What is Russian salad?

Just before the Great Patritoic War, Russian people didn't know this foreign word, not talking about the dish. Only the people who went abroad and learnt a couple salad recipes from French cuisine could offer something like salad on their Russian table. So for Russians, the salad became any dish made of finely cubed vegetables, meat, eggs, fruits or mushrooms and served cold. So here comes the feature of Russian salad - cold mixture of finely cubed ingredients.

To make the most delicious salads, I am offering you the following rules:

1. Any products can be used for salad, even if it seems incongruous at first sight. Just remember, the ingredients should offer taste harmony.

2. Every salad has its own dressing. Bad dressing can spoil salad. So never dress all the salad at once. Dress only a part to taste the combination for the beginning.

3. To salt salad is a real art. Vegetable, and especially green salads are very sensitive to salt. Green leaves, lettuce, cucumbers get shriveled from much salt. So season salads just before serving. Some salads are better to sprinkle with lemon.

4. Before making a salad, make sure the ingredients are not repeated in other dishes on the table. Don't make a cabbage salad if you serve schi or cabbage rolls.

By Olga Timokhina