Celery Root Salad with Apples and Eggs

Knowing me you can probably guess that this tender slaw-like salad made of grated fresh celery root, apples and chopped egg is dressed with mayo.

By the way, celery root here is hardly recognizable: it has nutty taste and (if you are not used to it) tastes nothing like celery stalks, maybe because of apples.

I would define this taste as unusual; if you stumble upon fresh celery root in a store - give it a try, after all celery is known as low-calorie source of dietary fiber.

Crab Sticks Salad with Pickled Mushrooms and Apple

I didn’t post salad recipes for a while now, so wanted to come up with something special this time.

I chose salad made of surimi crab sticks mixed with tender pickled mushrooms, grated apple, fresh dill and parsley and dressed with ground black pepper and a bit of mayo.

This mix may seem unusual (especially here in US), however it is very popular in post-USSR countries. You can find it under name “Salad Anshlag” in menus.

Some people use boiled mushrooms for this recipe, however I prefer mushrooms pickled following this recipe: they are very easy to do and are less plain than just boiled; but this is a matter of preference.

Green Salad with Tomato, Avocado and Shrimp

This is one of the salads which uses avocado dressing from the last week recipe. It is green, fresh summer salad topped with boiled shrimps with a hint of spiciness provided by the dressing.

My advise is to assemble this salad right before you are planning to serve it: it calls for avocados, tomatoes and lettuce (all of which react to oxidation by loosing taste and pretty look).

However avocado dressing can be prepared in advance and stored in airtight container in fridge.

Crab Sticks Salad with Napa and Cucumber

It is time for summer cookouts yet? I bet it is! Who said cookouts should be all meat and bread - add a bit of vegetables and crab sticks :)

Napa gives this salad tender filling; however you can substitute white cabbage for napa - it will work fine, just remember to tenderize shredded cabbage with your hands.

If you use frozen crab sticks, make sure they unfreeze completely and all extra liquid is removed before adding them to the salad.

Ukrainian Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream Dressing

This simple salad with tomatoes and cucumbers is very popular in Ukraine, and I don't see any reasons why it wouldn't be liked in any other country which grows tomatoes, cucumbers, dill and sour cream with onions and garlic.

As opposite to summer salad with tomato and cucumbers with vegetable oil based dressing, this one uses sour cream and mayonnaise.

If you are trying to cut on calories – use mix of sour cream and low calorie yoghurt, or just yoghurt as a base for dressing, but, believe me, this salad tastes the best with real sour cream.

Cabbage and Chicken Salad

I love cabbage. It is available in the stores whole year, and it somehow manages to preserve such important nutrient as vitamin C (and some others) till late winter. This makes cabbage a good choice of food when your body particularly needs more vitamins.

I consider this a winter salad: cabbage is available any time in the store, as well as chicken and cheese; but it will also taste great when prepared from fresh young cabbage, which is much softer and more juicier.

Additionally, I usually season this salad with dry bread cubes right before serving. I prepare them myself from leftover bread: just dice it and dry in the oven (can't call them croutons, as they don't have any seasoning or oil added in the process of preparation). But I guess you can use croutons from the shop instead or skip this part all together.

Beet Salad with Prunes and Walnuts

Beet salad with prunes, walnuts and onions dressed up with mayo or sour cream or both is one of the traditional salads of ukrainian cuisine.

Also, this dish is one of the not many dishes which uses beets as a main ingredient.

It is very important to use sweet and rich red color beets for this salad. So, when buying beets scratch their skin with a nail: dark red pulp under skin is a sign of good beet, not pink and not white.

It is also important to use good quality walnuts; taste before you buy them: old walnuts can be bitter and using such will make you salad taste bitter as well.

Salad Dnister (Cabbage, Peas and Sausage)

Salad Dnister (just like a river) is a popular in West Ukraine dish originated in Carpathian mountains region, and made its way to other places as it is easy, not expensive and fast to do and very tasty.

Main ingredient of this salad is shredded cabbage, so you can consider it to be a coleslaw with a sausage and peas dressed with mayonnaise.

A bit of a challenge here would be to find suitable sausage. The closest translation to the kind of sausage you need I could come up with is “half-smoked summer sausage”, however I am pretty sure that sounds weird in english, and if you know how to call it better – please let me know. Krakowska or Ternopil'ska sausage will work here, if you can find any of those in Ukrainian or European shop.

Chicken Salad with Celery and Grapes

I never tried fresh celery stems before we got to US. I was more familiar with celery root – it is largely used to prepare soups and stew or even salads of European cousines, but I can't say eating stem parts of it is as popular in Europe as in US.

According to wikipedia, celery is a source of good low-calorie dietary fibre, which makes it not only tasty (btw I found taste of it fascinating) and also healthy.

Saying all of that, here comes the nice salad recipe for fresh celery stems and boiled white chicken meat; grapes give it a little kick in flavor, as well as almonds. Hope you will like it.

Tomatoes and Cucumbers Summer Salad

After all those snow emergencies, I've got hungry for some fresh vegetables. Lucky for me there are plenty in the nearby grocery store: despite there is no summer here yet.

So I decided to make simplest salad I know: summer salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, seasoned with chopped fresh dill and green onions, and dressed with oil.

This salad is perfect for any meat or poultry main dish. And even though it is not quite summer yet, I hope you are the same lucky like me and can buy fresh tomatoes and cucumbers right now to enjoy taste of fresh vegetables and replenish your body with some vitamins.

Mimosa Salad

Mimosa, as a fish layered salad, is very popular in all countries of ex-USSR. As well as Herring Under Fur Coat and Salad Olivier, Salad Mimosa finds its place on the table for big holiday celebrations, such as New Year, Christmas, birthdays and others.

It is easy and fun to cook, and due to the layered structure of the salad it should be prepared several hours in advance before serving to allow layers to soak. So the good idea would be to assemble the salad a night before you are going to put it on the table.

By the way this salad name – Mimosa – comes from the bright yellow color and a texture of its last layer which looks very similar to the yellow blossoms of the plant called “mimosa” in Russia.

Chicken with Pineapple Salad

This is one of my favorite chicken salads, you can also call it potato salad or salad with chicken, pineapple and potato. Whatever you call it, it is still delicious. After all, chicken and pineapples are a good combination.

I also found what fire roasted marinated bell peppers are good substitute for the home pickled ones in this salad, and good thing is: those you can actually find in the nearby shop. But you can also use homemade ones if you've got some.

I hope you will enjoy this tasty chicken salad as much as I did yesterday.

Napa Slaw with Eggs (Cabbage Salad)

You can take any kind of cabbage for this salad, however I prefer napa cabbage (one of variants of Chinese cabbage), as it is more soft and tasteful.

In general this salad is easy to make (as I think any slaw is), very fast to do and of course is nutritious: napa cabbage is rich on vitamin A/Carotene and vitamin C.

If you use napa cabbage, don't make more salad than you will eat for one meal, napa cabbage salads are best to be eaten fresh and loose taste after stored in fridge.

Herring Under Fur Coat (Herring Salad) Recipe

To prepare russian herring salad, “Herring Under Fur Coat”, you need to have whole salted herring. And of course you need to know how to fillet it, so read this post if you don't.

Herring Under Fur Coat is a word-to-word translation of russian name of this salad: “Seledka pod Shuboj”, which represents salted herring under a “coat” of boiled vegetables. So, as you've probably guessed, you will also need boiled vegetables (potatoes, carrots and beats) and green onions. In the rest this is 5-layers salad with a lot of mayonnaise.

This salad requires some time and agility to assemble it, also it needs at least 12 hours for layers to soak after it is assembled. So make sure you have enough time if you decide to make it.

Radish and Soft Cheese Salad

Radish and Fresh Cheese Salad is a tasty way to feed yourself and your family a bit of calcium :)

I did have some troubles finding a suitable fresh cheese for this recipe, it should be fresh white quark (russian: tvorog), neither cottage cheese nor cream cheese will work here.

So if you have the same problem finding quark style fresh cheese like I had, try local Russian / Ukrainian / Polish store, most probably they have it. Of course, you can also make homemade soft cheese yourself, but guess I am too lazy for this, who isn't?..

Egg & Ham Salad

One more option for your everyday food. Healthy and tasty, and easy to make salad.

Egg & Ham Salad is perfect for breakfast or midday break food as it doesn't contain onions.

Russian Salad (Olivier)

Usually people outside of former-USSR call it Russian Salad, however its original name is Salad Olivier.

This salad was and maybe still is the most traditional dish for the home New Year celebration for russian people.

Fresh Carrots & Garlic Salad

And again carrots with a lot of vitamin A and carotene. The best way to keep those nutrients from “dying” while cooking is to eat them fresh. And garlic can't spoil it anyhow.

Enjoy Fresh Carrots & Garlic Salad as an healthy addition to your meat meals.

Green Tuna Salad

Good, nutritious and light salad with tuna and lettuce.

An easy good way to watch your weight without feeling hungry all the time.

Crab Sticks & Rice Salad

Everybody who tried my crab stick salad fell in love with it after first bite. Now I have no problems deciding what to bring to the party.

This salad is easy and fast to do and the taste is just great. Try it, you will like it!

How to Prepare Boiled Rice for Salad

Boiled rice is a part of a lot of salad recipes. It is important to prepare it right and let it cool down before you mix it with other ingredients of your salad. This article shows how I usually prepare boiled rice for the salad.

Carrots and Stewed Mushrooms Salad

Here comes the first recipe of this blog: step-by-step photo recipe of amazing and nutritious salad with carrots and mushroom sauce.

This salad is a perfect dish itself, there is not meat used to prepare it, just a lot of mushrooms and vegetables, however it can be served as a side dish for any meat, poultry or fish main dish if you like.

Carrots and Stewed Mushrooms Salad tastes good as warm as well as cooled, leftover can be easily stored in fridge. Hope you will like it!