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Birch salad with prunes

"Birch Tree" Layered Salad with Prunes

A delicious layered salad decorated to look like a birch tree. A creatively styled salad always steals the show on a holiday table — it draws every eye and makes everyone eager to dig in. Plain old salads can feel boring, and hosts love to surprise their guests. Building this prune-and-chicken-breast salad into the shape of a birch trunk is a great way to start experimenting with edible decoration.

Anna

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Chicken breast

300

Button mushrooms

250

Prunes

200

Eggs

Cucumbers

Onion

Green onion

Parsley

Mayonnaise

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 38 % 9 g

Fats 21 % 5 g

Carbohydrates 42 % 10 g

115 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1:

How do you make the "Birch Tree" salad with prunes? Gather your ingredients. Use cooked chicken breast. Fresh mushrooms work best, but canned ones are fine too. Hard-boil the eggs and let them cool.
Step 2:

Soak the prunes in hot water to soften, then chop them finely. Rinse the mushrooms well and sauté them with the onion until done, setting aside two whole sautéed mushrooms for decoration. Finely chop the chicken breast. Wash the cucumbers and grate them on the coarse side of a box grater. Peel the eggs, separate the whites from the yolks, chop the whites, and keep the yolks whole for now (they'll top the salad).
Step 3:

Choose a suitable platter — any shape, deep or flat, whatever you like. I used a shallow rectangular plate. Spread the chopped prunes as the first layer and brush lightly with mayonnaise.
Step 4:

The second layer is the chopped chicken breast. Brush with a little mayonnaise.
Step 5:

On top of the chicken goes a layer of the sautéed mushrooms and onion. Brush with a little mayonnaise.
Step 6:

The fourth layer is the chopped egg whites mixed with mayonnaise.
Step 7:

Next, a layer of the grated fresh cucumber. Brush this one generously with mayonnaise.
Step 8:

Grate the egg yolks finely over the whole surface of the salad.
Step 9:

Now decorate. Pipe a tree trunk with mayonnaise — add a couple of thinner branches too, if you like. At the base of the trunk, make a little woodland scene with mushrooms: arrange parsley and dill leaves and the reserved sautéed mushroom halves.
Step 10:

Use bits of prune or black olive to make the dark birch-bark markings on the trunk, and scatter chopped green onion for foliage. Chill the salad in the refrigerator before serving.

Homemade mayonnaise is best — tastier and better for you. You can also use sour cream or plain yogurt as a dressing, either on their own or blended with mayonnaise in any ratio you like, which lightens the dish.
Buy fresh, medium-sized button mushrooms that are snowy white, with no spots, damage, or off smell, and not slippery to the touch. Rinse them thoroughly under warm or cold running water to remove any grit, and trim away any bad spots. Tiny mushrooms under about 3/4 inch (2 cm) don't need peeling — just rinse them well; larger ones are best peeled of the thin skin on the caps.