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A bowl of Guatemalan russian salad on the table with fresh vegetables around it.
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5 from 25 votes

Russian Salad (Guatemalan Style)

This chilled Ensalada Rusa or Russian Salad recipe is a super popular side dish for any occasion! It’s an easy chopped vegetable salad made with tender potatoes, carrots, peas and green beans with crisp veggies bathed in a creamy, tangy dressing with herbs and mustard.  
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Salad
Cuisine: Guatemalan
Diet: Vegetarian
Servings: 4
Calories: 175kcal
Cost: $10

Ingredients

Salad

  • 1 cup diced carrots fresh
  • 1 cup diced green beans fresh
  • 1 cup diced potatoes a waxy potato such as Yukon or red potato
  • 1 cup peas frozen is fine
  • 1 stalk celery finely chopped
  • ¼ cup finely-chopped white onion
  • ½ red pepper diced
  • ½ green pepper diced

Dressing

  • ½ cup light good quality mayonnaise I used Hellmans
  • ½ teaspoon minced garlic mild
  • 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Garnish

  • ½ cup fresh parsley chopped

Instructions

  • The carrots and potatoes should be peeled before dicing and green beans trimmed. The diced pieces should be uniform.
  • Boil the first four vegetables separately refreshing the water with each batch. The vegetables should be firm but not mushy. Drain and immerse each batch of vegetables in ice water bath to stop cooking process. Drain again.
  • Allow cooked vegetables to cool and dry completely by spreading them on a paper towel on a large cookie sheet.
  • Chop celery, red and green peppers and onion.
  • Mix salad dressing ingredients of mayonnaise, garlic, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper) to make an aioli in a large bowl.
  • Add cooked and raw vegetables to the aioli in the large bowl and mix gently. Adjust seasoning. If it looks too dry, add some cold cream, milk or water by Tablespoon until creamy consistency is reached.
  • Allow to cool for one hour for flavours to merge.
  • Garnish with parsley and serve.

Notes

  • Don't use frozen vegetables. While it might be tempting to use frozen mixed vegetables, don’t do it. You get much better flavour and especially texture if you use fresh vegetables.
  • Boil each of the vegetables separately. Potatoes, carrots, peas and green beans take variable times to cook. If you cook them together in one pot some will become mushy. It’s worth the extra investment in time to cook them separately.
  • Feel free to make adjustments. After it's mixed you can always add more mayonnaise or a bit of cream or milk if you feel like it's too thick. Also, check out some of the variations mentioned above you may want to try.
  • Chop the vegetables in uniform-sized pieces. This makes it much easier to eat and it looks better.
Note: Nutritional information is not guaranteed to be accurate. It’s created by online calculators so figures are only estimates.

Nutrition

Calories: 175kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 572mg | Potassium: 622mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 7037IU | Vitamin C: 72mg | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 2mg