Herring Shuba Salad

Herring Shuba Salad

Herring Shuba Salad

“Shuba” is a very warm heavy traditional Russian fur coat that comes in handy on a cold winter day. In this recipe, pieces of pickled herring are covered with a thick layered coat of vegetables topped with mayo. This way the herring ends up under quite a heavy “shuba,” so be sure to keep it in the fridge!

 

Ingredients

  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 medium-sized beets
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • 1 pickled herring
  • 5 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Mayonnaise
  • 1 extra beet and/or 1 cup of chopped scallions for decoration (optional)
  • 1 hardboiled egg for decoration (optional)

Directions

  1. Boil or steam the potatoes, carrots, and beets.
  2. Let the vegetables cool, and then peel them.
  3. Finely chop the onion.
  4. Cut the carrots and potatoes into small cubes. You can save a small piece of a carrot and slice it to decorate the salad at the end.
  5. Coarsely grate the beets.
  6. Keep all the vegetables separate.
  7. Clean the herring: remove the head, tail, fins, guts, bones, and even skin. Cut it in cubes. (You can buy a jar of herring at your local supermarket in a pinch but it will be marinated whereas the herring traditionally used in this recipe is pickled. At least the supermarket variety will be ready for use – no cleaning involved).
  8. Assemble the salad in a deep dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with herring cubes, cover them with the chopped onion, and evenly sprinkle with oil.
  9. Add a layer of chopped potatoes and sprinkle with a pinch of salt (optional: the herring already has plenty of salt in it).
  10. Add a layer of chopped carrots and then the final layer of grated beets.
  11. With your hands, lightly press down the salad and smoothen the top beet layer.
  12. Generously and evenly spread mayonnaise on top.
  13. If you have the patience, you can decorate the salad with a flower made from the extra beet. Or, you can just top your masterpiece with slices of beets and carrots, chopped egg, or chopped scallion. See the illustration and use your imagination!
  14. Cover the salad without touching its surface and let it sit in the fridge for some time.
  15. When the beet color starts showing through the mayo, it is ready!
  16. Slice it like a cake and serve. Make sure all the layers are included in each serving.

Watch an instructional video on our video page. It’s in Russian but now you’ll understand it!

Herring Shuba Salad
Recipe Type: Appetizer, Salad
Author: Russian Recipe Book
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour
Serves: 4
“Shuba” is a very warm heavy traditional Russian fur coat that comes in handy on a cold winter day. In this recipe, pieces of pickled herring are covered with a thick layered coat of vegetables topped with mayo. This way the herring ends up under quite a heavy “shuba,” so be sure to keep it in the fridge!
Ingredients
  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 medium-sized beets
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • 1 pickled herring
  • 5 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Mayonnaise
  • 1 extra beet and/or 1 cup of chopped scallions for decoration (optional)
  • 1 hardboiled egg for decoration (optional)
Instructions
  1. Boil or steam the potatoes, carrots, and beets.
  2. Let the vegetables cool, and then peel them.
  3. Finely chop the onion.
  4. Cut the carrots and potatoes into small cubes. You can save a small piece of a carrot and slice it to decorate the salad at the end.
  5. Coarsely grate the beets.
  6. Keep all the vegetables separate.
  7. Clean the herring: remove the head, tail, fins, guts, bones, and even skin. Cut it in cubes. (You can buy a jar of herring at your local supermarket in a pinch but it will be marinated whereas the herring traditionally used in this recipe is pickled. At least the supermarket variety will be ready for use – no cleaning involved).
  8. Assemble the salad in a deep dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with herring cubes, cover them with the chopped onion, and evenly sprinkle with oil.
  9. Add a layer of chopped potatoes and sprinkle with a pinch of salt (optional: the herring already has plenty of salt in it).
  10. Add a layer of chopped carrots and then the final layer of grated beets.
  11. With your hands, lightly press down the salad and smoothen the top beet layer.
  12. Generously and evenly spread mayonnaise on top.
  13. If you have the patience, you can decorate the salad with a flower made from the extra beet. Or, you can just top your masterpiece with slices of beets and carrots, chopped egg, or chopped scallion. See the illustration and use your imagination!
  14. Cover the salad without touching its surface and let it sit in the fridge for some time.
  15. When the beet color starts showing through the mayo, it is ready!
  16. Slice it like a cake and serve. Make sure all the layers are included in each serving.

Russian name: Селёдка под шубой

Russian Herring Shuba Salad

Alternative serving suggestion

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Jim M.
Jim M.
12 years ago

Great salad! Showed it to my wife and she made it last night. Kids loved it. Everything was gone in 5 minutes! Look forward to more recipes. Keep up the good work!

Natalia
Natalia
11 years ago

Hi there,
This is a great website with many recipes that bring back memories of living back in Russia! Thank you for this. I wanted to add a few things on this recipe. My mom usually boils the vegetables and then shreds them on a shredder, this just makes it all easier to place and eat. Also, my mom has always added sweet/sour apples in her recipe, which works surprisingly well with the pickled herring!