Name: Beet and Mushroom Vinaigrette Salad
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Ukrainian cuisine
Ingredients: 150 gm marinated or salted mushrooms; 1 onion, or 50-100 g green onion; 1 carrot; 1 small beet; 2 potatoes (2-3); 1 small pickled cucumber; 3 tas olive oil; 2 tas table vinegar or lemon juice (2-3 tbsp); salt, sugar, mustard, pepper to taste; dill and parsley

Here’s the one move that makes or breaks this salad: dress the diced beets with a little oil on their own, before they touch anything else. That thin film of oil keeps them from bleeding and staining the potatoes and carrots pink, so every cube holds its own color.

This is a meatless (Lenten) vinaigrette built around salted mushrooms — marinated button mushrooms or honey fungus standing in for the herring or beans you’d find in other versions. They carry the juicy, faintly sour note. Note that a Slavic vinaigrette is a diced beet-and-vegetable salad, nothing like a French oil-and-vinegar dressing. Cut everything to the same small dice so no single flavor dominates.

Swaps and tips. Lemon juice in place of vinegar is gentler and won’t bury the mushroom aroma. A pinch of mustard and sugar rounds out the acidity. Add the dill and parsley just before serving so they stay bright.

Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 288 more recipes in the section.