Salad with almonds "Pine cone" is considered by many to be exclusively a dish for the New Year's table. However, it can be prepared for any occasion. This appetizer looks incredibly beautiful and very unusual. It will appeal not only to adults, but also to children due to its unusual design. There are several different recipes for cone salad with almonds. Let's look at the most popular and one unusual options.
Pine cone salad with almonds, chicken and mushrooms
For the first, puff version of the salad, we need the following set of products:
- One chicken breast.
- A jar of canned mushrooms, it is better to take mushrooms, as they have a neutral taste.
- Two hundred grams of hard cheese.
- Almonds, about three hundred grams.
- Four chicken eggs.
- Two medium-sized potatoes.
- Carrots, two pieces.
- Mayonnaise, a small jar.
- Salt and pepper, take the amount to your personal taste.
We also need green onions to decorate the salad with almonds. You can also use a small sprig of rosemary for this purpose.
How to cook?
The recipe for salad with almonds itself has no difficulties in its preparation, as it might seem at first glance. To do this, you must first boil the chicken breast in slightly salted water. You can also add spices to your taste. After the meat has cooled, cut it into small pieces.
Boil eggs until fully cooked, peel and three on a coarse grater. Carrots and potatoes are well washed and boiled in a peel. After the vegetables have cooled, peel them and three on a grater in a separate bowl. Hard cheese, it can be of any kind, of your choice, is also worth grating on a coarse grater.
Next, open a jar of mushrooms, drain excess liquid from them. Then cut them into small pieces. If desired, the mushrooms can be slightly fried.
Next, lay the salad in layers on a spacious flat dish. Try to give the appetizer a slightly oval pine cone shape. The layers go in the following order:
- Boiled chicken breast meat.
- Mayonnaise.
- Grated potatoes.
- Mayonnaise again.
- Champignons or any mushrooms to your taste.
- Grated carrots.
- Mayonnaise.
- Chicken eggs.
- Again a thin layer of mayonnaise.
- Grated cheese.
This layer also needs to be covered with a layer of mayonnaise, but you can mix cheese in advance with it and put it in one layer.
After all the layers are on the plate, give the final shape. Next, gently spread the almond nut, simulating a bump. We decorate its upper part with green onions, rosemary or a sprig of dill.
After the salad must be put in a cold place for an hour or two.
Potato salad
If you take and look at the recipe with a photo of a salad with almonds, you can immediately appreciate its originality and beauty. It doesn't matter which recipe you choose. In addition to the above option, you can cook a salad with potatoes and green peas. For this we need the following products:
- Chicken fillet, three hundred grams.
- Three small potatoes.
- Two carrots.
- Onion head.
- Four chicken eggs.
- Half a jar of canned green peas.
- Almonds, about three hundred grams.
- Mayonnaise.
- Salt and pepper, add to your own taste.
As in the previous case, we need greens to decorate and decorate the salad with almonds.
Step by step recipe
Chicken fillet must be boiled until fully cooked in slightly salted water. After it cools, cut it into small cubes.
Boil potatoes, carrots and eggs until cooked. After cooling and cleaning. Then three root vegetables on a grater, medium in size, in a separate bowl. Peeled eggs are divided into proteins and yolks. There are also three of them, but on a fine grater, in separate containers.
Almonds lightly fry in a pan without vegetable oil. Onions are peeled, finely chopped and fried in any vegetable oil. When the onion begins to acquire a golden hue, add chicken to it. Salt and pepper. Fry for about five minutes and remove from heat to cool. We pour out excess liquid from canned peas.
Such a salad is also laid out in layers. First of all, put potatoes on a flat dish. We crush it, while giving it the shape of a bump. Lubricate with mayonnaise. Next is a layer of chicken fried with onions. We also lubricate it with mayonnaise. This is followed by a layer of green peas. Next, put the grated carrots, mayonnaise. Then comes the egg white. It also needs to be smeared with mayonnaise. Sprinkle with yolk and decorate with fried almonds, giving the appearance and shape of a cone.
Almond Cheese Salad
For lovers of unusual and exquisite cuisine there is a variant of cheese salad with almonds. This appetizer is very tender and airy, and the ingredients that make up the dish make it very original. So, we need the following products:
- Cream cheese, it is usually spread on sandwiches, two baths.
- Any kind of hard cheese, two hundred grams.
- Port, not more than 50 ml.
- Chives.
- Ground red pepper.
- Dill.
- Almonds, approximately two hundred grams.
Cooking method
The whole originality of the salad lies in the fact that the products for it are not cut, but whipped with a mixer. This gives the salad lightness and tenderness. So, the recipe for this salad.
First you need to beat cream cheese well with a mixer or whisk. Then add one teaspoon of red ground pepper and a small glass of port to this mass. Beat for another three to five minutes. Then we add hard cheese grated on a fine grater and continue to whip the mass at medium speed. Next, put chopped green onions in a bowl with cheese. Beat a few more minutes.
After we proceed to the design of the salad. To do this, we spread the cling film on the table and spread the cheese mass on it, wrap it, giving it an oval shape. So you can make one big bump or several small ones. We put them for a couple of hours in a cold place for solidification.
After we remove the cling film and put the cheese blanks on a flat dish. We decorate them with almonds, as in the previous versions. Almonds can also be lightly fried in a pan or dried in the oven.