Rosolje, the Estonian "pink" salad

Whether you do it as an amateur like me or more "professionally" for guests, Rosolje salad will easily find its way on your table for a colourful first dish!

This typical Estonian dish was very popular during the first half of the 19th century but the less elaborated Russian salad slowly took the advantage because it was much easier to prepare.

It is basically a pinkish salad because it is essentially made of beet. It does not need much cooking - except for the potatoes- but a lot of cutting! The big plus of this salad is that you can adjust the quantities of the ingredients according to your taste and the availability of the products.

For 6 persons, 45 minutes to 1 hours should be enough:

- 700g of boiled red beets
- 400g of boiled potatoes
- 200g of boiled carrots
- 2 ou 3 fillets herring
- 2 big pickled cucumber (if possible salted cucumber)
- 2 acid apples (optional)
- 200g of meat (roast, ham...)
- 3 hard eggs
- 5 dl of sour cream
- salt, a bit of sugar
- 1/2 soup spoon of mustard, a bit of horseradish if you prefer

Then it's very easy!
1- Cut all the ingredients in small cubes except the eggs
2- Mix sour cream, mustard (and horseradish), salt and sugar for the sauce.
3- Mix everything gently together and put in the fridge for about an hour.
4- Decorate with the whites of the eggs and crumbe the yellow part

Et voilà! that's it, Head Isu (bon appétit in Estonian)!