Russian vinaigrette salad (винегрет) is a tangy Russian beet salad that sings with the sweetness of beets, the earthiness of potatoes, and the zing of pickles. My family's vinaigrette recept is an easy, portable and delicious gluten free and vegan main dish salad.
What is Russian Vinegret Salad?
Russian vinegret (винегрет), or vinaigrette salad is comprised of a medley of cooked carrots, potatoes and beets, which get perked up by a pickle, sharp onion and a drizzle of good ol' oil and lemon or vinegar.
Some like to add zesty pickled sauerkraut or dill pickles, like my grandmother Berta's does. By any manner of Russian vegetable pickles will do!
What is special about this Russian salad recipe in my house is definitely that it's a pickled cabbage vinaigrette salad. My grandparents' signature Vinaigrette salad recipe became a favorite of mine when I was a student, and needed an easy, portable meal to take on the road (thanks for the recipe, grandma!).
Why I swear by this Russian beet salad
This affordable Russian salad is:
- great when made ahead,
- portable
- doesn't require refrigeration for a few hours
- once the cooked vegetables soak up all the dressing, it doesn't leak
- Low in fat and chock-full of nutrition and vitamins
- a perfectly filling meal
- sweet and tangy
Russian vinaigrette salad history
Vinaigrette salad is a traditional Russian salad made with beets, potatoes, and your choice of pickled cucumbers or pickled cabbage. While it's a staple in Russian cuisine, but it's just as native to Ukrainian cooking, where it's often made with kidney beans (it's common in other post-Soviet cultures as well).
Russian beet salad has a long and interesting history. It is believed to have originated in Russia during the 19th century and was traditionally made with boiled potatoes, carrots, onions, and pickles. As it gained popularity, other ingredients such as beets, eggs, diced apples, and olives were added.
Russian Vinegret salad dressing was generally a mixture of oil (usually sunflower or canola) and vinegar mixed with various herbs and spices. Over time, the dish evolved to include cooked meats such as chicken or turkey.
Today, Russian vinaigrette beet salad is still a popular dish in Russia and around the world due to its rich flavor and versatility. It is often served as an accompaniment to main dishes or as part of a larger meal.
My family eats this every week, but we especially like to serve it on Russian New Year's Eve as part of a larger meal.
Ingredients for vinaigrette Russian salad:
- Potatoes - you can use any potatoes you like. I tend to go for Yukon gold or red potatoes, which keep their shape well even after cooking and don't become too mealy even if you overcook the potatoes.
- Beets - I like to boil the potatoes, beets and carrots all together. If you are short on time, you can use pre-cooked or even canned beets.
- Carrots - any carrots work here, except miniature peeled carrots.
- Onion - a regular yellow onion is best
- Pickled cabbage (sauerkraut) - I like to use homemade pickled cabbage for my vinaigrette salad. My grandmother also makes it with dill pickles.
- Lemon juice - some people use vinegar instead of lemon, but I find that it's not necessary when using sauerkraut.
- Oil - traditional Russian vinegret salad is made with sunflower oil, but you can use vegetable oil or Canola oil instead.
- Salt and pepper - to taste.
Equipment
How to make this vinaigrette salad recipe with sauerkraut
Prep and boil the vegetables
Wash and the typical Russian vegetables that this salad uses: clean beets, carrots and potatoes. At this point, you can either peel them, or proceed as my family does and cook without peeling.
Prick each vegetable a few times with a fork. Place all unpeeled vegetables in large pot, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil potatoes and carrots and beets, and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes more, until they are easily pierced with a knife. Let vegetables cool to room temperature.
When cooked vegetables are cool enough to handle, do your best to peel them (potatoes will peel easily, beets a little less so, and carrots will likely be the hardest to peel), but don't worry if some skin remains. This is where the nutrients are!
Alternatively, you can also peel the vegetables before cooking them.
Dice vegetables
Chop all the boiled vegetables into ½-1-inch cubes, and mix them in a large mixing bowl.
Finely chop onion, and add to bowl with cooked vegetables.
If using sauerkraut, add to bowl as is. If using pickles, chop finely and add to the rest of the vegetables. Mix well.
Make vinaigrette salad dressing
Stir together vegetable oil, lemon juice and salt for this vinaigrette russian salad dressing.
Season vinegret salad and let rest
Season salad with dressing, mixing until all the veggies are well combined.
Let rest in refrigerator for 1.5 to 2 hours, or overnight. Taste, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Serve this vinaigrette salad recipe topped with parsley.
Variations
- As a time saving hack, use canned beets when making this salad! I also like to buy vacuum-sealed pre-cooked beets, which my kids love.
- You can use roasted beet in the salad for a deeper, earthier flavor. You will need to wrap the beets in foil and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can see my method for roasting beets in this roasted beet salad.
- For Ukrainian vinaigrette salad, a former boyfriend's dad used to make this vinaigrette salad recipe with kidney beans.
- Try cooking the vegetables in the Instant Pot. You can cook the beets in the Instant Pot, boil potatoes in the Instant Pot, and cook the carrots in the Instant Pot, as well.
- You can also add canned peas, eggs, diced apples, and olives, or even cooked chicken or turkey meat for other variations.
- You can season the vinegret salad with mayonnaise instead of my vinegret salad dressing.
Serving Suggestions
This Russian vinaigrette salad recipe is a great winter or fall dish.
It's my favorite salad to make when winter is at its worst, and I feel like I can't possibly eat another roasted sweet potato. Potatoes, beets and carrots may not seem too inspiring, but trust me - with the treatment of a simple tangy dressing and the bite of pickled vegetables, once you make this salad it becomes a serious contender for a signature winter dish.
My family also serves it on December 31 with the following Russian New Year's recipes:
- Russian mulled wine (Glintvein), or the perfect drink for the festive season
- How to bake Modern gluten-free medovik, a Fig And Honey Russian Layer Cake Decorated with Pomegranate Arils
- Authentic Russian vegetarian vareniki, three ways {VEG}
- Vegetarian Russian Olivier salad
- Sheet-Pan Paprika Chicken and Veggies
Other beet recipes:
- Marinated beet salad with dill
- Roasted beet and plum salad, or making the most out of what you've got {V}
- Roasted beet, apple and goat cheese salad with walnuts & the Friday link round-up {GF}
- Beatrice's Icelandic pickled beets
- Sweet potato and beet salad with watercress, miso-maple dressing and salad topper lite {GF}
- Pickled beet and cucumber salad with a horseradish-yogurt sauce, or letting illness take over {GF}
- Make the most beautiful beetroot Middle Eastern cardamom rose latte
- How to Make Homemade Gefilte Fish Recipe with Beet Chrein for Passover
FAQ
You can use mayonnaise instead of the healthy dressing in this recipe for a more creamy take on vinaigrette salad.
Yes! Vegetable skins contain loads of nutrients, and it's actually a great idea to leave the beets and potatoes unpeeled, or peel them after cooking.
You can use vegetable oil, Canola oil, grapeseed oil in this recipe. You can even use olive oil, but I don't love its dominant flavor.
I recommend using sauerkraut, but if you prefer pickled cucumbers, use low-salt Russian cucumbers or homemade dill pickles for best results.
You can use canned potatoes and even canned beets to speed up the process.
This Russian beet salad is naturally gluten free.
This vinegret salad is naturally vegan.
Recipe
Tried and loved this recipe? Please leave a 5-star review below! Your reviews mean a lot to me, so if you've got any questions, please let me know in a comment.
Russian vinaigrette salad (vinegret salad)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium-sized potatoes
- 3-4 beets
- 3 carrots
- 1 onion
- 1 cup of pickled sauerkraut or 3-4 dill pickles
- the juice of one lemon
- 3-4 TB Sunflower or olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash and clean beets, carrots and potatoes. You can peel all the vegetables in advance, or proceed with the vegetables unpeeled to preserve nutrients.
- Prick each vegetable a few times with a fork. Place all vegetables in large pot, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and continue cooking for 20-30 mins, until they are easily pierced with a fork. Let vegetables cool to room temperature.
- When cooked vegetables are cool enough to handle, do your best to peel them (potatoes will peel easily, beets a little less so, and carrots will likely be the hardest to peel), but don't worry if some skin remains. Chop them finely, into ½"-1" cubes, and mix them in a large bowl.
- Finely chop onion, and add to bowl with cooked vegetables.
- If using sauerkraut, add to bowl as is. If using pickles, chop finely and add to the rest of the vegetables. Mix well.
- Stir together vegetable oil, lemon juice and salt. Season salad with dressing, mixing to ensure all vegetables coat well.
- Let rest in refrigerator for 1.5 to 2 hours. Taste, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Mom says
Vinaigrette - the regular breakfast your's dad also, my baby)))
kseniaprints says
I ate it for breakfast today.
Lyn says
How many people does this serve as side dish??? Thanks
kseniaprints says
I would say, from our experience, at least six. If you double it you'll be more than safe.
Lyn says
If I were to make this salad 2 days in advance, would it ruin salad?
kseniaprints says
Not at all, would only make it better! We eat vinaigrette for a week 🙂
Lyn says
Yippee!!!
Kris says
I LOVED the sweet and tangy flavors of this salad! We used a turmeric sauerkraut and topped it off with hard-boiled eggs. Another winner in my books!
Glenda says
This hearty salad has rocked my salad world! Love! Love! Love! I used red potatoes and sauerkraut. The flavor is such a great melding of earthy and acidic. We'll be making this one again. Thank you!
Amanda Dixon says
I just love beets, so I was really excited to try this salad, and I'm so glad I did. The sauerkraut gave it a nice tang, and that color is just stunning. Will definitely make this again!
Bella B says
Thanks for this, we really enjoyed it. I had some leftover Love Beets from Costco and made this with them. Can't wait to have some fresh beets from the garden to try this again.
Jamie says
I made this salad for a brunch get together and everyone loved the color and flavor! I used dill pickles which added a nice crunch and flavor. I can't wait to try this again with sauerkraut next. Thank you!
G. Sue says
This was unlike any other salad I've ever eaten. We served it alongside baked chicken breasts and it was scrumptious! The lemon and sauerkraut make it so bright. An excellent complement to any main dish!
Healing Tomato says
Oh my! Just the colors alone were enough to entice me to make this Russian salad. My favorite part of this salad had to be the beets! They were beyond delicious.
Shilpa says
I roasted the beets as you suggested and used sauerkraut to make this salad and it was so so delicious. I absolutely loved it and this vinaigrette salad will be a regular in my kitchen.
Rachna says
This is such a unique salad. I loved the use of pickles for the tang. Beets and potatoes is a surprisingly good salad combination. Absolutely loved it.
Kris says
The pickled sauerkraut was amazing in this!!! The balance of tangy and sweet was just perfect. We already plan on making this again tomorrow. 🙂
EVGENII NATOCHII says
Two comments.
1. Mayonnaise is not used in authentic Russian vinaigrette.
2. You can replace sauerkraut with pieces of lightly salted herring. This is delicious!
I really liked the description of the recipe, I wanted to run right now and make the vinaigrette)))))
kseniaprints says
I agree, I would never put mayo in Vinegret, but some people think we all do that! And what a wonderful idea with the herring (seledka) - now I need to go buy some to try it!!!