Olivier Salad

(serves 8 – 10)

1 can (400 g) peas
300 g boiled sausage
350 g potatoes
400 g carrots
4 - 5 eggs
150 g pickles
150 g onions
1/2 – 1 cup mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground pepper.

1. Cook the potatoes with the carrots in their skins in a medium pot just until tender, 20 – 30 minutes, depending on the size of the vegetables. Hardboil the eggs. Drain the peas well.

2. Peel the potatoes, carrots and eggs, then cut them into small dice. Do the same with pickles and boiled sausage.

3. Mince the onions finely. Put the onions into a small bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave for 10 minutes, then drain the water and rinse the onions in cold water.

4. Mix all the ingredients and add mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

My Tips:

Instead of boiled sausage any meat can be used. According to some recipes, boiled tongue is a good substitute as well. Anyways, in this case, boil the meat until it’s cooked (cook for about 40 minutes after boiling). Then dice like other ingredients.
Instead of or rather in addition to pickles fresh cucumbers can be used. The amount depends on your taste, but I prefer to have my salad half fresh half pickled. Dice the fresh cucumbers just as other ingredients.
Make sure that if you use the onions, they lose their bitterness in the hot water, otherwise the taste of onions will follow you around the whole day. As to carrots, they add a bit of sweetness to the salad that by no means ruins the salad, but rather enriches it. Some people, however, prefer Olivier without onions and/ or carrots, so you may skip these if you don’t like their taste in the salad.
Quite often spring (green) onions are added to the salad, either in addition to onions or instead of them. You may need about 25 g of them or more, depending on your taste preferences. Cut the spring onions and add them in the end to the rest of ingredients.
Other greens, such as parsley or dill (or both) can be added to this salad as well. Cut very small and add to the salad to your taste.
Ivan’s alternative recipe includes potatoes, pickles, fresh cucumbers, onions, spring onions, parsley, dill, boiled sausage, eggs, canned peas, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and freshly ground pepper. Follow the main recipe or alter it to your taste. As to the amount of mustard, take about 10 – 20% of the amount of mayonnaise. Mix both ingredients and add to the salad.
The chopping process takes long (about 2 – 4 hours, depending on the amount and number of people involved in the process), so if you need with salad to be done for some occasion and you don’t have enough time on that very day, you may chop the ingredients and mix them without adding mayonnaise the day before. You can store such salad without mayonnaise one night and simply add mayonnaise when you want to serve it.