Olivier Salad is a traditional Russian potato salad with potatoes, hard boiled eggs, pickles and peas. It can be served as a main meal or a delicious side dish.
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What Is Olivier Salad?
Olivier salad or Olyvie salad (ะกะฐะปะฐั ะะปะธะฒัะต) along with vinegret appeared on every New Year’s Eve table in post-Soviet countries. And you should know that this holiday was far bigger than Christmas, when I was growing up.
You probably have never heard of this salad. When I try to describe it to my new friends, I call it “a glorified” North American potato salad. It is super creamy, has lots of textures and super addicting flavor combination.
Olivieh salad’s main ingredients are boiled potatoes and eggs, with a generous addition of diced meat, pickles, fresh or canned peas, and cooked carrots.
As for spices and dressing, it’s very-very simple like majority of Slavic recipes are. However, I am making it much healthier than the classic version!
The History Behind It
There is a lot of debate and confusion about Olivier potato salad. Truth is that this traditional salad was invented in Moscow, Russia back in 1860s by a chef Lucien Olivier of Belgian origin. It was served in Hermitage, a very prestigious restaurant, and its recipe remained in secret.
Come 20th century, another chef, Ivanov, watched Olivier make the salad and tried to serve its copycat version named Stolichny at another restaurant.
Afterwards, salad made into a mainstream media, cookbooks and was adapted by all Soviet union republics later in the century. It also made its way into other Eastern European countries and even Latin America.
I do know that original recipe used different ingredients and not what we use today. But our different version is super delicious!
Why You Should Try This Salad
If you love traditional American potato salad, you should try salad Olivieh. It doesn’t skimp on creaminess and flavor.
It is also very filling, so often we make it as a main dish.
This Russian salad olivier is also great to use up any cooked leftover meat like chicken, beef, lamb or duck.
Not to mention this is great make ahead salad. You can chop and prep all ingredients unmixed in a bowl covered with plastic. Then mix a few hours before serving and nothing will get soggy.
I truly love this Russian salad (Olivier) and make it rather for a quick dinner and lunches.
I think the combo of meat, potatoes, boiled eggs and pickles in a creamy dressing is absolutely divine! My mouth is watering as I write this.
Ingredients You Will Need
This is such a simple delicious salad. You need nothing fancy!
- Sausage or ham
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Eggs
- Dill pickles
- Frozen sweet peas
- Yogurt
- Mayo
- Salt and black pepper
How to Make Russian Olivier Salad
Making Russian potato salad consists of cooking the vegetables and eggs, cooling them, chopping everything and mixing together.
Here is a quick overview:
Boil potatoes, carrots and eggs: Add everything to a large pot, cover with cold water and cook for 10 minutes. Remove eggs into an ice bath and continue cooking veggies for another 10 minutes.
You sure can cook eggs separately, make hard boiled eggs in Instant Pot or hard boiled eggs in air fryer, but cooking everything together saves a step and another dirty pot to wash.
Then cool veggies, and peel. They should peel easily now. Also cut off any blemishes at same time.
Dice all ingredients: Dice potatoes, carrots, eggs, meat and pickles into small cubes. Add them to a large bowl.
Place frozen green peas in a bowl with hot water for 1 minute, drain and add to the salad.
At home, we traditionally used canned peas due to lack of fresh or frozen ones. The taste isn’t as great, in my opinion. I much prefer fresh!
Dress the salad: No need to make dressing separately. We never did. Add yogurt, mayo, salt and pepper right into the salad bowl and stir well.
Tips to Make Russian Potato Salad
This unique salad is very easy to make, don’t be intimidated. Here are a few tipes I learnt from grandma:
- Add enough water to the pot: Make sure it covers the veggies completely. Any sticking out in the air part won’t get cooked!
- Cook vegetables the day before: If you have time, cook veggies a few hours or a day in advance so they have time to cool down. This is a bit of a make ahead salad.
- Cool them outside: If it’s cold, place the pot uncovered outside and veggies will cool down quicker.
- Use dill pickles: In Russia, there are only dill pickles. So, avoid sweet pickles.
- Make ahead: This salad actually tastes better the next day!
- Use vegetable slicer: To chop potatoes, carrots and eggs into uniform size pieces.
Variations
- Grandma also added a bit of minced onion but I do not like that. You do you!
- Some people like to add 1/3 cup of diced fresh apple.
- Add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs like fresh dill or green onions.
- Use any kind of meat on hand. I have used leftover cooked chicken breast, turkey breast, ham, bologna, garlic sausage and even leftover beef roast like sirloin tip roast. Anything goes!
- Add cucumber for a crunch. Seed it first, and it’s best in a salad you plan on consuming within 24 hours.
- Use half mayo and half sour cream. Or use only creamy mayonnaise which would make it a very classic Russian potato salad.
When and How to Serve?
You can serve Olyvie anytime you would serve a North American potato salad recipe.
Serve cold and not room temperature. Just like with its close relative, it tastes best chilled. So, if you have time I highly recommend to refrigerate it for an hour or so.
During Soviet era this salad was served on special occasions like New Year’s Eve, birthday parties, funerals (yes!) and any potlucks and outdoor get-togethers.
For a Slavic feast, serve with shashlik.
How to Store Salad Olivier
Make sure to store salad in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out and your fridge smelling like eggs. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or lid and refrigerate.
Olivier salad last for 3 days but even 5 days can be stretched. It will not go bad, just won’t be the freshest.
I do not recommend you freeze this creamy potato salad. Cooked potatoes change texture once thawed, and creamy dressing too.
Other Salad Recipes to Try
I hope you enjoy this Olivier salad recipe!
Olivier Salad (Russian Potato Salad)
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb sausage or ham
- 5 medium potatoes
- 3 large carrots
- 4 large eggs
- 3 dill pickles
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 3/4 cup yogurt
- 1/4 cup mayo
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, add potatoes, carrots and eggs. Add cold water until all are completely covered (important). Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low-medium and cook for about 10 minutes with lid open to the side.
- Remove eggs with a spoon into an ice bath and continue cooking the vegetables for another 10-15 minutes or until fork tender. Then drain and leave carrots and potatoes in a pot to cool off completely. Then peel with a paring knife.
- Cube sausage, potatoes, carrots, eggs, and pickles. Place frozen peas in a bowl with hot water for 1 minute, drain and add to the salad.
- Add yogurt, mayo, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and adjust seasonings to taste, if needed.
- Serve right away or like a potato salad refrigerate for about an hour.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 3 days. Do not freeze.
- Make ahead: Refrigerate salad assembled but not stirred for up to 48 hours. Stir a few hours before serving.
- Add enough water to the pot: Make sure it covers the veggies completely. Any sticking out in the air part won’t get cooked!
- Cook vegetables the day before: If you have time, cook veggies a few hours or a day in advance so they have time to cool down.
- Cool them outside: If it’s cold, place the pot uncovered outside and veggies will cool down quicker.
- Use any cooked meat on hand: I have used leftover cooked chicken and turkey, ham, bologna, garlic sausage and even a beef roast. Anything goes!
- Add cucumber for a crunch: Seed it first, and it’s best in a salad you plan on consuming within 24 hours.
I used chicken instead of sausage and added dill ๐ thank you for the delicious recipe. My fussy family love!
Delicious! Iโm so happy your family loved the recipe. Thanks for sharing that with me!
This may be my new go-to potato salad! For the meat, I added a ham steak that I sautรฉed lightly then cut into cubes. I added a half-teaspoon of mustard, but honestly, I doubt that it needed it. I like the fact that you use a mix of yogurt and mayo — I couldn’t’ tell the difference. Olena definitely has a good feel for flavors. This is the second recipe I made on the site and both were winners!
Thanks for the review Kerrin! So glad you enjoyed it!
FANTASTIC!
I don’t eat pork so substituted honey roasted turkey for the meat. I use 2 pounds of the small red potatoes, cut in half or quarters, and simmer them and the carrots for only 10 minutes or so, then quickly drain and stick them if the freezer to flash cool. This way, they don’t break apart or get mushy ( I also leave the skins on, washing well and cutting off bad spots.)
I use already boiled eggs because I always seem to have difficulty peeling them when they are being shared with others; when for my own eating they slip out of their shells ๐
I also add 1 cup seeded and diced of the small cucumbers.
This is a BIG hit at my church potluck, with is about half Ukranian, Russian, Belarusian, etc.
So glad it was a hit with those you shared it with!
No leftovers, this was popular.
Loved the cooking method, so easy. I used new potatoes so didn’t bother peeling. I don’t know why I’ve never made this before as i ate a lot of it growing up, although I always picked out the sausage ๐ My version was meatless this time but I like the idea of chicken or turkey
So glad you enjoyed it!
Love it
Yeah!
What kind of potatoes do you use?
I used red because they hold up better in potato Salad than russets. However, their skins are so thin, it took me 4 times as long to peel after cooking than it would have using a vegetable peeler before they were boiled.
That’s the only thing I would change.
My church has a large immigrant Slavic percentage and they gobbled up this salad! A definite keeper! THANK YOU!!!
Hi Rosalie. Iโm so happy my Olivier salad has passed the test. Yay! I used russet potatoes however you can use any. Boiled potatoes are generally harder to peel than raw so itโs normal. Also it depends on potatoes themselves, sometimes they peel easy and sometimes not. Same with carrots. Try to grab a wider chunk of skin and pull slowly.
Question. In your instructions you say peel with a paring knife but the ingredients that we put in the water to begin with were cubed potatoes and carrots. Are you peeling the cubes?
You cook potatoes and carrots whole, then peel and cube. I will make that more clear.:)
How many servings is it? Recipes not complete
It says 8 servings in info above the ingredients.
Itโs nice when you make a comment with kind words.
Sour cream a good substitute for yogurt?
Yes, sure! Or you can just use more mayo. Originally in Ukraine entire Olivier salad is dressed with only mayo. Hope you enjoy this recipe!