Recipe: Russian Salad (using beets, 1960's)

RUSSIAN SALAD

Serve with sardines, hard-boiled eggs, cold beef or veal.

1 cup cooked carrot strips
1 cup diced cooked green beans
1/2 cup cooked cauliflower
1 cup diced cooked beets
few leaves of lettuce
1/3 cup salad oil
2 tbsp cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp sugar
1 small dill pickle
mayonnaise, to taste

Freshly cooked vegetables, a bit on the crunchy side, are best for this salad. Clean and cut each vegetable and cook them individually in a saucepan, one after the other as follows; pour rapidly boiling water on top and boil hard, uncovered the carrots for 3 minutes, the green beans for 4, the cauliflower for 5, and the beets for 10.

When a good supply of boiling water is kept on hand, this is very fas work and the color of each vegetable is intact.

As soon as one vegetable is cooked, pour into a colander and rinse under cold running water until cooled. Cook the beets last and let them cool naturally.

Spread the cooled, cooked vegetables on absorbant paper until you're ready to use them.

Garnish a platter with a few lettuce leaves. In a bottle, blend the salad oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt, ground black pepper, paprika and sugar. Toss each vegetable separately with a few teaspoons of salad oil mixture, then arrange them in separate groups on to of the lettuce.

Use long, thin slices of dill pickle to mark the division between each vegetable and put a little bowl of mayonnaise in the middle.

Serves 4 or 5.
Source: Canadian Magazine in the Saturday Ottawa
Citizen newspaper, Aug 3, 1968.