Today I’ll share with you how to make traditional Polish vegetable salad (salatka jarzynowa). This is a super easy and very popular Polish side dish. You can see it on almost every table at Christmas, Easter, wedding or any other family get together. This was also one of the first dishes that I learned how to prepare and I remember making it myself for my 9th birthday party. Now my kids like to eat it, too and happily help me with all the chopping. This salad is also our staple for most potluck parties. It always gets raving reviews among my American friends who often ask me for a recipe. So I thought it would be easier if I’d share how to make Polish vegetable salad recipe here. The main ingredients in this dish are typical for the Polish cuisine root vegetables. I often make soup stocks and I re-use veggies from the stock to make my salad, but you can also boil them just for this dish.

INGREDIENTS:

a selection of scrubbed, cooked and cooled root veggies:

• 3-4 carrots
• 1-2 parsnips
• 1/2 of medium celeriac
• 1 celery stalk

optional: small turnip OR small rutabaga OR 1-2 potatoes

• 2-3 pickles – I use my lacto-fermented pickles in brine, you could also buy Bubbies or Nathan’s half sour pickles, but if you can’t find those then any dill pickles will work as well
• peeled apple
• 4-5 hard boiled eggs
• small onion or small leek
• 1-2 cups sweet peas – traditional way is to use drained canned peas, but I personally prefer using frozen, I just put them in a sieve and run warm water over the peas for a while to thaw them
• about 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon yellow or Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper
• lemon juice

Optional: 1-2 tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt

 

HOW TO MAKE POLISH VEGGIE SALAD:

1. Dice all the veggies, pickles, eggs, onion and apple  (I like to make small and even cubes, not larger than a green pea) and add everything to a large mixing bowl

 

2. Add peas, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper, a little lemon juice and optionally plain yogurt. Here I added three large spoonfuls of mayo and one of yogurt:

 

3. Mix everything carefully (so it doesn’t turn into mush) in a bowl and taste it!

Too dry?  – Add more mayo.

Too bland? – Add more pepper.

Not enough kick? – Add more mustard or pickles or lemon juice.

4. When you’re happy with how everything tastes put the salad in the fridge so that all the flavors can combine. It tastes best on the second day and you can keep it in the fridge for several days. Since you can prepare it a day ahead it makes it very convenient for potlucks or holidays. With this recipe you’ll end up with a huge bowl of salad. More than enough to share with lots of people.

Today I made the salad and Stuart made a chicken and gravy toast. It was a perfect combination for our lunch. 🙂 I don’t think I’ve met anybody who didn’t like this Polish vegetable salad and A LOT of people just love it. I can almost guarantee that you’d enjoy it as well. Try it and let me know what you think.

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