Ensaladilla Rusa (Russian Salad) Recipe

Ensaladilla Rusa is a wonderfully indulgent Spanish dish - indulgent because of the wonderfully rich alioli used to make it. It’s also available absolutely everywhere you go in Spain, including prepared in supermarkets.

You can substitute crabmeat for the fresh prawns, fresh or tinned.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish

Ingredients

  • 6 large waxy potatoes, unpeeled
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 large carrots, unpeeled
  • 2 red capsicums, roasted, peeled and seeds removed
  • 200g cooked baby peas
  • 300g alioli (see separate Recipe)
  • 500g cooked prawns, peeled and deveined, heads removed

Method

  1. Place the potatoes, eggs and carrots in a large saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil.
  2. Remove the eggs after they have boiled for 3 minutes.
  3. Cook the potatoes and carrots until tender, about 35-40 minutes.
  4. Once cool, peel the potatoes and carrots and shell the eggs.
  5. Dice the potato, carrot and eggs into small cubes, place in a bowl and season with salt.
  6. Slice the roasted red capsicum into 1cm strips. Reserve 5-6 strips for decoration, and dice the remaining strips.
  7. Cut the prawns into small bite sized pieces, about 2cm.
  8. Add the peas, capsicum and alioli (leave a little in reserve to decorate) to the potato, carrot and eggs, mixing gently. The idea is for each ingredient to remain intact, coated with the alioli.
  9. Gently mix in the red capsicum and prawns.
  10. Place in a serving bowl, smooth over the top with the back of a spoon and add a layer of alioli on top. Decorate with the capsicum strips.