Russian Potato Salad (Салат Оливье)
Ultimate comfort-food-salad from my childhood. This classic homemade Russian potato salad recipe is very forgiving and you can easily customize it to your on taste.
Happy Christmas Eve, folks! We finally got some snow on the ground yesterday. And we’re going to have proper white Christmas! Woo-hoo! Just couple days ago, I was looking at bare trees and ground and worried that we will end up with brown Christmas this year. Nope, Mother Nature knows we need that snow now! And for that we are grateful.
We decided to have our Christmas dinner tonight, cuz my sis-in-law and her family are going to her in-laws tomorrow. I have lots of things to prep for tonight, so I will keep this post short.
Today, I wanted to share with you my version of classic Russian homemade potato salad recipe (Салат Оливье). You know, I practically grew up on this stuff. New Year’s Eve dinner is just not the same without good ol’ potato salad, tangerines and Champagne.
Filled with potatoes, carrots, pickles, peas, hard-boiled eggs and sausage, and dressed with mayo, this salad has “Comfort Food” written all over it. No, not your typical healthy kind of salad here. We’re talking comfort-food-salad!
Not that you need this, but as always here is the step-by-step photo directions. The beauty of this salad is that you can customize it to your own taste. Not a dill fan? Add parsley then. Want more mayo? Add more mayo. Sub red onion for the scallions. Use your favorite sausage, salami, or even cooked chicken. Choice is yours. I personally like to use summer sausage.
Unlike many other recipes state, I dice the potatoes and carrots first and then cook them. It’s a sticky mess to dice the cooked potatoes, I don’t like that. But it’s easy to overcook the cubed potatoes, and they tend to get mushy before we even get a chance to mix with other ingredients. One tip to prevent that problem is to add a half tablespoon of white vinegar in the water and not to overcook them. You’ll get perfectly cooked potato cubes that keep their shape without falling apart. Win-win! 🙂
Yep, this salad is a meal on its own. I usually make a huge batch, and enjoy bowlfull for several days. It keeps really well in the fridge. Actually, the longer it sits, the better it becomes. My absolute favorite salad!
Merry Christmas, my dear friends! May your home be filled with love, laughter and wonderful memories! Cheers!
Russian Potato Salad (Салат Оливье)
Comfort-food-salad from my childhood. This classic Russian homemade potato salad recipe is very forgiving and you can easily customize it to your on taste.
Yield: About 10 cups
Ingredients:
- 4 medium potatoes (about 2lbs/900gr), washed and peeled, if desired
- 3 medium carrots (about 10oz/300gr), washed and peeled
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ tablespoon white vinegar
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 7oz (200gr) summer sausage
- 4oz (100gr) pickles
- 1 can (15oz) sweet peas, drained
- 1 teaspoon dill paste (or fresh dill)
- 4-5 green onions
- 1 cup mayo
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Cut the potatoes and carrots into small uniform cubes. Place them in a large pot and fill with water. Add salt and vinegar. Bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook until the potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let it cool to room temperature.
- Cut the sausage and pickles into small cubes, and chop the green onions. Cut the hard-boiled eggs into small cubes as well. (I use this egg slicer.) If using fresh dill, chop them as well.
- In a large bowl, mix together potatoes, carrots, sausage, pickles, peas and green onions. Add mayo and dill and mix until well combined. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
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Lovely! I love the addition of pickle to potato salads but have never seen meat/sausage added. FYI when I did a Rosolli Salad at Christmas (grated beet, carrot and potato), I learned that if you cook the carrots whole, skins on, you can easily wipe off the skins once they’re cooked and the carrots are so easy to dice up and better yet, they hold their shape.
Awesome tip, Alanna. Thank you! For some reason, I always hated cubing boiled carrots and potatoes when I was a kid. And that feeling never left. Hehe. 🙂
I love the combination of pickles, hard-boiled eggs and potatoes. Well, and the sausage and peas to. So pretty much everything. Thank you for sharing a recipe from your childhood.
My pleasure, Jameson. Thank you!
I am so excited to find this recipe. Years ago when we lived in Florida, I could get the best Russian potato salad from a local restaurant. I’ve never had it since. Now I can make it!
Hope you enjoy this salad. Thanks, Christie!
I love old family recipes and this potato salad looks delicious!
Thank you, Martha!
Just in time for Julian Christmas. Thank you very much, Shinee, for this beautiful recipe. My dad used to make his version of potato salad by adding sliced cucumber, corn, and bell pepper to the Russian recipe. Guess it was his way of keeping his Russo-Japanese heritage alive. For this Christmas, however, I’ll make the potato salad strictly Russian using your recipe. Can’t wait to try it. Thank you once again.
Itsuki, yeah, this salad can be customize many different ways. I’ve added fresh cucumbers and corn kernels in the past too, depending on what I had on hand. But this classic version is always great. I hope you enjoy this salad as much as we do.
А вы монголка? Хорошо! Моя бабушка по отцовской линии русская, с небольшой примесью монгольской крови. Откуда знаете хорошо русский?
Да, я монголка. 🙂 В Эрдэнэте, город где я выросла, много русских жили. И я там училась в русской школе. Вот так вот.
Очень приятно по-русски общаться с вами.
My parents are from Ukraine and we eat this too! I’m inspired to make this next week for Ukrainian Xmas and have it with some bubbly. Yum! Comfort indeed 😉
Oh, this would be perfect with some bubbly on Christmas next week. In fact, that’s what I’ve been eating all day today. 🙂
Hi Shinee! Loving this salad. I actually made it before the holidays. It was always a traditional holiday salad around the holidays growing up. Love your background…grew up in Mongolia and now living in North Dakota. Wow! What a jump 🙂 Where in the world did you learn to speak Russian?! That’s pretty awesome.
Haha I know, life is a crazy thing! You never know where you end up living. 🙂 My hometown had a large Russian community, and growing up I went to Russian kindergarden and school. So yeah, Russian is like my second native language.
I’m so interested in this! I have never heard of Russian potato salad but I am LOVING this!! Thank you!! I am forever in pursuit of the “ultimate” potato salad and I see this one getting a try out…. 🙂
I hope you’ll love this one. It’d the best, in my opinion. 🙂
We love this in Estonia, too, though we simply call it kartulisalat or potato salad. I don’t really like peas in my salad, however, and our dressing is always sour cream AND mayo, never just mayo (actually you could omit the mayonnaise altogether and simply use sour cream with a splash of mustard, for example).
Merry Christmas!
That’s interesting, Pille. Thank you for sharing your version. I’ve made this salad with mayo/sour cream combo in the past, and it’s delicious too. However, I’ve never tried without mayo all together. Oh and mustard is actually really good too! Merry Christmas to you too! 🙂
I grew up on potato salad too.. my Russian grandmother used to make it every Sunday for family lunch! Thanks for reminding me how delicious it is Shinee, this is something I need to make soon.
Thalia, that’s awesome. I hope you make some real soon. 🙂