Wurstsalat is a traditional salad from Germany (especially southern parts), Switzerland, Austria, and Alsace in France made with strips of sausage. It's a popular dish often consumed as a light meal in beer gardens or traditional inns, especially during the warm summer months.
The main ingredient in wurstsalat is thinly sliced sausage. The most commonly used type is Lyoner, fleischwurst, or stadtwurst, although the Swiss variant often uses cervelat. These are all types of cooked sausage that are similar to bologna or frankfurter.
VARIATIONS OF Wurstsalat
Bayerischer Wurstsalat is a traditional salad originating from Bavaria. It's made with Regensburger knockwurst sausage, diced onions, olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and paprika. The wurst is peeled and sliced thinly, then tossed with the onions, olive oil, vinegar, and seasonings.
Before serving, it's chilled, then dusted with paprika on top. The salad is sometimes also served as an appetizer, and it's recommended to serve it with beets, pickles, bread rolls, and butter.
Szałot is a traditional salad in Silesian cuisine that is made with diced boiled potatoes, carrots, pickled cucumbers, peas, hard-boiled eggs, and either bacon, sausages, or brined herring. It is dressed with mayonnaise and seasoned with salt and pepper, with mustard being added as a flavor enhancer.
Szałot is very popular in Poland, especially in the historical region of its origin, Silesia. It is usually served cold or at room temperature with a few slices of bread on the side.
Sałatka z burakow is a traditional beet salad made with a combination of beets, onions, olive oil, lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper. The grated beetroot is shortly sautéed with the other ingredients, and the salad is then immediately served, but it can also be reheated and served later.
There are a few variations on this salad – some people like to add currants, red wine vinegar, and parsley in order to elevate the flavors and textures even further.
Sałatka z boczkiem is a universal term which refers to many types of Polish salads prepared with crispy fried bacon. They are usually made with lettuce, baby spinach, or rocket, while the bacon is either fried separately and used as a topping or blended in a unique bacon vinaigrette.
Since there is no specific recipe, the salads can incorporate various additional ingredients such as various vegetables and fresh or aged cheeses. Usually enjoyed as a side dish, these refreshing and filling salads can also make an excellent light main course.
Huzarensalade is a Dutch take on the Olivier salad. What belongs in this salad and what doesn't is a controversial issue, but it's usually prepared with a combination of potatoes, tart apples, gherkins, gherkin juice, carrots, shallots, ham or cooked veal or beef, mayonnaise, peas, and seasonings.
The vegetables are cooked and combined with the rest of the ingredients, and the salad is then typically chilled before it's garnished and served. It is named after the salad the Hussars (Hungarian cavalry) used to prepare. They usually went behind enemy lines and weren't noticed by the enemy, so they used pre-cooked food and mixed it on the spot in order to make this salad.
Sałatka z kukurydzy is a traditional salad originating from Poland. Although it has many variations, the salad is often made with a combination of corn, flour, butter, sour cream, parsley, and dill. The corn is trimmed away from the cob and boiled until soft.
Alternatively, canned corn can also be used. The corn is fried in butter in a skillet over low heat for a few minutes. A mixture of sour cream and flour is added to the skillet and the dish is fried until it starts to boil. The salad is then removed from the heat and garnished with dill and parsley before serving.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Pickled or salted herring fillets are doused in a sweet and sour sauce of cream, yogurt, pickling liquid, and fresh herbs along with apples, pickles, and onions in this German specialty called sahnehering. Typical varieties of herring fillets used in this specialty include bismarck herring, matjes herring, or Baltic herring, and the dish is often finished with freshly chopped chives on top before serving.
The refreshing combination is usually enjoyed chilled with boiled jacket potatoes and a cucumber salad on the side, but it can also be spread on a slice of buttered brown bread. Sahnehering is usually consumed as a side or snack, and it is a traditional fasting dish that's mainly prepared in northern Germany and the Rhineland.
A combination of grated beetroot and horseradish is an irreplaceable part of every festive meal in Poland. This popular side dish is occasionally enriched with the addition of apples, caraway seeds, wine, and various seasonings. It is recommended to pair it with hearty roasts or traditional Polish sausages.
Apart from Poland, a similar dish can be found in Ukraine, where it is better known under the name tsvikli.
Treska is a traditional salad made with a combination of cod, mayonnaise, onions, carrots, vinegar, mustard, and seasonings. The cod is cooked in a mixture of vinegar, water, and bay leaves. It's then flaked and combined with cooked carrots and all the remaining ingredients.
The salad is left to chill in the refrigerator, ideally for at least 24 hours before serving. It's usually eaten with long Slovak bread rolls known as rožky on the side. The recipe for the commercial version of treska was created in 1954 by Július Boško, a chef from Nové Mesto nad Váhom.
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