Discover the secrets and techniques of Russian cooking, explore Moscow – one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and immerse yourself in Russian culture on this great cooking course.