Olivier Salad Recipe (Russian Potato Salad)

This Olivier Salad (Russian Potato Salad) recipe is such a unique recipe. It’s a traditional dish in Russian cuisine and served in most restaurants and at parties. This salad is commonly known as the Russian Salad or Olivye in the Ukrainian community.

Other traditional Russian/Ukrainian recipes to try are the Borscht and Pelmeni (meat dumplings).

What is Olivier Salad?

Sharing the recipe for the traditional Russian Potato Salad also known as Olivier Salad (Olivye) and in our times referred to as Russian Salad.

Olivier Salad usually has peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, meat, pickles, and eggs all mixed with mayo. The meat used is either bologna, chicken or ham.

The potatoes, eggs and carrots are cooked by boiling with skin on in water, then peeled.

PERFECT CUBES: Use this SLICER to get the perfect sized even pieces, every time. You’re welcome.

When to serve Olivier Salad (Olivye)?

Olivier salad is popular around the traditional holidays of New Year’s, Christmas and Easter.

It is also a salad served at most parties and family get-togethers in the Russian/Ukraine communities. Those of us that live in the United States and are slowly adjusting to more Americanized food, don’t serve this salad as often as our parents did, but still considered a treat for parties.

This salad will keep well for days in the refrigerator. You can either mix everything and add the mayo at once or just add mayo to the salad fresh when serving.

Tips to make Russian Potato Salad

Cooking the vegetables.

Cook the potatoes and carrots together. Check readiness of the potatoes and carrots with a knife, it should pierce through the center easily. Cooking them the night before is a great idea, once cooked just refrigerate (skin on).

NOTE: The secret to the BEST olivye is allowing the cubed pickles to drain overnight in a sieve or squeezing out all the juices if in a hurry (just add the pickles to a few paper towels and squeeze). This way the juices from the pickles don’t overpower the flavors of the remaining ingredients and add sogginess to the salad.

What meat can I use?

You can use cooked chicken, ham or bologna for the recipe. If purchasing bologna in the deli department, ask for low-sodium bologna. It makes a huge difference. You can also ask them to cut the slices thicker so they are cubed evenly.

A twist on Olivye Salad:

I like to add new twists to traditional recipes. My biggest favorite addition I added to this salad is fresh cucumbers and using fresh peas instead of canned (fresh frozen peas, thawed). The crunchiness of the fresh cucumbers gives it so much flavor. The canned peas are so soggy and taste mushy, using fresh peas take the salad to a new level. You’ll never want to go back to canned peas again.

Our tradition with Olivier Salad:

So we have this tradition with Olivier Salad (Olivye salat) my mom started. If we serve Olivye, we must serve stuffed cabbage rolls as well (recipe HERE). This means, if we ever have Russian stuffed cabbage rolls, we always serve Olivye. It may sound silly to you, but it’s a tradition in our family and we are faithful, lol.

Other Traditional Russian Recipes to Try:

• Dill Pickle Soup– A unique soup with pickles as the main ingredients.
• Russian Bread– So easy to make with wonderful results.
• Potato Pierogi Recipe– Cheesy onion potato filled pierogi.