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Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad)
Diced boiled beets, potatoes and carrots with dill pickles, sauerkraut, onion and green peas, dressed simply with unrefined sunflower oil, a ruby-red salad for every Belarusian holiday table.
Belarusian · easy · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 40 min
~180 cal · 3g protein · 22g carbs · 9g fat · 4g fiber · 7g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Vinegret is one of the salads that appears on every holiday and family table in Belarus and across the former Soviet Union, usually beside Olivier salad and herring under a fur coat. It is cheap, colourful and made entirely from the winter larder: beets, potatoes and carrots boiled in their skins, brined cucumbers, sauerkraut and onion.
The name comes from the French vinaigrette, and in the nineteenth century, when Russian cooks borrowed the idea of a mixed salad from Western Europe, the vegetables were dressed with vinegar. Today most cooks leave the vinegar out and let the pickles and sauerkraut provide the sourness, dressing the salad only with fragrant unrefined sunflower oil.
The one rule everyone follows is to toss the diced beets in oil on their own first. The oil coats them and stops their juice from staining everything else pink, so each cube keeps its own colour.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 2 medium (about 400 g) beets, scrubbed
- 3 medium (about 400 g) potatoes, scrubbed
- 2 medium carrots, scrubbed
- 3 medium brined dill pickles (not sweet)
- 150 g sauerkraut, squeezed of excess brine
- 1 small onion, finely chopped, or a bunch of spring onions
- 100 g green peas, tinned and drained or frozen and thawed, optional
- 4 tbsp unrefined sunflower oil
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped, optional
Instructions
- 1Boil the beets in their skins in a pan of water for 40 to 60 minutes, until a knife slides in easily. In another pan, boil the potatoes and carrots in their skins for about 20 minutes until just tender. Drain and cool completely.✎ Chef’s noteTake the potatoes and carrots out while they still have a little bite. Soft vegetables turn to mush when they are diced and mixed.
- 2Peel the cooled vegetables and cut the beets, potatoes, carrots and pickles into small even cubes of about 7 mm.
- 3Put the diced beets in a bowl on their own and toss them with 1 tbsp of the oil, so they do not stain the other vegetables.
- 4In a large bowl combine the potatoes, carrots, pickles, sauerkraut, onion and peas. Add the beets and the rest of the oil and toss gently.
- 5Taste before salting, as the pickles and sauerkraut are already salty, then season with salt and pepper. Scatter with dill and serve cool.
Belarusian and East Slavic home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
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Minsk. Draniki means shredded, and the claim to have invented them is weaker than the affection for them: the first printed mention is from 1830 and the dish sits in a family with German kartoffelpuffer, Ukrainian deruny and Jewish latkes. What is not in dispute is the enthusiasm.
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Belarus. Belarusian food is potato country at its purest, draniki pancakes, hearty stews, and dark rye bread. Mushrooms, pork, and dairy anchor a resourceful, cool-climate Eastern European table.
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Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Belarus
DranikiCrisp-edged potato pancakes fried golden and served with a generous spoon of sour cream.
Manna KashaSmooth semolina milk porridge, lump-free and lightly sweet, topped with jam or butter.
MachankaA rich pork and sour-cream gravy for dunking soft potato pancakes, a filling Belarusian country dish.
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Good to know
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it a Belarus meal
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KulagaDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad)?
Diced boiled beets, potatoes and carrots with dill pickles, sauerkraut, onion and green peas, dressed simply with unrefined sunflower oil, a ruby-red salad for every Belarusian holiday table.
Where does Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) come from?
Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) is a Belarusian dish from Minsk, Belarus.
Can Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad) take to make?
About 65 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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