Ensalada Rusa is Dominican's favorite salad. It is usually served on special occasions and is a traditional component of the Christmas dinner. Depending on taste and on the ocassion different versions of this salad may be served. Two common versions are the one that includes beets and another with apples. This last one is the one served for Christmas.

Time: 30 Mins
Difficulty: Eas
Serve: 6 people

Before starting to cook: No prior preparation is necessary.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of potatoes
• 1/2 lb or carrots
• 1/2 cup of sweet corn
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of peas
• 1 apple diced into small cubes (optional)
• 1 medium beet (optional)
• 1 medium red onion
• 3 eggs
• Salt

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes, carrots and eggs. Boil the beet in a different pot (do not use beet if you are going to use apple). Peel and dice into small cubes.
2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Adjust salt to taste. Serve chilled.

I've never had potato salad with corn in it, but I'm willing to try it. Not a big fan of the peas either. I love it with pieces of red apple in it instead of the corn and the peas. I'm not sure if that's something Dominican or from the Puerto Rican side of the family, but I've made believers out of many who've said it sounded nasty.

Heh!

I guess you can omit the corn if it really grosses you out. We dominicans have a habit of putting corn where it doesn't belong (such as pizza). But you know what they say "to each their own".

I'm not dominican but I grew up with a dominican family. This salad is delicious...you will love it!!!!

My favorite take on this one that my Dominican "mom" makes for festive occaisions is a little different. Omit the canned peas and corn. Add boiled tayota and use some of the liquid from the beet to give the salad a bright pink color.

There are infinite variations on the basic theme that can be a very tasty. Just what is actually in the salad seems to be determined in many cases by what happens to be in the pantry. Corn and/or peas are common as the canned variety are fairly inexpensive and readily available. Other alternate ingredients that I've enjoyed in an ensalada rusa are auyama (squash), tayota (chayote), batata (sweet potato), and nabo (turnip). Depending upon ingredients, one can liven it up a bit seasoning to taste with black pepper, or cayenne pepper, or mustard powder though this is the norte americano in me coming out rather than anything Dominican.

I'm not norte americana but europea, and my gripe with Dominican potato salad is the lack of coarsely ground black pepper (mmmm) and finely chopped fresh parsley. Sometimes I also add a dash of Dijon mustard, the one with the whole mustard seeds.

For this salad my family in the DR we use

Filling:
Potatoes
Carrots
Hard Boiled Eggs
Red Onion
*Sometimes Peas and corn (depending on if out family from the northside were coming down)

Sauce:
Mayo
Olive Oil
Vinager
Salt to taste

This is my favorite salad and I guess I make it good here in Michigan because everytime I go to a party everyone tells me to brign this salad. And one of the dominican baseball players that lived with us this summer said that he smelt it and thought this smells like Dominicana and tasted it and said wow it is Dominicana. I guess my husband is right I am more Dominicana than Mexicana now.