It is only in Europe and America that radishes appear when stores open. We have this vegetable "begins" only in late spring. But this circumstance is by no means a reason to refuse tasty vitamin salads in the off-season. There are always several ingredients at hand that you can use to make a nutritious and healthy snack. In this article, we will consider what ingredients are needed for a winter salad. But first, a little theory.
Every salad, according to the canons of culinary art, should consist of three parts. The first is a vitamin and refreshing note. Without it, the salad will be a cold main course. The other part is nutritional. In summer light salads, it may not be. But in the winter it is required. And finally, the third component of salads is sauce, dressing or dressing. And now let's look at all this with the example of classic Russian snacks, which are usually cooked in winter.
Olivie
For many people, the New Year is associated with the smell of spruce needles, champagne bubbles, Christmas tinsel. But for a Russian, this is, first of all, Olivier salad. Without it, the celebration of the New Year is impossible. And the housewives make it in such quantities as to stretch it until Christmas - a whole basin. But few people know that the ingredients of winter salad Olivier are not affordable for everyone. If you believe the cookbook, which was published in 1897 (authorship of Pelageya Alexandrova), then the French cook’s appetizer glorifying Russia includes the following products. Grouse meat, cancerous necks and a transparent veal head broth (lanspeak) served as a nutrient. Of winter vegetables, the composition included boiled potatoes and pickles. But for freshness, capers, salad leaves and olives were added to the real Olivier. Isn’t it too expensive to get a snack?
Post-revolutionary metamorphoses of classic Olivier
Alas, the Soviet man who was about to live happily under communism, and in his eyes did not see any grouse, or capers, no lanspeak and cancer necks. However, desperate housewives were not going to just give up. Various “substitutes” of expensive ingredients for the Olivier salad were used. Ryabchikov was replaced by chicken or boiled language, and when socialism entered the “developed” phase, it was cooked sausage. Instead of crayfish necks, the proletarian culinary fantasy introduced hard-boiled eggs into the recipe. Capers with olives were replaced with boiled carrots, onions and canned peas. Well, lettuce leaves disappeared by themselves, as an unnecessary bourgeois decoration. Thus, from the old classic recipe of the 1917 Revolution and the events that followed it, only potatoes and cucumbers survived.
Classic Winter Salad: Ingredients
However, the appetizer, despite the fact that all delicacies were completely removed from its composition, turned out to be excellent in taste. By the way, it was this “proletarian" salad that gained popularity abroad, and is now served worldwide under the name "Russian". Boiled sausage acts there as a saturating component. But in Russia itself, opinions about salad were divided. People familiar with the country's glorious culinary past refuse to call the Olivier dish, which was born during the years of total deficit. And they came up with another name for him - "Winter". By the way, if you use the same set of ingredients, but use fried chicken fillet instead of sausage, you get another salad - Stolichniy. There is also a festive version of a winter snack. In it, instead of sausage or chicken, boiled beef or pork tongue, or meat is used. Let’s now for example, create a classic salad “Winter”.
Fast and budget
The nourishing part in this snack we will have eggs (five pieces) and boiled sausage (400 grams). The refreshing ingredients for the winter salad are as follows: a can of green canned peas, two pickles and one large onion. Neutral to taste, but saturating components are boiled potatoes (three tubers) and carrots (two little things). The technology for preparing the salad “Winter” is no different from the usual Olivier. Potatoes, carrots and eggs are boiled. Then they are cleaned and cut into small cubes. We do the same with sausage and pickles. The onion is also chopped finely. Peas are filtered and added to the common boiler. Do not forget to salt and pepper the dish! This appetizer is traditionally dressed with mayonnaise. Want to reduce calories? Then, instead of mayonnaise, season the salad with sour cream. To increase the nutritional value, a thicker and more fatty aioli sauce is suitable .
Other famous winter salads
Not one Olivier can be eaten from autumn to spring. In the cookbook of the Soviet man there were also such masterpieces as "Fur coat", "Mimosa", as well as vinaigrettes, which each housewife cooks in her own way. Consider which ingredients in the winter salad are constantly present. Literally in every recipe we meet potatoes, and if it is not there - beans. These are healthy foods that perfectly saturate. They serve as a backdrop for other ingredients, since they themselves do not have a pronounced taste. Of vegetables in winter salads, carrots, onions, celery root, garlic, cabbage, and beets are also often present. They are stored for a long time, so they are easy to get in the winter. The saturating part does not depend on the season. It can be meat, poultry, fish, seafood, mushrooms, cheese, nuts. The problem with winter salads is the meager selection of refreshing ingredients. In the summer we can take radishes, fresh cucumbers, spinach and other herbs. In winter, we will have to confine ourselves to an apple, pomegranate seeds, an orange, various kinds of marinades and homemade preparations. Although in today's supermarkets it is quite possible to buy fresh vegetables, and even arugula and cherry tomatoes.
Starolvovsky salad
We bring to your attention a small selection of recipes for winter snacks taken from the Ukrainian cookbook. The ingredients for the Starolvovsky winter salad are: four small red beets, five cloves of garlic, a handful of walnut kernels, a little raisins, a spoonful of vinegar. The cooking process will not require any effort from you, but will take some time. First you need to cook beets in their uniforms. Vinegar should be added to the water so that the root crop retains its ruby color. Cooking beets usually takes an hour. Then it needs to be cooled, cleaned and grated. Squeeze the garlic through it through a press. Calcify the nuts, detail and add to the salad. Throw and steamed raisins. To salt. Season with mayonnaise.
Bean Salad
Legumes are soaked at night, but in the morning they cook for a very long time. Therefore, it will be better if canned beans are the saturating ingredient for winter salad. Drain the liquid from the can. We wash the beans. We clean four onions and three carrots, cut into small cubes. Fry until golden in vegetable oil. Since we are preparing not a soup, but a salad, the root crops must then be thrown onto a sieve so that excess fat is stacked. Four pickles are cut into the same cubes. Mix with beans, onions and carrots. Salt the salad. Dress it with mayonnaise.
Pork Ham Salad with Mushrooms
Despite the big name, this appetizer is very budget. What is needed for a winter salad? The ingredients are: baked pork (boiled pork) is only 200 grams. Pickled champignons - as many; two small potato tubers; 100 g of hard cheese; four pickles; two onions; with a dozen walnuts; lemon; dressing mayonnaise. Like any winter salad, we start cooking by cooking potatoes in their uniforms. We clean and cut it into cubes. Grind other ingredients in the same way. Sprinkle with lemon juice, season with mayonnaise. Now that you know so many recipes for winter salads, your table will be enriched with new dishes.