Warm Beet and Herring Salad

About This Recipe

This dish is a looser, warm-leaning cousin of sillsallad, the classic cold Swedish herring salad traditionally built with pickled beets, potatoes, apple and pickled herring, all diced small and bound lightly with a touch of cream or mayonnaise. Here, the beets and potatoes are roasted rather than boiled and pickled from scratch, giving them a deeper, earthier sweetness that pairs well against the sharp, briny pickled herring folded through at the end while everything is still slightly warm. The balance of flavors is the whole point: sweet roasted beet, starchy potato, tart apple and salty-sour herring all need to hit the palate together rather than any one element dominating, which is why the dish is traditionally cut into small, uniform dice rather than larger chunks — every forkful should carry a bit of everything. Fresh dill folded in at the end, rather than cooked into the dish, keeps its brightness intact. It's a fixture of the Swedish julbord and Easter smörgåsbord tables, prized as much for its striking pink color (from the beet juice bleeding into everything it touches) as for its distinctive sweet-sour-briny flavor profile.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 3 mediumbeets(scrubbed)
• 3 mediumpotatoes(scrubbed)
• 2 tbspolive oil
• 200 gpickled herring(drained and diced)
• 1tart apple(diced small)
• 0.25red onion(finely diced)
• 2 tbspsour cream
• 1 tbspmayonnaise
• 1 tbspwhite wine vinegar
• 3 tbspfresh dill(chopped)
• 2hard-boiled eggs(quartered, for garnish)

Instructions

1. 1

   Roast the beets and potatoes

   Toss beets and potatoes separately with olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 200°C (400°F) for 40-45 minutes until fork-tender. Cool slightly, peel the beets, and dice both into small even cubes.

2. 2

   Make the dressing

   Whisk sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar together until smooth.

3. 3

   Combine the salad

   In a large bowl, gently combine the diced beets, potatoes, pickled herring, apple and red onion.

   Dice everything to a similar small size so each spoonful gets a bit of every ingredient, as is traditional.

4. 4

   Dress and finish

   Fold in the dressing gently until just coated — over-mixing will turn everything uniformly pink from the beet juice, which some prefer and others avoid.

5. 5

   Garnish and serve

   Scatter with fresh dill and top with quartered hard-boiled eggs. Serve slightly warm or chilled.

Variations

• •

  Add diced pickles or capers for extra brininess against the sweet beets.

• •

  Serve it fully cold, chilled for a few hours, in the more traditional sillsallad style rather than warm.

• •

  Swap the mayonnaise-sour cream dressing for plain yogurt for a lighter version.

Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days; the color deepens and bleeds further into all the ingredients the longer it sits, which some consider part of its charm.

Frequently Asked Questions