Every year, without hesitation, my mum prepares this egg, chicken and potato salad for birthday parties, and it is gobbled up faster than you could say, Hip hip hooray.
This salad tastes very good. But I won’t lie. Unless you’ve tried Salad Olvieh for yourself, it’s hard to believe this unusual salad can pass a taste test at a child’s birthday party. Children are so often distracted by cake, sausage rolls, fairy bread and lolly bags, after all.
So how does Mum do it? How does she get away with serving the equivalent of a smelly egg salad (sorry Mum!) at children’s birthday parties, year after year? Our family album holds some clues…
How to get away with serving egg salad at birthday parties (recipe further below)
1. Location, location, location
Position the salad as close as possible to the birthday cake. At first, they don’t look alike, but your guests are too far away to tell the difference, and by now they’re hungry. Delusion sets in…
2. Double up
Holding a joint birthday party? Not a problem for the true salad-master. One cake, two olvieh salads. Your guests won’t know what hit them.
3. Blend in
It’s shaped, textured and decorated like a cake…so it must be…
And now for the recipe…make this salad ahead of your next party, and let us know in the comments section below how it was received!
Salad Olvieh
This dish is best served cold, often as a sandwich filler. Perfect for those times you have leftover BBQ / roast chicken.
Ingredients
1/4 BBQ chicken (skin removed)
5 medium potatoes (We used Golden Delight)
2 hard boiled eggs, finely diced
10 pickled baby cucumbers / small gherkins (unsweetened)
2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup frozen peas, cooked and drained
2tbs lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Method
1. Boil potatoes until cooked. In the meantime, shred BBQ chicken with hands, making small pieces. Place chicken and diced eggs in large bowl.
2. Once potatoes are cooked, drain, peel skin and grate into bowl.
3. Add peas (save a handful for garnishing), lemon juice and mayonnaise to bowl.
4. Grab 8 of the pickled cucumbers and finely chop (you only need about 3-4 if you are using larger dill cucumbers instead). Mix into bowl.
5. Mix all ingredients well.
6. Spoon mixture onto a large platter or serving dish.
7. Garnish with the remaining pickled cucumbers (sliced), peas, and tomato or red capsicum (optional).
3 Comments
Yes, we still have it in our fridge. Never for parties anymore, though. Never for birthday parties to begin with.
Congratulations, these foods are really delicious especially ‘ salad olvieh’.I hope to see more.
Thank you for the kind words and for visiting the site, Mohammad!