Baba's Ukrainian Salata (Salad) (2024)

Baba teach you simple, lovely, refreshing salata for this Tato's Day weekend. It have genuine Ukrainian taste from dill and smetana, sour cream. Try to find farmer who will sell you jar of REAL smetana, unpasteurized. Uh oh, I am in trouble again.

This is very common salad in Ukraina. If you can get organic vegetable, is all so much better. These days there is even indoor farmer market. Get there early to grab best veggies before hippies roll out of bed.

Is good way to get your tato to eat more veggies, even while he enjoy his new power drill.

Baba give you ingredients first, so you is drooling:

Optional:

Mix your dressing first, so ingredients have time to sit together and say, "How you do?"

Crush garlic into smetana, using real garlic crusher. If you just slice garlic, there will be reduction in kissing after meal. You do not want this reputation at your party.

If you can get real smetana in jar from real farmer, you will be ecstatic from taste. Otherwise, use this white jello from stupormarket.

Mix dressing with tiny dash salt and bigger dash coarse pepper.

Prepare vegetables by slicing tomatoes into wedges, and cucumber slices into halves. Peel skin from mature cucumber. You can leave skin on baby cucumber. But do not confuse with pickling cucumber, or you be in pickle. Ha!

Baba Secret: People say to me, "Baba, my cucumber salad get all watery!"

Dorahenka, sprinkle your cucumber slice with little bit salt. Let sit 15 minute. Drain water.

Add onion. Baba has success using green chive type onion too, but that is because she knows she never have leftover. If you leave green chive overnight, they start getting mushinski.

Chop dill very fine. Give stems to your chickens.

Mix veggies with dressing, and Eureka, is done.

Serve with good, heavy rye or black bread alongside.

Your option:

Do NOT add, or you will be sorry:

Smachnoho!

Your Baba

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If you are afraid of gaining weight, drink horilka before meal. It will make you forget your fear.

Baba is available to tell Ukrainian culture stories at your festival in person, or via webcam.

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"Loads of fun and info on life in a Ukrainian Village. I can still hear my Baba saying, "Oi Yoi Yoi!"~Nancy L. Broad, Connecticut

""Baba gives an excellent explanation of Ukie Christmas customs!"
~Ukrainian American Coordinating Council

"Your book has us all laughing hysterically & uncontrollably! Daikoyu=thank you!"
~Ottawa Ukrainian Festival

"I bought this book after randomly discovering Baba's YouTube video about the Ukrainian curse, which made me laugh so hard I nearly wet myself. What a delight to discover the entire book is written in the same voice! I can't vouch for a single recipe, because since I've received the cookbook, I've done nothing but read all the stories aloud to my family and we've all been laughing until our sides hurt and we can't breathe.

Raisa Stone is a genius. I pity those poor reviewers whose boring babas would never tell outrageous or insulting stories---because Raisa has perfectly captured the spirit of my own wonderful baba, who I miss every single day precisely because she was never afraid to speak her mind. I cannot thank the author enough for allowing me to bring my baba to life for my children, even if only briefly and just a bit in caricature. They never knew her, and to be able to share her with them in this way is an amazing gift. When I can get my eyes to dry out enough from the tears of laughter so that I can read again, I promise I will get around to cooking some of the recipes, too."~J. Hodges

"Baba" is hilarious. She teaches the hapless wannabe Ukrainian cook (that's the reader) how to make the food that she has always made, and as she does this (and tells you off roundly for your failings in the kitchen!) she chats away telling tales of her life, and anything else that occurs.

Baba is a person, she has a voice. She is so cleverly written that her voice comes over loud and strong and so so funny! The recipes are given in conversational style, but at the end of each there's a precise list of ingredients too. Experimentation is encouraged, so you can make Baba's recipes your own, and provide endless variety to the many recipes already in the book (I don't know how many, and I don't know how many pages, I didn't count them .... There are a lot!).

I absolutely intend to cook like Baba, using her recipes. But when I want a laugh, entertainment, or just good reading, I turn to Baba too."~Amazon Customer

"I have this lovely lady's soul food book. It's one of the best books I've ever had. Good Ukrainian recipes. Her book has history too. She is so funny and down to earth. I can't wait to try the recipes, but I've not stopped laughing as I read. Buy it and see for yourself. It's BRILL! By the way, Baba means 'grandma' in Ukraine."~Jean Makorkij, UK

"Have just taken delivery of this book, glanced at one page and I know I'm hooked. Haven't laughed at a book so much in ages and can't wait to read the whole thing. Being of Ukrainian descent I can really relate to Baba and like to think that my Babas would've been the same if I'd ever known them. I can't wait to try the recipes as most of them use real food, god forbid anything tinned!! But this book is also food for the soul too....I like it so much (seriously after only reading one page!!) that I'm ordering extra copies as presents for my sisters and girlfriends....genius!"
~A. Kuszta

Photos: A. Martiniouk, Muukarhu, Kim & Forest Starr, Thor, Darwin Bell, CC license 3.0

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