Vinegret
A winter salad from Eastern Europe, a regular at parties from Kyiv to Moscow. It is boiled beetroot, potatoes and carrots in small dice with pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut, dressed with sunflower oil. The name comes from the French vinaigrette it was once dressed with; today the tang comes from the pickles themselves. There is one trick: the beetroot is tossed with oil separately before it joins the rest — the oil coats it, so it stains the rest far less pink.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Boiling the vegetables 60 min
- Cooling 30 min
- Dicing and combining 15 min
- Letting the flavours mingle 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBoil the vegetables in their skins
Scrub the beetroot, potatoes and carrots and boil them in their skins: potatoes and carrots about 25 minutes, beetroot 45–60 minutes, in a separate pot. Cooked in their skins they do not soak up water and keep their flavour.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Cool and peel
Cool the vegetables completely, for at least half an hour — warm ones fall apart when diced. Then peel them.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Cold — only then do they dice neatly.Dice the beetroot and toss with oil
Cut the beetroot into 1 cm dice and toss it straight away in a separate bowl with 2 tablespoons of the oil. The oil coats the cubes and the beetroot will not dye the other vegetables uniformly pink.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Beetroot and oil separately — the rest keeps its colour.Dice the other vegetables
Cut the potatoes, carrots and pickles into the same dice. Squeeze out the sauerkraut and chop it shorter, and chop the onion finely.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Combine everything
Mix the potatoes, carrots, pickles, sauerkraut and onion, then add the beetroot last. Fold gently so as not to crush the cubes.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Beetroot last, gently.Season with oil, salt and pepper
Pour over the rest of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Taste first — pickles are salty and sour, so a little salt may be enough.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp unrefined sunflower oil · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Rest briefly
Leave the salad a quarter of an hour for the flavours to marry. Unrefined sunflower oil gives vinegret its characteristic seedy aroma.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Serve with rye bread
Serve as a starter or with herring, alongside dark bread. In Ukraine and Russia vinegret often stands on the festive table next to Olivier salad.
Ingredients: 500 g beetroot · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs carrots · 3 pcs brine-pickled cucumbers · 150 g sauerkraut · 1 pcs onion or spring onion
Before you start
With beans or peas
Many households add a tin of white beans or green peas to vinegret. It becomes filling enough for a light lunch.
Roasted beetroot
Beetroot roasted in foil at 200°C for an hour is sweeter and more intense than boiled. Worth trying if the oven is on anyway.
Storage
Vinegret keeps 2 days in the fridge. It is best to store the diced vegetables separately and combine them with the oil and pickles just before serving.
