Salad "Taiga" is an elegant and original dish for the festive table. An unusual combination of ingredients gives the dish a special taste. This cold appetizer contains a small amount of calories, but it is tasty and healthy. According to the classic recipe, this salad is decorated with pine nuts. Typically, this ingredient is used to decorate sweet confectionery. However, nuts go well with other components of the dish and emphasize its taste.
What is needed for cooking
To prepare the Taiga salad, 150 g of poultry meat and 200-300 g of beef are required. Smoked chicken or grilled but not raw fillet should be taken. You can replace beef with venison - this will give the dish an even more delicate and pleasant taste.
You will need vegetables: 2-3 potatoes, 1-2 pieces of carrots and 3 pickled cucumbers. It should be noted that pickled cucumbers are not suitable for salad. They will give the dish a rude taste. To make the product tender and refined, you need to take good quality pickled vegetables . You should also prepare 3 chicken eggs.
An important component of the Taiga salad is mushrooms. You can take a small jar (200 g) of canned champignons. Frozen mushrooms or chanterelles are also suitable. These mushrooms have a more pronounced and rich taste. than champignons, however they require heat treatment.
To prepare the dish, you will need mayonnaise (1 sachet, 200-250 g), as well as pine nuts (50-90 g) and several berries of cranberries or cranberries for decoration.
How to prepare the ingredients
First you need to cook beef or venison. The meat must be boiled in salted water, and then cooled.
You should also boil eggs, carrots and potatoes. If frozen mushrooms are used to prepare the Taiga salad, then they must be fried and cooled beforehand.
You can use raw pine nuts to decorate the salad. But it’s better to fry them a little in a pan. This will improve the taste of the dish.
Cooking salad
Taiga salad with pine nuts is laid in layers. Therefore, you must first grind all the necessary ingredients, arrange them in different bowls, and then proceed to assemble the dish. In this case, the following procedure must be observed:
- Boiled meat and chicken (smoked or grilled) are cut into small slices.
- Pickled cucumbers cut into small cubes.
- Eggs, potatoes and carrots are crushed using a coarse grater.
- Mushrooms (canned or fried) cut into thin plates.
- Then you need to cook a deep salad bowl of cylindrical shape.
- At the bottom of the dishes, chopped meat is placed and covered with a net of mayonnaise. All subsequent layers of salad are also lubricated. However, adding too much refueling is not necessary. This dish is high in calories, and the extra amount of mayonnaise will make it too fat.
- Next, the ingredients are laid in the following sequence: potatoes are placed on the meat layer, then mushrooms, cucumbers, chicken, carrots, eggs. We must not forget to cover each layer with a thin mesh of mayonnaise.
- Top greased with mayonnaise and sprinkled with nuts. You can decorate the salad with cranberries or lingonberries.
To make the dish saturated with dressing, you need to place it in the refrigerator for several hours. After that, the salad can be served on the table.
How to diversify a dish
There are several recipes for Taiga salad. Some of the ingredients in this dish can be replaced to your liking. It is only necessary to remember the compatibility of products.
Instead of mushrooms, you can add salted fern to the salad. It is a healthy and tasty ingredient. In this case, the dish should not be additionally salted. Fern must be pre-soaked in water. This will save the product from excess salt.
Ingredients like Peking cabbage or green peas go well with the taste of the salad. Instead of mayonnaise, you can prepare a homemade dressing of sour cream, chopped walnuts and garlic. This will make the dish less calorie.