Romanian Potato Salad (Salata de Beouf) & Vegan Mayonnaise
This is something all Romanian people eat on a very regular occasion. Originally this food came from France and Romanians still call it by its French name “Salata de Beouf”. This translates to beef salad. Although this is traditionally French, I think Romanians have really taken it over and claimed it as their own. If you google it only Romanian recipes will come up. Romanian women love to get really creative with the salads. They usually make a huge batch and then decorate the top and sides with works of art made out of different vegetables. I was never really very good at decorating out of vegetables so I just leave mine boring and plain but it still tastes just as good!
Although this salad is traditionally made with small bits of beef, my family never ate it with any meat. For us it was always a vegetarian dish. It is however slathered in mayonnaise, which I have never been particularly fond of in large amounts. Maddy loves this salad so much, I don’t think I see him get as excited about any other food as much as he does about this, but because of my lack of love for mayonnaise I don’t make it for him nearly as often as he would like. So I decided to try a vegan version of mayonnaise that both him and I would be happy with and it was definitely a big success. In fact Maddy asked me to ditch the real stuff all together because the vegan one tastes so much better. To me it tastes exactly the same just a lot lighter, so it does not leave me feeling grose and heavy after eating it. I have actually already posted the recipe for this vegan mayo before because I like to use it on any other dish that calls for mayo. You can find the link here
I found this post difficult to present as salata de beouf is not the most attractive of dishes but if your wanting to try something different many Romanians will tell you that its worth it. And if you are a Romanian and eat this stuff all the time, try it with the vegan mayo. You won’t be able to tell the difference and it’s so much healthier for you too! I’m also adding a few photos from our last visit to Romania a few years back just because. We are definitely due for another visit soon!
| Romanian Potato Salad (Salata de Beouf) & Vegan Mayonnaise | Print |
- Potato salad:
- 1kg potatoes
- 2 -3 large carrots
- can of green peas
- 2 large gherkins
- salt to season
- juice of ½ lemon or to taste
- vegan mayonnaise ( recipe below)
- Vegan Mayonnaise:
- 1 packet organic silken tofu
- 3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- pinch salt
- few drops of lemon juice (optional)
- For mayonnaise: drain liquid from tofu and add to blender.
- Add all other ingredients to blender and blend for about 1-2 minutes until smooth and all ingredients have combined. Transfer to a glass jar. Will store in the fridge for at least a week.
- For salad: boil the potatoes and the carrots until well cooked and fork easily pierces through. I like to peel my carrots first but boil the potatoes in their skin and peel the skin once they have cooled slightly.
- Empty the can of peas into a large bowl.
- Get chopping! Dice the potatoes, carrots and gherkins into small pieces. The smaller the better. The gherkins in particular need to be quite small.
- Add all chopped ingredients into the large bowl with peas and mix through until all vegetables are evenly distributed.
- Season with salt to taste.
- Add the vegan mayonnaise and stir through well to combine. Since this recipe creates a fairly large batch, I generally will use the entire batch of mayonnaise, but add as little or as much as you like.
- Squeeze over lemon juice and mix through again. Taste and adjust salt and lemon as desired.
- Get decorating if you wish or just leave it be and enjoy!
It looks very delicious! I will de try it ! I really like all of your recipes. The pictures are amazing and I know how hard is to take pictures of the food to look so yummy. It would be interesting for you to make some post how you take your pictures,just to give us some tricks. Good work !
Thanks very much Ana! Well actually my husband takes the photo’s for me. I make the food, we both style it and he photographs it. He works as a videographer so he has a good eye for photography. But I will definitely write a bit about it in one of my recipe posts if your interested on how we do it 🙂 I’ll put it in the sub title so it wont be missed 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to comment xx
You are a beautiful soul! ❤ love your website, good work!
I actually have silken tofu in my fridge and will definitely give it a try.
Aww wow thank you for the beautiful words! I really hope you enjoy it. I have a whole separate post on the mayonnaise in the basics section if you feel like using mayonnaise for anything else 🙂 Thank you for commenting xx