While traveling in Ukraine in September of this year, "vkusniya" was one of the first new Russian words I learned: tasty. I said this quite often throughout our month long stay. With each tasty dish presented at the table, I re-learned my love of cooking and eating with new approaches to a gluten-free, mostly vegan diet based on fairly simple, non-spiced techniques. I learned to appreciate the perfection of a nice brothy soup, not just for dinner, but for breakfast too!
Let's dig in!
So, to start off 2011, here's a nice cold salad I learned to make in Ukraine, and I just made a big bowl of it.
Vinegret Salad
I dislike chopping anything into small, uniform pieces, but for this dish, I somehow find a new reserve of patience. This is a very flexible recipe, but pickles are essential. Have about twice the amount of beets as everything else.
- 5 medium beets, tops cut off and washed (but not peeled!)
- Bake in a covered dish for around 2 hours at 350 degrees. (Check online guides for temperature and time if you have small or extra large beets)
- In a medium saucepan, boil 3 carrots and 2 peeled potatoes until tender, about 20 mins, drain
- Let all vegetables cool in fridge a few hours or overnight
- Peel all veggies by scraping off skin with a paring knife (this is surprisingly easy to do!)
- Dice vegetables into 1/2" cubes, starting with the beets and carrots. Toss these in some olive oil before adding the rest (below) to try to contain the beet's pigments
- Add the rest of the ingredients, but do not stir until the end:
- All the diced potatoes
- Diced dill pickles (4 or 5 of the 3 inch kind, or 2 of the large kind)
- 1 small can of drained peas (optional)
- 1/4 white onion, diced very small (optional. This will be very fragrant!)
- A little more olive oil and a pinch of salt.
- Toss gently and serve. Refrigerate the rest
- Optional: sprinkle with chopped walnuts before serving.
Nasdirova!
So you may have wondered about the spelling of "Vinegret" in this recipe. The spelling is intentionally phonetic to mimic the Russian pronunciation of the dish. I'm actually not sure why it's called Vinegret, since the only vinegar comes along with the pickles. But, this seems to be a fairly common dish in Ukraine (and perhaps through Russia), although there it would probably also have mayonnaise (which I do not like).
ReplyDeleteRachel, I will open some secrets for you and everything will become clear )))
ReplyDelete1. So, "Vinegret" bcz the recipe suppose to have at list one more and very important ingredient - it's vinegar)) wine vinegar. I love the translation of this word from French - the root of word is wine.
2. As a rule the salad is good for one day, but if you want to prolong its life it is a good idea to mix the onion with vinegar and add all this to the salad. Also, I know that many recipes require to pour hot water on chopped or sliced onion for 10 minutes. Btw, I prefer in this salad red onion.
3. My grand mother used to make this salad with well cooked black beans and all ingredients supposed to be chopped the same size as bean is. You can make this salad without beans, but what I would recommend you to add some fresh ground black pepper.
I hope all this will be helpful. And thank you for your recipe again)
Great ideas! I've never heard of just dipping diced onion in hot water to sort of semi-cook them! I like it! Thanks for your insights (culinary, cultural, and linguistic!)
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