Potato and carrot boiled in cubes, cooled, and folded into mayonnaise loosened with cream and sharpened with lime. Peas, onion and parsley through it, and it is served cold.
Ten minutes, not twenty
Everything about this salad depends on the potato holding its shape, and the recipe as written did not let it.
Small cubes need ten to twelve minutes in simmering water. The instruction said twenty, and twenty minutes takes cubes past soft and into collapse, so that when they meet the mayonnaise and the spoon they break down into a paste.
The reliable test is not the clock but the knife: it should go in with a little resistance still there. They will soften slightly more as they cool.
Cold and dry before the mayonnaise
Two failures, one cause, and both happen in the thirty seconds before the dressing goes on.
Warm potato splits mayonnaise. The oil separates out and what should be a creamy coat turns into something greasy and broken. Let the cubes come down to room temperature at least, and to fridge temperature if you have time.
And drain them properly. Water clinging to the cubes thins the dressing, and by the time the salad reaches the table there is a puddle at the bottom of the bowl and nothing on the potato.
The teaspoon of sugar
It looks like a mistake in a savoury salad and it is not.
Mayonnaise, cream and lime is a sharp, fatty combination with nothing in the middle. The sugar sits against the lime and gives the dressing a shape it does not otherwise have.
One teaspoon across a bowl for six. Nobody tastes it as sweetness; they taste its absence if you leave it out.
Why it is called Russian
The salad is Russian in origin, generally traced to Moscow in the 1860s, and it travelled across Europe and then across the Atlantic, picking up a different name in almost every country.
The Colombian version is built on potato, carrot and peas with a mayonnaise dressing loosened with crema de leche and lifted with lime. It turns up at Christmas, at birthdays and beside roast chicken, and it is always made in advance and served cold.
More salads
- Egg and potato salad — the simpler cousin.
- Tuna salad — another cold one.
- Cabbage salad — no mayonnaise.
- Puré de papa — the same potato, hot.
Ensalada Rusa FAQ
Ten to twelve minutes for small cubes, until a knife goes in with a little resistance still. The recipe used to say twenty, which turns the cubes to paste in a salad that depends on them holding.
Either the potatoes were overcooked or they went into the mayonnaise warm. Both break the cubes down, and once they have gone there is no getting them back.
Yes. Warm potato splits mayonnaise, and potato that has not drained thins the dressing into a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.
It sits against the lime and stops the mayonnaise reading as flat. One teaspoon across the whole bowl; you will not taste it as sweetness.
Lime. Colombian recipes say limón, which is the small green lime, not the yellow lemon. It is sharper and it is what the dressing is built around.
Yes, and it is better after a few hours in the fridge. Do not dress it more than a day ahead, though: the potato keeps absorbing and the dressing disappears.
Cooked chicken, tuna or apple all turn up in Colombian versions. Peas, carrot and potato are the base everyone agrees on.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup cream (crema de leche)
- ½ lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
For the base of the salad
- 2 cups carrot
- 7 potatoes
- 1 cup cooked green peas
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Notas
Instructions
- On a board, cut the carrots and potatoes into small cubes.
- Put a pot of water over medium heat and cook the carrot for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside.
- In another pot of water over medium heat, cook the potato cubes for 10 to 12 minutes, until a knife goes in with a little resistance still. Drain and set aside. Cubes boiled much longer fall apart and the salad turns to paste.
- In a salad bowl, put the potato and carrot cubes, well drained and cold.
- Add the onion and the green peas and stir well.
- For the dressing, mix the mayonnaise and the cream in a cup, squeeze in the lime juice, and add salt, pepper and the teaspoon of sugar.
- Stir the dressing and pour it over the salad.
- Add the parsley, stir again and taste before serving.
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