My Russian mimosa salad recipe makes a layered salad from the Soviet Union or USSR that was typically served for festive spring holidays such as Easter. The original Soviet-era salad was layered in a glass bowl or served as a kitschy salad cake. I prefer to present fun DIY salads in individual glasses with bowls, spoons and condiments.
My Russian mimosa salad recipe is presented a little differently to the layered salad recipe you might recall your parents or grandparents serving in a big glass bowl – almost like a savoury trifle – or as a kitschy salad cake in the 1970s.
Like Russia’s beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev, the mimosa salad was another Russian dish that travelled the world at a time when most Russians couldn’t leave the Soviet Union, became tremendously popular outside the USSR, especially in the Seventies, and has since been revived as retro-cool classics.
Although perhaps the Russian mimosa salad is not as well-known as beef stroganoff and chicken Kiev and it’s just my wishful thinking that this kitschy layered Soviet-era tuna and egg salad is long overdue for a revival, particularly in the form that I prefer to present it in, rather than as a cake or trifle.
This mimosa salad recipe calls for a can of tuna. If you’re a fan of canned fish (I adore the stuff), then try our recipes for a sardine salad with capers, celery, cos lettuce, and a mustard dressing, sardine pasta with capers and gremolata, tuna pasta with scallions and capers and fresh herbs, and Terence’s ultimate tuna melt.
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Russian Mimosa Salad Recipe for the Soviet Union’s Festive Layered Spring Salad
Is it time for the Russian mimosa salad recipe to be revived? They say that fashion goes around in cycles of fifteen years or so. While I’ve seen countless trends come in and out of fashion, I’m not so sure of the precise number of years it takes for a trend to repeat itself. For instance, the last time I wore high-wasted wide-legged jeans was the 1990s. I definitely will not be wearing those again.
Food goes in and out of fashion, too, and those daggy dishes our parents made in the 1970s have been having a resurgence for a while now. Unlike clothes, which seem to hit us in a whole wave and all of a sudden everyone is wearing my mum’s Seventies gear, which I wore in the late Eighties, individual dishes seem to make appearances every now and again.
While I’ve been spotting recipes in food magazines for a number of favourites from the Seventies, such as chicken Kiev and beef Stroganoff, one dish I have not seen pop up yet is the Russian mimosa salad recipe, so I’ve taken it upon myself to reignite your passion for this popular layered Soviet-era salad.
I know you’re not going to make my mimosa salad recipe if it looks like a trifle, and you’re definitely not going to touch it if it’s in the shape of a cake. But I think you’ll like this presentation in a glass, especially if you’re entertaining, as you can make a big batch of them.
My recipe below makes four glasses of Russian mimosa salad, so you’ll have to halve or double or triple the amounts depending on how many you’re feeding. This is a fun dish if you’re entertaining, especially for a casual weekend lunch.
While you could certainly serve this Russian mimosa salad recipe in a big glass with a spoon, I like to provide wooden bowls and an array of condiments and encourage guests to upend the glass of salad into the bowl and add condiments and adjust the seasoning to their liking.
Russian Mimosa Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized potatoes - boiled, finely diced
- 4 eggs - hard-boiled, 10 minutes
- 1 tin tuna
- 4 spring onions/scallions - finely sliced
- 2 shallots - purple, finely diced
- 2 large gherkins - finely diced
- 1 large carrot - grated
- 150 g mature cheddar cheese - grated
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
Garnish
- Fresh dill
Instructions
- While the potatoes and eggs are boiling, finely slice the green spring onions or scallions, finely dice the purple shallots and gherkins, and grate the carrot and cheese.
- When the potatoes and eggs are boiled, cool in cold water, pat dry, peel, and finely dice. With the boiled eggs, you’ll need to separate the egg white from the yolk and dice separately.
- Divide the ingredients into four, then, using teaspoons and beginning with the tuna, carefully add each ingredient to each of four glasses, taking care not to smudge the interiors of the glasses, and patting each layer down evenly.
- To each glass add the tuna, then green onions/scallions, egg whites, a tablespoon of mayonnaise, cheese, purple shallots, grated carrot, gherkins, egg yolks, and fresh dill.
- Serve with bowls and spoons, and condiments such as mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, pepper, perhaps paprika or chilli flakes, maybe a small dish of capers, and more fresh dill. Suggest that your guests upend their glass of salad into the bowls, combine, and add additional condiments if they like.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make this Russian mimosa salad recipe as we’d love to know how it turned out for you. You can share your experience and tips or ask questions in the comments below, by email or on social media.
