classic vinaigrette. Its recipe is very simple and familiar to almost every housewife.

And no one has any questions about how to prepare a vinaigrette salad; it’s not that difficult. But there are several rules that should not be neglected. Then the salad will look great and taste good.

General principles for preparing a simple vinaigrette

5. There should be slightly less beets than carrots and potatoes.

6. Cabbage and cucumbers, if they are salted, can be mixed in advance, but if the cucumbers are canned, then they should be added separately, and not together with cabbage. Their number should be greater than potatoes. Then the dish acquires a more piquant and spicy taste.

7. Before adding sauerkraut, squeeze out the liquid from it. It is best if it is chopped before adding to the salad.

8. The dressing is prepared from vinegar, oil, salt, sugar and mustard. All ingredients are mixed using a whisk in a separate bowl. Mustard makes it possible to better mix vinegar and oil (these two ingredients do not mix well with each other).

9. If the salad is not intended to be served immediately, then the products are not combined together. Accordingly, they are mixed and seasoned just before serving. Otherwise, a dish that has stood for several hours will have time to turn beet-colored and lose its aesthetic appearance.

10. Onions should be added to taste.

2. “Quick vinaigrette” with baked vegetables

Quick vinaigrette differs from regular vinaigrette in the way it prepares vegetables. This option is ideal if you need to save time.

Beets, potatoes, carrots are placed in a cooking bag and placed on a baking sheet, after which they must be baked in an oven preheated to 180-200 C. They will be ready in about 35 minutes (you can check readiness by carefully piercing them).

In order for the salad to have a rich taste, it must contain an equal amount of vegetables.

Ingredients:

• Potato;
• Carrot;
• Beet;
• Onion – 1 or 2 pcs., depending on the amount of other products;
• Salted cucumbers;
• Canned peas – 1 jar;
• Vinegar;
• Sunflower oil;
• Salt - to taste.

Vegetables should be cut into cubes 0.5 cm in size. It is best to start with beets. After cutting it, you need to add a little sunflower oil to it and mix. Next, potatoes, carrots, and onions are chopped. Along with the vegetables, pickled cucumbers (they need to be cut into cubes) and peas are added to the working container. The mixture is salted and mixed thoroughly.

The dressing is made from crushed garlic, salt, ground black pepper, 2 tbsp. l. wine vinegar and 2 tbsp. l. sunflower oil. All these components are placed in a separate container and mixed. This mixture is poured over the salad. You can decorate with chopped parsley or celery leaves.

3. New Year's vinaigrette with salted herring

For the New Year, we try to serve delicious dishes to the table. Even familiar salads are being transformed. They add additional products and are more beautifully decorated.

Products:

• Potatoes, boiled in their jackets – 4 pcs.;
• Beetroot – 3 pcs.;
• Carrots – 2 pcs.;
• A bunch of green onions;
• Herring fillet - 1 pc.;
• A can of green peas;
• Pickled cucumbers – 4 pcs.;
• Salad dressing.

Products for refilling:

• Vinegar;
• Vegetable oil;
• Soy sauce;
• Ground black pepper.

Boiled vegetables, cucumbers, herring, green onions need to be peeled and cut into small cubes, add peas to them. All ingredients are poured over with dressing and mixed.

4. How to prepare a classic vinaigrette salad with beans

Initially, the classic vinaigrette was prepared not with green peas, but with beans. But, over time, many new variants of this dish appeared, which diversified its taste. Nevertheless, this recipe remains, as before, relevant and loved by many people.

Ingredients:

• Beets – 2 pcs.;
• Carrots – 1 pc.;
• Potatoes – 1 pc.;
• Beans - 200 - 300 g;
• Pickled cucumbers – 3 pcs.;
• Sauerkraut – 100 g;
• Onion – 1 pc.;
• Sour apple – half;
• Olive or sunflower oil;
• Ground black pepper;
• Lemon – 1 pc.;
• Salt.

Boiled vegetables, cucumbers, apples are cut. Other prepared products are added to them and everything is mixed. Dressed with freshly squeezed lemon juice and sunflower oil.

5. Recipe for vinaigrette for the holiday table. Video

Serving vinaigrette at the festive table requires its correct design. Despite its simplicity, such a salad will delight not only with its taste, but also with its appearance. You can see how to do this in this video.

Preparing a vinaigrette for a holiday table used to be commonplace. It was a classic salad for any feast.

But with the appearance of an assortment of exotic fruits in our stores, housewives are vying with each other to prepare delicious and beautiful dishes from them, forgetting for a while the traditional simple salads - Olivier salad and vinaigrette.

But time passes and, having had enough of the chic exotica: , various , I remember my favorite classic: a soulful vinaigrette, and with herring (or other salted fish), my favorite, .

So we’ll return to the classics, I’ll tell you how to make a vinaigrette! A delicious vegetable salad that everyone loves. Making vinaigrette is a simple, but very labor-intensive task. However, the result is worth it!

I’ll tell you how to cook it deliciously today, as usual, with photos of the process.

Products:

• 3 pcs. medium sized beets
• 2 pcs. carrots
• 12 pcs. small size or 5-6 pcs. medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 6-7 small pickled cucumbers or 3 large ones
• 8 - 10 table. tablespoons sauerkraut (to taste)
• 1 can of green peas (optional)
• Salt, vegetable oil to taste.

Recipe for vinaigrette with sauerkraut with photo:

How to make a vinaigrette so it’s delicious? There are several secrets.

But everything is in order:

First, boil the vegetables: beets, potatoes, carrots

I always cook it like this: beets in a separate pan, and potatoes and carrots together, otherwise the anthocyanins in the beets will quickly turn the other vegetables into an incomprehensible brown mass.

Then you need to immerse the boiled vegetables in cold water for 5-7 minutes - this will make them easier to clean: the skin will come off easily and it will be convenient to hold warm, not hot, vegetables in your hands.

So, the next stage is to peel the vegetables: beets, carrots, potatoes, onions.

Second secret: the taste of the vinaigrette depends not only on the taste of its ingredients, but also on the cut. It is believed that finely chopped salad tastes better. However, in everything you need to know when to stop. If the salad is cut too small, it will turn into mush and the vegetables will lose their uniqueness.

Once, during our student years, we conducted an experiment: we made a vinaigrette by swirling its components on a rotary grater. My friends, it was terrible! It was the most tasteless vinaigrette I've ever had in my life. This mixture of incomprehensible taste and appearance from the same ingredients did not have the right to be called the proud name of vinaigrette!

Therefore, we cut all the vegetables into moderately small cubes.

Place the beets first in the pan, pour vegetable oil over them and stir vigorously. In this form, it will not color the vegetables so quickly.

Cut carrots into cubes:

Potatoes:

Lastly, add the canned green peas, after draining the liquid from the jar. In our family, this ingredient has not really taken root and is added personally to the plate of the lover of this green product.

That's it, the delicious vinaigrette is ready!

Place it on a plate in a heap and decorate with greens:

And serve with a wonderful vinaigrette with onions!

The third secret (from personal observations): the vinaigrette acquires a harmonious taste when it sits in a saucepan for two hours, the vegetables are slightly saturated with each other’s juices.

That’s when the vinaigrette acquires its unique taste and aroma. The taste of onions, which was “barely audible” at first, when the vinaigrette was first prepared, after some time opens up and permeates the entire salad. Therefore, be careful not to overdo it, because at first you may think that one onion is not enough.

And one more thing: in order for the salad to be stored properly and not turn sour the next day, all vegetables need to be cooled before slicing, they should NOT be warm. Vegetables must be COLD!

This rule applies to all salads.
That's all for today! Have fun cooking and share your impressions in the comments.

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Vinaigrette is a delicious salad made with vegetables. Despite the fact that it belongs to traditional Russian cuisine, it was invented far beyond the borders of this country. Be that as it may, it is very popular among representatives of different nationalities. Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and the British know what vinaigrette is. In today's article we will tell you how to make this simple, but very interesting and healthy snack.

What is included in the salad?

The main components of this dish are vegetables. The standard set must include red beets, carrots and potatoes. Onions, sauerkraut, salted or pickled cucumbers are also added to the appetizer. And aromatic vegetable oil is usually used as a dressing.

To diversify the taste of the vinaigrette, the salad ingredients are supplemented with a boiled egg, canned peas, meat, seafood, beans, mushrooms, sausage and even herring. And some experimenters season the finished snack with mayonnaise or other savory sauces.

Cooking components

Most of the vegetables included in this salad must undergo preliminary heat treatment. The duration of this process depends on several factors. It is determined taking into account the size and volume of root crops. The average cooking time for carrots is about 20-30 minutes. Almost the same amount needs to be spent on cooking potatoes.

You will have to cook the beets for the longest time for the vinaigrette. Any experienced housewife knows how long this process takes. Therefore, to get faster results, this vegetable is often cooked not on the stove, but in the microwave. Using this device allows you to save a significant amount of time and get well-cooked beets in just 25 minutes. Having dealt with the main points, you can begin to consider specific recipes.

Traditional option

The classic vinaigrette salad recipe is an excellent basis for culinary experiments. Therefore, every modern housewife should master it. To play it you will need:

• 150 grams of beets.
• 320 g potatoes.
• 300 grams of pickled cucumbers.
• 300 g of pickled white cabbage.
• 150 grams of onions.
• Sunflower oil (for dressing).

This salad is completely suitable for dietary nutrition. Those who are interested in how many calories are in vinaigrette salad with butter should remember that the energy value of 100 grams of the product is about 70 kcal. To make a traditional salad, the raw ingredients must be pre-cooked. The washed root vegetables are placed in separate saucepans, filled with cool water and put on fire. As soon as they become soft, they are removed from the bowl, cooled, peeled and cut into small cubes. Then they are combined with chopped cucumbers, chopped onions and sauerkraut. Pour aromatic sunflower oil over the finished snack and mix gently.

Option with seaweed

To make a richer vinaigrette, the classic salad recipe is supplemented with various ingredients that give it a special taste and aroma. One of these additives will be seaweed, which can be purchased at any modern grocery store. To prepare a delicious snack you will need:

• 3 beets.
• 3 carrots.
• 3 potatoes.
• 150 grams of pickled seaweed.
• 2 cucumbers.
• 100 grams of onions and feathers.
• 2 tablespoons each of vinegar and sunflower oil.
• Salt, sugar and freshly ground pepper (to taste).

Thoroughly washed root vegetables are boiled individually until fully cooked, cooled and peeled. Then they are cut into not too small cubes and combined with slices of cucumbers, chopped onions and pickled seaweed. The finished snack is lightly salted, sweetened, peppered and sprinkled with vinegar mixed with vegetable oil. Before serving, the vinaigrette is decorated with green onion rings.

Option with pickled mushrooms

Using the technology described below, you get a very tasty and satisfying salad, which will certainly interest adherents of a vegetarian diet. To prepare it you will need:

• Small beets.
• 2 large pickled cucumbers.
• 100 grams of beans.
• 2 potatoes.
• 80 grams of pickled champignons.
• Onion.
• Salt, pepper, 3% vinegar and vegetable oil.

To prepare a vinaigrette with pickles, you must first boil the vegetables. The beets and potatoes are placed in different saucepans, filled with cold water and placed on the fire. As soon as they become soft, they are completely cooled, peeled and cut into small cubes. Then they are combined with pre-boiled beans, slices of cucumber, chopped onions and mushrooms. Season the finished salad with salt and pepper, and then pour over a mixture of oil and vinegar.

Option with apples

Those who already understand what vinaigrette is will be interested in another simple recipe for this salad. Thanks to the addition of apples, it acquires special freshness and a pleasant sour taste. To prepare it you will need:

• 400 grams of beets.
• Half a kilo of potatoes.
• 250 grams of carrots.
• 2 green sour apples.
• 350 grams of pickled cucumbers.
• Onion.
• 350 grams each of canned peas and white sauerkraut.
• Freshly ground pepper, salt and vegetable oil.

To prepare an unusual vinaigrette, you need to wash and boil the root vegetables. As soon as they become soft, they are removed from the boiling water, cooled, peeled and cut into small cubes. Then they are combined with pieces of apples, chopped onions and chopped cucumbers. Sauerkraut, canned peas, pepper and salt are also added there. Season the finished salad with vegetable oil and mix gently.

Option with canned beans

Fans of vegetable snacks will surely enjoy another simple recipe for vinaigrette with pickles. Thanks to the presence of beans, it turns out not only tasty, but also quite nutritious. To prepare it you will need:

• 6 potatoes.
• 3 beets.
• 6 carrots.
• A can of canned beans.
• 2 pickled cucumbers.
• A can of green peas.
• 100 grams of white sauerkraut.
• Salt, freshly ground pepper and vegetable oil.

Having figured out what a vinaigrette is, you need to understand how to prepare a salad with the addition of beans. First you need to start with root vegetables. They are washed, boiled in different saucepans, cooled, peeled and cut into not very large cubes. Then they add sauerkraut, beans, cucumber slices and peas. The finished appetizer is lightly salted, peppered and sprinkled with aromatic vegetable oil.

Option with cheese

Lovers of gourmet food will certainly appreciate the salad recipe below. The vinaigrette prepared using it turns out extremely tasty and fresh. To surprise your family with this interesting dish, you will need:

• Large beets.
• 3 small potatoes.
• Medium carrot.
• Fresh cucumber.
• 100 grams of good hard cheese.
• Green onions, parsley and dill.
• Salt and mayonnaise.

You need to start the process by preparing the vegetables. Previously, we already figured out how and how much to cook beets for vinaigrette, so we will not re-examine this stage. The finished root vegetables are cooled, peeled and cut into small cubes. Then they are combined with cucumber slices, cheese shavings and chopped herbs. Before serving, add some salt to the appetizer, sprinkle with mayonnaise and mix gently.

Option with meat and eggs

To prepare this nutritious and tasty salad you will need a little time and a little patience. In addition, you should definitely have at hand:

• 400 grams of boiled beef or veal.
• 3 medium potatoes.
• 2 large pickled cucumbers.
• A small carrot.
• 2 hard-boiled eggs.
• Beet.
• Salt and mayonnaise.

To prepare a delicious vinaigrette, the salad ingredients must be pre-heated. Place the beets, potatoes and carrots in separate saucepans, add cool water and boil until fully cooked. The softened root vegetables are cooled, peeled and cut into not too large cubes. Then they are combined with pieces of boiled meat, chopped cucumbers and chopped eggs. The finished snack is lightly salted, poured with mayonnaise and mixed carefully.

Option with herring

Now that you know for sure that vinaigrette is such a universal dish into which you can add different components, we advise you to pay attention to another interesting interpretation of this salad. To make this snack you will need:

• 2 beets.
• 2 carrots.
• 3 potatoes.
• 3 pickled cucumbers.
• 200 grams of herring fillet.
• Medium bulb.
• 40 grams of canned peas.
• A teaspoon of salt and mustard.
• A pinch of ground pepper.
• 30 milliliters of vegetable oil.

Pre-washed root vegetables are boiled directly in the peel. As soon as they become soft, they are cooled, peeled and cut into not very large cubes. Then they are combined with canned peas, chopped onions, chopped cucumbers and pieces of fish fillet. The finished appetizer is lightly salted, peppered and topped with a sauce consisting of mustard and aromatic vegetable oil.

Option with sausage

This simple but satisfying salad is ideal for a family dinner. To prepare it you will need:

• 2 beets.
• 4 potatoes.
• Medium carrot.
• A small onion.
• 2 pickled cucumbers.
• 300 grams of boiled sausage.
• Salt, vegetable oil and feather onions.

As in all previous options, you need to start the process by preparing root vegetables. They are thoroughly washed and boiled until soft in separate saucepans. Then the vegetables are cooled, peeled and cut into small cubes. After this, pieces of sausage, chopped cucumbers and chopped onions are added to a bowl with beets, carrots and potatoes. The almost finished appetizer is lightly salted, poured with aromatic sunflower oil and mixed. Immediately before serving, the salad is decorated with chopped onions.

Previously, I didn’t really like vinaigrette; it seemed that at the holiday table you could find something more interesting than boiled vegetables. But when I prepared a classic vinaigrette for everyday food, this recipe simply won me over.

This is such a tasty and healthy dish that is very convenient for a snack and as a side dish.

It is beautiful in color - bright and rich. Each piece tastes different - sweetish beets and carrots, pickled cucumbers and cabbage, green peas... In general, balance, benefits and a minimum of calories, you need to cook it more often.

What distinguishes it from mayonnaise salads is that you can actually eat it not only during gluttonous feasts, but every day. Although I also have a delicious version of vinaigrette with mayonnaise.

The word “vinaigrette” has become associated with some kind of mishmash, when everything is in one pile. Although, if you think about it, vinaigrette is a well-structured salad. It is made in winter from seasonal vegetables, is budget-friendly, and ideally combines boiled and healthy pickled vegetables. I think that for fasting people this is simply an irreplaceable salad. And in the summer it can be made with fresh cucumber, more on that below.

There are several versions of the stories why the name of this vegetable salad sounds the same as vinegar in French or English. They say that in ancient times in Rus', at the court, a French cook saw vinegar being poured over the salad and asked: “Vinaigre?” (vinegar in French). And everyone thought that he called the salad that and it stuck.

Yes, initially vinaigrette was seasoned with a sauce for which vinegar was mixed with mustard and olive oil. But now it’s common to fill it with just vegetable oil, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you can add a spoonful of delicious vinegar or make a vinaigrette dressing, like in the good old days, I’m also writing about this. In general, you can’t spoil the vinaigrette with vinegar.

Salads are not baked goods, you don’t have to know “how much to weigh in grams”, everything can be done by eye and to your taste, so I give the basic direction, and you can make adjustments.

Vinaigrette - low calorie salad

Vinaigrette consists of vegetables that are low in calories, therefore, depending on the composition, 100 grams of this salad contains from 90 to 130 calories. By the way, most of them are provided by gas station. Because without vegetable oil, the calorie content is generally reduced to 40 Kcal. That is, you can easily eat three kilograms of this salad in a day and still be on a diet. At the same time, the salad is very nutritious, perfectly satiating, and there is no need to talk about the benefits of vegetables once again.

It is not surprising that there is even a vinaigrette diet - when you eat a specially prepared vinaigrette for a week - without pickles and vegetable oil (you can use low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt as a dressing). There are people who lost significant weight on such a diet - I know the result was 12 kg, but, probably, it was not in a week, but longer.

Personally, I believe that diets are very harmful and create eating disorders. And 7 days on one vinaigrette can cause disgust for it. Therefore, you need to eat what you want. And even just by starting to make vegetable salads more often, you can achieve slimness and health without any diets.

Simple rules for making vinaigrette

• According to technology, the classic vinaigrette recipe does not contain onions, since otherwise you will get a strong onion smell, like in a canteen, in the bad sense of the word. If you add it, you can at least scald it with boiling water or marinate it.
• Vegetables for the vinaigrette can be boiled separately, because they have different cooking times. But I prefer to cook everything together and simply remove some of the vegetables as they are ready (I write the exact time in minutes below). You can check the vegetables for doneness by piercing them with a knife.

It is better to add salt while cooking vegetables, but do not add salt to the vinaigrette itself.

• Be sure to wait until vegetables have cooled before peeling and cutting. Then cutting will be much easier. It’s convenient to boil the vegetables in advance in the evening and then prepare the salad in the morning or afternoon.
• It is better not to add beets to the vinaigrette immediately, but only before serving. And if you are preparing a lot in advance or are going to eat the salad for several days, then it is better to store chopped pickles and sauerkraut separately. This will allow the salad to stay fresh longer, and the vegetables will not be colored by the beets. Then the vinaigrette will be as beautifully variegated as we love it.”
• You can make a salad with only salted cabbage or only with cucumbers, if you don’t have any of these ingredients.

How to prepare vegetables for vinaigrette?

The most common way to prepare vegetables for vinaigrette is to boil them. Previously, this is what they did all the time. But now there are new options: you can also bake it or cook it quickly in the microwave.

I recently tried baking for the first time and really enjoyed it. When baked, vegetables are more healthy, tasty, and aromatic. There are other advantages - you don’t have to wash the pan.

How to bake beets, carrots and vegetables in general for vinaigrette in the oven in foil?

I cooked potatoes, carrots and beets. Vegetables need to be washed. I washed them thoroughly with a sponge. Then we wrap each root vegetable in foil.

Place on a baking sheet or wire rack and place in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees.

Carrots and potatoes are cooked for about half an hour, beets - 1-2 hours, depending on the size. If the beets are large, then an hour and a half or more. Check for doneness by piercing with a fork.

Baked beets and carrots are tastier than boiled ones: the taste is richer and sweeter. The color also remains brighter; when cooked, the vegetables turn pale.

There is also an option - boil the vegetables already cut into pieces - it’s faster and, since they were cut raw, the pieces are clearer and more beautiful.

You can also cook in a microwave in different ways. The easiest way is to make cuts and punctures with a knife and fork on the vegetables and put them in the microwave for twelve minutes. But keep in mind that the potatoes cook the fastest, then you need to pull out the carrots, then the beets. If the vegetables are not yet soft, let them sit for a couple more minutes.

Vinaigrette is a classic recipe with green peas and sauerkraut. Step-by-step recipe with photos

There are many variations of vinaigrette, but this recipe with green peas is classic and popular. Some people think that there is no need to add peas to this salad, but I really like it, but, of course, everyone decides for themselves. I think this is the most delicious vinaigrette recipe.

I will provide products designed for both a large volume of vinaigrette and for everyday 4 servings, this is exactly how much I make. In general, vinaigrette is made with both pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut, but I didn’t have cabbage at that moment, so I’ll note it in the ingredients for you, but it won’t be in the photo.

Ingredients for vinaigrette for 10-12 servings:

• Potatoes – 500 gr.,
• Beetroot – 500 gr. (two middle ones),
• Carrots – 400 gr.,
• Sauerkraut – 1 tbsp.,
• 1 jar of green peas,
• Pickled cucumbers – 300 gr. (three to four pieces),
• Sunflower oil – one hundred gr.,
• Apple or wine vinegar - one tablespoon,
• Salt.

Ingredients for the vinaigrette for 4 servings:

• Potatoes – 2 pcs.,
• Small carrots – 2 pcs.,
• Small beets – 2 pcs.,
• Pickled cucumbers – 2 pcs.,
• Green peas - a small jar (one hundred and fifty grams),
• Sunflower oil – 4 tbsp.,
• Wine vinegar (apple) – 1 tsp. (optional),
• salted cabbage - 0.5 tbsp,
• Salt – 1 tsp.

1. Vegetables for vinaigrette are boiled in their uniforms. I cooked the vegetables all together. I poured water over the carrots, potatoes and beets and added one teaspoon of salt.
2. Bring water with vegetables to a boil. Next, set the timer. After 20 minutes, remove the potatoes. When another fifteen have passed, the carrots are ready.
3. You may need to add a little water to replace the boiled water. After removing the carrots, cook the beets for another twenty-five minutes.

4. Cool and peel the vegetables.

5. Cut potatoes and carrots into cubes, mix and add green peas.

6. Slice the pickles. It is also advisable to add them before serving. If you are going to store the salad for several days and eat it gradually, then fill the chopped cucumbers with liquid from a jar and add as needed. But I immediately mixed these vegetables.

7. Cut the beets, place them in a separate cup and add half of the vegetable oil indicated in the recipe and apple or wine vinegar (you can do without it).

8. Rinse the sauerkraut under running water and drain. If you do not plan to serve the salad right now, then do not add the cabbage yet, put it in a separate container and in the refrigerator.

9. Before serving, add sauerkraut and cucumbers, as well as beets, to the salad. Pour in the remaining vegetable oil. And stir. The classic vinaigrette with green peas is ready!

How to decorate a vinaigrette beautifully. Serving options for this salad

Vinaigrette, like any salad, can be served beautifully. The simplest thing is to lay it out using a molding ring or square.

If you don’t have a portion ring or a square salad shape, you can make one from scrap materials, for example, from a plastic bottle or cutting off a plastic mayonnaise bucket.

1. Place the salad in the form, compacting it.

2. You can decorate the top with something, for example, lay out pieces of pickled cucumbers or mushrooms.

3. Also, if you simply tear a green onion feather, you will get curls.

4. Onions can also be used for decoration. Carefully remove the ring, and the result is such beauty.

5. And it turns out to be such beauty.

Snack vinaigrette on toast (method of decoration)

If you serve the vinaigrette on toast, you will get something between a salad and an appetizer. You will also need a ring-shaped form, but of a smaller size; if you make it from scrap materials, then this can be made from a plastic cup or a suitable plastic container.

1. First, cut out circles of about the same size from the bread and make croutons out of them - in a dry frying pan, in the oven or on a grill pan.

2. Then, when the salad is ready, place your mold on the crouton and place the salad in it, lightly compacting it.

3. Then carefully remove the mold.

Vinaigrette salad appeared during the reign of Alexander I. They say that this salad was first served on the royal table, and over time this recipe reached ordinary peasants. This salad received this name after a French chef arrived in Russia. When Russian chefs were seasoning this salad with vinegar, a Frenchman came up and asked: “Vinegra?” Translated from French, this word means “vinegar,” but Russian chefs did not know its designation and agreed with the Frenchman’s opinion. Since then, this salad has been called vinaigrette.

This dish is well known to the Slavic peoples, since the ingredients for the vinaigrette are simple and accessible to everyone. Moreover, they all grow in our latitudes; there is no need to buy expensive exotic products. Each of the components of this dish requires special attention, since with proper processing the taste of the salad is excellent.

How to choose the right products for vinaigrette?

One of the main ingredients of this salad can be safely called beets. The taste of the entire dish depends on its quality. You need to choose table beets; they are often called “vinaigrette”. This root vegetable should be dense; when pressed, a hole should not form on it. If the beets are soft, this may indicate that the vegetable has been sitting for a long time and is being stored in inappropriate conditions. The surface of the beets should not have dents or damage. It is best to buy beets without tops, since during long-term storage all the beneficial substances from the beets are transferred to the leaves. When cut inside, it should not have a hard core. If there is one, then it must be removed from the root crop. The core is too hard, so it will spoil the taste of the dish.

The color of the beets should be rich, without red or white veins inside. The darker the color of the flesh, the sweeter the taste. Often, red flesh does not have as sweet and dense a flavor as maroon flesh.

It is better to choose potatoes for vinaigrette with a medium level of starch. If the potatoes are very starchy, then during the process of cooking and cutting, they will crumble and fall apart. Checking the starch level is quite simple. You need to cut the potato into two halves and try to mold them together. If the two halves stay together for a long time, then such potatoes have a large amount of starch. If the halves are weakly connected or fall off quickly, this indicates that the potato has little starch.

Onions are added to the vinaigrette, but to make the taste less spicy, it is better to choose red or salad white onions. It’s quite difficult to get sweet Yalta onions, so all you have to do is choose sweet salad onions. It has an elongated shape and is not bitter at all.

The classic vinaigrette recipe also includes sauerkraut. You can simply buy it ready-made. But it is worth noting that it must be well sour, since the salad must have additional sourness. The same goes for pickled cucumbers.

How to properly prepare the ingredients for a salad?

To make a truly classic salad, you need to prepare all the ingredients correctly. In addition, you will learn little secrets for quickly preparing this salad.

Tip #1. It is best to bake beets in the oven rather than boil them in water. When this product is baked, it retains its rich, sweet taste. During cooking, some of the sugars are released into the water, and the beets become more watery. To bake beets, you need to wrap them in foil. It is necessary to make small holes in the foil with a fork or an awl so that air can freely pass to the vegetable. To maintain a high temperature on the baking sheet where the beets will lie, you need to pour a two-centimeter layer of table salt. The salt will maintain a high temperature for a long time. Preparing medium-sized beets using this method takes about 40 minutes.

If you still decide to cook beets, then you do not need to cut off the tail and cut them into pieces. It is best to cook it whole. If you make cuts in this root vegetable, then during the cooking process all the beneficial substances will be released into the water.

Tip #2. Potatoes and carrots can be boiled together. In terms of cooking time, these two ingredients are cooked the same. Fully cooked vegetables will be easy to pierce with a knife or fork.

Tip #3. To prevent the salad from having a strong onion smell, it is better to marinate or fry the onions first. If you decide to add fresh onions, it is better to soak them in vinegar or lemon juice for a few minutes. Fried onions can add satiety and appetizing taste. It makes the dish more nutritious.

Tip #4. Add chopped beets to the salad at the very last moment so that they do not color the rest of the ingredients. When the potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onions and sauerkraut are ready, they must first be seasoned with salt, and only then with vegetable oil and vinegar. If you add the oil first, it will create a film on the surface of the vegetables, which will prevent salt from getting into the ingredients. It will seem that the salad is under-salted. Only after this stage can beets be added, after which the salad is mixed again.

Tip #5. If you prepare the vinaigrette in advance, it is better to leave it undressed, as it may drip. You can add oil, salt and vinegar 5-10 minutes before serving the dish. In addition, if the dressed salad is stored for a long time, even in the refrigerator it can quickly spoil.

Tip #6. A boiled chicken egg is also added to the classic vinaigrette recipe. It must be cut into small cubes. For a richer taste, herring is also added to the vinaigrette.

Preparing a classic vinaigrette

This recipe is an exact copy of the royal vinaigrette, which was served with a boiled egg. To prepare you need to take:

2 medium beets,

3 potatoes,

2 carrots,

3 pickled cucumbers,

200 g sauerkraut,

1 onion,

sunflower oil,

Cooking steps

1. Boil beets, potatoes and carrots until fully cooked.
2. During this time, cut the pickled cucumbers and onions into cubes. Pickle onions in vinegar to remove bitterness.
3. Also cut the boiled potatoes and carrots into cubes. Add sauerkraut, cucumbers, onions. You must first remove excess brine from cucumbers and cabbage. To do this, wipe the cucumbers with a paper towel, and squeeze the cabbage well with your hands.
4. Hard boil the eggs, cut into cubes and add to the rest of the vegetables.
5. Dice the beets, but set them aside for now and do not add them to the other ingredients so that they do not turn them burgundy.
6. Season all other ingredients with salt and pepper, and only then season with vinegar and vegetable oil. Then add the chopped beets and mix everything again.

Vinaigrette for diet

This recipe will appeal to those who watch their figure or adhere to fasting. This vinaigrette does not contain herring, but the protein is replaced with canned green beans. In addition, this recipe does not contain potatoes, which are too high in calories. It turns out to be quite a satisfying but lean dish. To prepare it you need to take:

2 carrots,

2-3 pickled cucumbers,

1 onion,

150 g green peas,

200 g boiled beans,

olive oil.

Cooking steps

1. Boil beets and carrots until fully cooked. Peel the cooled vegetables and cut into small cubes.
2. Peel the cucumber from its thick peel for a more delicate taste.
3. Boil the peas or buy ready-made canned ones. Excess liquid should drain from the peas, so before adding them to the salad, you need to drain them in a colander.
4. The beans can be boiled in advance and added to the rest of the ingredients.
5. Cut the onion into half rings and marinate in vinegar for 5 minutes. Remove from vinegar and squeeze well.
6. Mix all ingredients and add salt. Add ground black pepper and a drop of olive oil.

Vinaigrette: a modern recipe

This recipe and presentation of the dish will change your previous attitude towards this, as it previously seemed, familiar dish. This vinaigrette will not only sparkle with new flavors, but will also surprise you with its presentation. No more bowls of randomly chopped vegetables. Now the vinaigrette can be served as in a restaurant. To prepare this dish you need:

2 carrots,

150 g lightly salted sprat,

200 g boiled beans,

3 sour cucumbers,

vegetable oil.

Cooking steps

1. Boil the beets and beans in advance so that they cool completely.

1. Boil the carrots and cut into cubes. Mix the prepared ingredients, also add finely chopped onion and pickled cucumber. It is worth noting that you may need more pickled cucumber; watch the taste so that the salad does not turn out too sour.

1. Add salt, pepper and vegetable oil to the ingredients. Stir until it tastes good.
2. Let's start cutting the sprat. It needs to be cleaned well. To do this, she needs to remove the heads and all the insides.

It is also necessary to remove the entire ridge so that only the loin part remains.

1. In a separate bowl, mix finely chopped dill and parsley, season them with aromatic vegetable oil. The result should be a thick, spicy oil with herbs. This dressing should be used to decorate plates.

1. You can spread the oil over the plate at your discretion; it is better to form circles from the oil. This design looks quite presentable.
2. You need to place a round pastry mold in the center of the plate, and completely cover its sides with sprat carcasses. You need to lay out the fish overlapping to make it easier to wrap and assemble.

1. All that remains is to fill such a “well” of fish. We fill it with the usual vinaigrette and cover it with sprat tails towards the center.

1. Decorate the center of the dish with greens. The vinaigrette is ready!