In the modern rhythm of life, everyone is trying to cook such dishes that are prepared as simple and easy as possible. And if the food also looks appetizing, then it will definitely become one of the most beloved among beginners and experienced culinary specialists. And the dish under the sonorous name "Champs Elysees" is just that: bright, colorful and very easy to prepare.
What is a dish
This salad entered our diet quite recently, but has already managed to take pride of place among other dishes. All this is due to its unusual appearance. It is no coincidence that it is called the Champs Elysees. Salad is very reminiscent of them in appearance. On a large flat plate, he looks like several narrow colorful fields that are fenced off by small paths of mayonnaise. And the brighter the ingredients, the more colorful the salad looks, so if desired, it will become the main dish of the festive table, from which it will simply be impossible to look away.
We buy the necessary ingredients
Before proceeding to a detailed review of the recipe with a photo of the Champs Elysees salad, you should go to the store and purchase the necessary ingredients for preparing this dish. It is mandatory to purchase mayonnaise or components for its preparation at home, chicken eggs and hard cheese. But since this salad is each prepared in its own way, the rest of its components are chosen at will. You can take another tomato, fresh or canned cucumber, cabbage, sausage or chicken, potatoes, olives, celery - any favorite product can be safely added to the salad.
General salad recipe
Despite the fact that the number of options for preparing a salad will be the same as the number of people preparing it, there is still a general recipe for creating this dish that you should focus on. So, the composition of the Champs Elysees salad traditionally includes:
- 150 grams of hard cheese;
- 3 eggs;
- 150 grams of mayonnaise;
- 200 grams of sausage or 300 grams of chicken;
- 100-150 grams of any other vegetables.
To make a salad, you just need to prepare all the ingredients (wash, peel, chop), and then put the first layer of cheese and sausage (or chicken), and the second layer all the other components that are laid out in parallel.
Vegetable preparation
An important aspect of preparing the Champs Elysees salad according to the recipe is the preparation of the vegetables that will go there. If it is a fresh tomato, fresh or canned cucumber, cabbage, then they can simply be washed thoroughly, and then cut into slices or cubes. But if you want to modify the salad and add potatoes or beets, then this product must first be boiled until tender, and then grate on a medium or large grater. The main thing, while preparing vegetables for harvesting in a salad, is not to mix them in any case, but leave them to lie on different plates.
Chicken preparation
An important point in the preparation of the Champs Elysees according to the recipe is the preparation of chicken for slicing into a salad. Of course, if you take an ordinary grilled chicken, then you can simply cut it into small cubes and calmly spread it on a plate for the finished dish. But if you buy chicken, then you should first boil it. In order for the meat to be tender, and not hard, put it in water, and as soon as it boils, immediately turn off the fire. After 20 minutes, the chicken meat will be completely ready, so that it remains only to cool it, and then cut into small cubes.
Sausage preparation
If the chicken in the Champs Elysees salad is replaced by sausage, prepare it for laying in the dish. Uncooked smoked sausage of your favorite brand is best suited for these purposes. In this case, it will just have to be cleaned from a plastic film and cut into small slices. If you prefer sausage "varenka" more, then in this case you will have to boil the sausage before cutting it for two minutes. The main thing is not to overdo it with the cooking time of the sausage, otherwise it will boil apart and become unsuitable for laying in the salad. When the sausage is cooked and cooled, it remains only to cut into small slices, the size of which will be equal to the size of the chopped vegetables.
We collect the first layer of the dish
Looking through the recipe with a photo of step by step salad "Champs Elysees", we proceed to create the main first layer of the dish. First, sprinkle the whole bottom of the plate on which the salad will be collected, grated cheese, leaving a third of it to decorate the salad, after which the cheese is covered with a mayonnaise net. Next, put the sausage on the cheese, leaving a third of it for decoration, which we cover with mayonnaise. The third step of the first layer is finely chopped three eggs, which are covered with a thin mesh of mayonnaise. On this assembly of the first layer of lettuce is completed.
We collect the second layer of salad
Focusing on various photos of the Champs Elysees salad, you can start collecting the second layer of the dish. Everything is done here as simple as possible. It is only necessary to lay out all the remaining components parallel to each other. Take, for example, a sliced cucumber, which is then placed on the edge of the dish, next to it you can put all the remaining cheese, next to the sausage cheese. And so we put next to each other all the ingredients that we had time to prepare by this time.
Mayonnaise salad dressing
The key to preparing the Champs Elysees salad according to the recipe is its decoration with mayonnaise. Here the container plays an important role, from which it will be poured into the salad. If you take the mayonnaise with a spoon, it doesn’t work out, then lay out the paths between the fields from it on the salad. Everything will come out messy. Therefore, to decorate the salad, mayonnaise should either be transferred to a pastry bag, or immediately purchased in a store not in a jar, but in a plastic bag, the tip of which can be carefully cut with scissors to make a small hole. And the smaller it is, the more convenient it is to decorate salad with mayonnaise.
Cooking healthy homemade mayonnaise
If you want a dish under the beautiful name "Champs Elysees" to be not only tasty and colorful, but also useful, instead of the usual store-bought mayonnaise, it is better to use home-made mayonnaise, which everyone can make independently. Make it easy. Take:
- 4 quail or 2 chicken eggs;
- a third of a teaspoon of salt;
- a third of a teaspoon of sugar;
- as much mustard;
- 100 ml of sunflower refined oil;
- lemon juice to your liking.
To make mayonnaise, put eggs, salt, mustard and sugar in a bowl of a food processor, blender, or mixer, and then begin to beat these ingredients. After several minutes of continuous whipping, begin to gradually pour vegetable oil into the bowl with a thin stream, without ceasing to whisk. So mayonnaise will get the right consistency. In the end, it remains only to add freshly squeezed lemon juice to the sauce, the amount of which everyone chooses independently, focusing on their taste sensations. And when such mayonnaise gets into the salad, the taste of the dish will become saturated.
Vegetarian Salad Variation
If you have already fed your family with the Champs Elysees salad with sausage or chicken, you can prepare such a variation of the dish where there are no specified ingredients. In this case, you will need 100 grams of cheese, 2 eggs, 50 grams of green onions, 1 carrot, 1 beet and 2 potatoes. Carrots, beets and potatoes will have to be boiled, peeled, and then grated on a medium grater and put in small bowls. Chop green onions and set aside. Then boil the egg, which after cooking will need to be divided into two parts - protein and yolk, and then finely chop the proteins and yolks, arrange them on different plates. In the last part of the preparation for the salad, all you need to do is grate and put hard cheese and potatoes on plates.
Having finished the preparatory stage, you can begin to collect the salad together. To do this, put on the bottom of the plate, in which the dish will be served, grated hard cheese, which is immediately covered with a thin mesh of mayonnaise. Then spread the potatoes in the same way, grease it with mayonnaise too. Then we proceed to decorate the salad and create fields on it with mayonnaise paths. Only this time the salad should be decorated from the middle, where we spread the yolk crushed into crumbs with an even strip. Then on both sides of the yolk we lay out strips of grated beets. After strips of beets are followed by white strips of protein crumbs. They are followed by two beautiful fields of grated carrots, and chopped green onions complete all this splendor. All that remains for us at the end is to pave thin mayonnaise paths in a standard way, which will divide our bright fields, adding more aesthetics to the salad.
"Champs Elysees" with fried eggs
If you want even more variety, you can submit to the court of households and guests a version of the same salad, which differs from the usual one in that it will include magnificent delicious scrambled eggs. She will make this dish even more fragrant and satisfying. In this case, we need:
- 2 chicken eggs;
- 100 grams of hard cheese;
- half a can of olives;
- 2 medium sized potatoes;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 150 grams of fresh young cabbage (if desired, you can replace canned cabbage);
- 1 fresh or canned cucumber;
- 100 grams of mayonnaise;
- vegetable oil;
- salt and pepper to taste.
To make this version of the "Champs Elysees", you first have to cook the fried eggs. To do this, beat the eggs well with two tablespoons of water, pepper and salt. After that, thin eggs are baked, which will then need to be cooled, rolled up and cut into small rolls.
Next, we prepare the potatoes for laying in the salad, for which rub the raw potatoes on a medium grater or cut into strips, and then fry in vegetable oil until tender. Pepper, salt on your own. Then finely chop the fresh cabbage, mix it with the garlic squeezed through the press, add salt and crush a little so that it gives the juice. If the cabbage is canned, then you will have to drain the excess liquid from it, chop it if necessary. And at the end of the preparatory stage, it remains only to chop olives and cucumber with small bars or crumbs, and grate the cheese on a medium grater. Naturally, each ingredient in the preparatory phase is placed on a separate plate to avoid mixing.
At the last stage, it remains only to collect the salad together. Here, unlike other salad variations, there will be no bottom layer, just all the components are laid out next to each other, like fields with mayonnaise paths between them. We begin to collect salad from fried eggs rolls, they will be exactly in the middle, and next to it will be fields from cabbage, fried potatoes, cucumbers, olives and cheese. And, of course, the border of each such field is drawn using mayonnaise. The salad looks colorful, it is served on the festive table.
Such a dish will surely attract the attention of guests, therefore it is recommended to cook it for everyone who wants to surprise relatives and friends with an original table setting. In addition, the salad is healthy, low-calorie, if it uses mainly fresh vegetables.