Olivier Salad: the tasty, creamy recipe for a traditional Russian potato salad (2024)
The Olivier salad is a very easy recipe to make traditional Russian potato salad. It is usually served during Christmas holidays, or as a cold appetizer or a side dish throughout the year.
Creamy and tasty, Olivier salad is basically made of carrots, potatoes, green peas, to which you can add other mixed vegetables and pickles, and mayonnaise. The vegetables are already cooked and then combined with mayonnaise, which will flavor the dish and will help to tie the vegetables together thanks to its creaminess.
Russian potato salad has uncertain origins, although its creation was attributed to Lucien Olivier, a French chef with Belgian origins who worked in a famous restaurant in Moscow and who created this recipe in the second half of the 19th century.
This dish has also different names. In Germany and in some Balkan countries it is called "Italian salad", in Italy it is called “Russian salad”, while in Russia it is indeed "Olivier salad", by the chef who invented it. Here's how to prepare this tasty recipe to delight your guests.
What is Olivier Salad?
Olivier salad (pronounced uh-li-vee-ay sa-luhd) is a classic Russian recipe to enjoy a delicious, creamy potato salad. It is best known as Russian salad or Olivye in the Ukrainian community.
Cooked potatoes, eggs, peas, carrots, onions, pickles, meat are mixed together thanks to a creamy mayonnaise.
When to serve Russian Potato Salad
Olivier salad is a popular recipe to enjoy during winter holidays like Christmas and New Year's Day. Anyway, you can also serve it during other special occasions or festivities like Easter.
Tips for the Best Olivier Salad
If you have time you can prepare the mayonnaise by yourself, or use a store-bought one.
Vegetables should be cut smoothly, and they must be slightly crisp on the outside and not soggy. If you use pickles, let them drain before stirring in.
Choose fresh or frozen peas: avoid jarred or canned peas because they contain a lot of water and are too soft.
To keep the vegetables compact and with a good color, just after boiled put them in a bowl of icy water for a few seconds and then let them dry on a clean cotton cloth.
Russian Potato Salad Variants
For a vegan Olivier salad, leave out eggs and ham. Don't omit mayonnaise as it is the key ingredient for this recipe, so replace it with soy or vegan mayonnaise. To add more texture you can stir in boiled cauliflower.
For a vegetarian Russian salad, leave out meat.
For the protein ingredient in Olivier salad, you can replace ham with cooked chicken or tuna.
You can prepare the Olivier salad without hard-boiled eggs.
For a light Russian potato salad, replace mayonnaise with Greek yogurt.
How to store Olivier Salad
You can preserve the Olivier salad for about 3 days in the refrigerator in a sealed container, but only if you have used a store-bought mayonnaise. But if you have used homemade mayonnaise, it would be better to eat it on the same day you prepare it or at least the next day, because the raw egg is likely to go bad.
Can you freeze Russian Salad?
Yes! You can freeze it for a month, just keep in mind it will be soggy and won't retain its texture once thawed.
This is no ordinary potato salad. This salad consists of potatoes, turkey hot dogs, pickles, scallions, hard-boiled eggs, and sweet peas. All of the ingredients are finely chopped and dressed with mayonnaise.
Russian salad was originally called Oliver salad based on the Moscow-based Belgian chef who invented it. During the 20th century, the dish spread throughout Europe and adopted the name Russian salad.
According to StillTasty.com, prepared potato salad—whether homemade or store-bought, dressed with vinegar and oil or mayonnaise—will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to five days if stored properly.
Olivier salad is a classic Russian dish made with finely diced potatoes, carrots, pickles, boiled eggs, sweet peas, onions, and bologna or ham tossed with a creamy mayonnaise dressing and a dash of salt and pepper.
It's not the mayo that would make you sick, it's the air borne bacteria that infected the potato salad that could hit you with anything from cramps to diarrhea.
It's also known as insalata russa in Italian or Olivier salad in Russian. This creamy vegetable salad is a popular antipasto throughout Italy and especially in my region Piedmont.
Russian dressing is made with a mayonnaise-ketchup base, often livened up with pickle relish, Worcestershire sauce, prepared horseradish, and lemon juice and seasoned with paprika, onion powder, and/or mustard powder. It's spicier and less sweet than Thousand Island, with a more complex, nuanced je ne sais quoi.
It is a very complete dish that provides various benefits depending on the ingredients, most common are potatoes, green peas, beans, and carrots: Rich in minerals: iron, phosphorus, potassium. Vitamins: A, B, C, E, and K.
Olivier salad is a traditional salad that originated in Russia in the 19th century. The salad is typically made with boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, pickles, eggs, and either ham or bologna, all of which are diced into small pieces.
Named after Lucien Olivier, a secretive chef who invented his signature salad in Moscow in the 1860s, it was known to include meats and seafood, capers, potatoes, and a creamy dressing similar to mayonnaise.
Olivier salad is believed to have been introduced as a "Capital salad" or "Niislel salad" in Mongolia during the Soviet period. It usually consists of minced ham and carrots, minced boiled eggs, minced boiled carrots, and potatoes dressed with mayonnaise.
prepared potato salad—whether it's homemade or store-bought, dressed with vinegar and oil or mayonnaise—will stay fresh in the refrigerator up to five days, if stored properly.
Just like regular potato salad you have up to five days to consume it, if stored properly. Is it safe to eat week-old potato salad? The USDA doesn't recommend consuming potato salad that's more than five days old.
Just as you would with pasta, seasoning the water is the only way to flavor the potatoes themselves. The vegetable absorbs the water it's cooked in, so if you just boil them in unseasoned water, you'll end up with tasteless taters that no amount of mayo, herbs, or bacon bits can help.
A common potato salad dressing typically consists of a mixture of mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Some variations may also include ingredients like chopped onions, celery, pickles, or fresh herbs like dill or parsley.
Pappamichalopoulos came up with the idea while serving as an army chef in France during World War I, adding a bit of potato salad as the base of a classic Greek salad (filled with tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumbers, pepperoncini, and feta cheese, then drizzled with an kalamata olive oil-based vinaigrette) to make the ...
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