Salatka (Polish salad)

Salatka (pronounced sa-wat-ka) is a Polish salad but not like the green leaf salad that I was used to. In fact in London I made a green leaf side salad for a Polish person at work with large cuts of onion and tomato etc. but the fresh out of her country pole was at a loss as to how to eat this salad because the pieces were so large! A Polish salad has the ingredients cut small (see photo above) and has a quite different appearance from leaf salad but resembles a pasta salad with no pasta. Salatka is one of my favourite new foods but it will not replace a green salad for me, perhaps pasta salad.

There are many types of salatka with different ingredients but my favourite is this one:

Ingredients

• Potato (2 med)




• Eggs (4)




• Carrot (2)




• Parsnip root (2)




• Celery root (0.5)




• Apple (1)




• Gherkin (2 large, marinated)




• Mustard




• Mayonnaise (full fat tastes best)




• Salt/pepper
  

Recipe

1. Boil all veg until soft and hard boil eggs.

2. Peel veg and apple.

3. Dice veg and eggs as small as possible and place in dish.

4. Add mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix. There is no right amount of these. When a different person makes it they add different amounts and it comes out slightly different each time. Experiment and have fun with it.

Babcia uses Polish mayonnaise made by Winiary which is better than any I tasted in England.

There are many types of mustard in Polska kuchnie (Polish cuisine) and although babcja uses a type called sarepska (see photos).

Try this if you want (get them from Polski sklep or Polish shop), or use other mustards, mayos and vegetables in different ratios. There is no exact recipe - experiment.

Salatka is great on it's own or with kielbasa or on a kanapka. I have tried it with most things and it's great.