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Salad with beef and pickled cucumbers

Beef Salad with Pickles

A simple meat salad from everyday ingredients. This easy salad tastes like Olivier and works for both a holiday table and an everyday meal. It's far simpler than the famous salad, yet every bit as tasty.

Natalia Tsybulskaya

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Beef

400

Pickles

Cucumber

Eggs

Mayonnaise

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 57 % 12 g

Fats 38 % 8 g

Carbohydrates 5 % 1 g

123 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 42 min

Step 1:

How do you make beef salad with pickles? Gather all the ingredients. Use fresh, chilled beef—frozen meat has less to offer. I use marbled beef, which is streaked with fat so the meat doesn't dry out when cooked. Use large, ideally farm-fresh eggs. And pickles, which you can swap for any brined cucumbers. Everything should be fresh and chilled.
Step 2:

Boil the beef, salting the water only near the end. The cooking time depends on the size of the piece—on average, 500 g of beef takes about 30 minutes, though the longer it cooks, the more tender it gets. You can also pan-fry the meat, which gives the finished salad a wonderfully distinctive flavor and aroma!
Step 3:

Cool the beef and cut it into small cubes. I use beef here, but pork, veal, or even chicken all work. The flavor will change a bit, but it'll still be delicious.
Step 4:

Wash and dry the cucumbers and trim off the ends. Cut them into small cubes.
Step 5:

Hard-boil the eggs—about 8 minutes after the water boils. Cool them and cut them into small cubes too.
Step 6:

Combine all the chopped ingredients and season with salt, keeping in mind that mayonnaise is fairly salty too.
Step 7:

Dress the salad with mayonnaise. Not everyone likes mayo, especially the store-bought kind, so I really recommend using homemade. You can also swap it for sour cream or a light yogurt, such as Greek.
Step 8:

Serve the salad. Enjoy!

Of all the salads out there, I try to make only the simplest but tastiest ones. This is one of them: it's very filling and tastes like the famous Olivier, just without the peas and carrots. It's great for a holiday table, or you can serve it for a family lunch or dinner as a dish on its own or alongside a main course. Enjoy!
It's better to make the mayonnaise yourself—it'll be tastier and healthier; there are some good homemade mayo recipes out there. You can also use sour cream or plain yogurt as a dressing, on their own or mixed with mayo in any ratio you like, which cuts down the calories.
How do you hard-boil eggs? To keep them from cracking, put them in cold water and bring them up over low heat. Boil for 9 minutes after the water comes to a boil, then pour cold water over them to cool—the sudden temperature change makes them easier to peel.