Russian Salad Vinegrette

Vinegrette is a salad made with beets, pickles, and Sauerkraut. It's a very traditional Russian salad and has been been on my family's dinner table for all special occasions like New Years, Birthday parties or just family gatherings. Frankly, it’s my favorite salad in the whole world and I can eat it forever! This is my mom’s Vinegrette’s recipe with my father’s homemade Sauerkraut. He is the Master of Sauerkraut in our family. 
I love Vinegrette salad - it is so different, colorful, tasty, and very flavorful! It's a healthy super food salad and very filling and nutritious! When I have it in my fridge I eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner ...should I confess that I eat it as a snack as well?... I can’t get enough. Not only this salad is gorgeous, but it is also delicious! It's great for parties, can be prepared in advance and tastes great after being three days in a fridge (if it survives that long).

Ingredients

2 medium beets
6 medium potatoes
2 medium carrots
3.5 cups sauerkraut, drained
8 medium pickles in brine
3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 small onion, cut into half rings
Pepper, to taste

Directions

In a large pot, boil beets, carrots and potatoes until ready, but not too soft. Don’t overcook. Usually, potatoes and beets take longer to cook than carrots. In this case, take out the carrots first. Drain the water and cool the vegetables completely. To speed the process you can splash them with cold water. The vegetables can be also cooked a day or two in advance and kept refrigerated.

Peel the skin from the potatoes, beets and carrots. Dice potatoes and carrots and transfer them to a big bowl.

Tip: I like the salad to get this beautiful red color from the beets. If you want to make sure that your potatoes colored red as well, add the beets before adding the pickles. If you want your potatoes to stay white, first add the pickles, and then the beets.

So, after dicing the potatoes and carrots, dice one beet and shred the second one on a grater. Transfer the beets to the bowl.

Now dice pickles, and cut the onion into half rings. Add them to the salad.

And last but not the least, add sauerkraut. I only make the vinegrette when I have my homemade sauerkraut - some of it we eat by itself, reserving the rest for the Vinegrette salad.

Mix all the vegetables with olive oil. Keep refrigerated until serving.

Enjoy!