Shuba salad (layered beet salad with herring): an easy and festive dish created from root vegetables. The beets give a beautiful finishing touch to this salad and it’s absolutely stunning for major events. Garnish with boiled egg yolk or simply fresh herbs such as parsley, dill or scallions.
In a medium pot, place 2 medium Yukon potatoes and 2 medium carrots. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook carrots for 15-20 minutes (take out with kitchen tongs or couple forks). Continue cooking potatoes for 10 additional minutes, until they can be easily pierced with knife.
Into a small pot, place 3 medium beets and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 45-60 minutes until they can easily be pierced with a knife.
Drain water and let the vegetables stand at room temperature to cool before peeling or refrigerate for faster cooling. Peel vegetables once cooled.
Take 3 herring fillets from the package and place onto a plate lined with paper towel. Pat herring with paper towel to remove excess oil.
Cube herring into 1/4” cubes. Into a dinner plate, spread herring in circle in the center of the plate, pressing gently down with a fork. Drizzle with 1 tsp of white distilled vinegar and 1 tsp finely grated onion.
Using a cheese grater, finely grate 2 potatoes evenly over the herring and gently press down with a fork. With a dull knife, spread 3 tablespoons mayo over potatoes.
Using same cheese grater, finely grate 2 medium carrots over the salad, press down with fork and cover with 3 tablespoons mayo.
Into the sieve, grate 4 kosher dill pickles, squeeze out the juice and spread evenly over carrots. Cover with 4 tablespoons mayo.
Into a sieve, grate 3 medium beets onto a big hole of grater. Squeeze out the juice from grated beets and evenly spread beets over the salad. Cover with 8 tbsp mayo or enough to completely cover all the beets.
Separate 1 boiled egg – you need egg yolk. Using grater, top with finely grated 1 egg yolk and sprinkle with ground black pepper. (Be sure not to squeeze egg yolk when grating). Refrigerate shuba salad for at least 4 hours before serving.
This salad is good refrigerated for 3-4 days. Top with fresh parsley before serving.
Overcooking vegetables will make it hard to grate.
Really squeeze out the juice from grated pickles so that the shuba salad does not turn out soggy.
Use real mayonnaise from any of the major brands. I do not recommend any substitutions like the miracle whip. It does not have that amazing ‘wow’ factor.
You might end up using less or more mayo, depends on the size of your plate. With each layer, make sure to fully cover with mayo to prevent bland or dry shuba salad.