Decorating cucumber salads. Decorating appetizers and salads step by step!!! great selection!!! Salad “Male whim”

Decorating salads is a reason to write a separate article, because beautiful salads are an integral part of a festive feast, when every housewife comes up with something original to make the holiday special.

Beautiful salads are especially relevant when there are small children in the house - it’s interesting for the kids to watch how their mother decorates the salads, and then they gobble it all up together.

Read also:Examples of decorating salads for the New Year, birthday, anniversary, wedding. How to decorate salads for any celebration. Beautiful salads with descriptions and photos

Also, beautiful salads are relevant for children's matinees and birthdays. Beautifully decorating salads is not as difficult as it might seem, and all you need to do is show a little imagination and your beautiful salads will surprise all your guests.

Especially for Home Restaurant readers, I made a photo selection of how to beautifully decorate salads, which I hope will be useful to you.

Most of the salads presented in this article are layered, and to keep their shape, it is best to make them in a springform baking dish, wait for the salads to set in the refrigerator, and then remove the ring, and only then start decorating the salads.

Festive salad “Butterfly”

You can see how to prepare Butterfly salad with step-by-step photos

New Year's salad "Horse"

Ingredients:

  • Chicken leg: 1 pc. (or chicken breast: 1 pc.)
  • Fresh cucumbers: 2 pcs. (or sweet bell pepper: 2 pcs.)
  • Mushrooms: 200-300 g
  • Onion: 1 piece
  • Vegetable oil: for frying
  • Chicken eggs: 4 pcs.
  • Mayonnaise: to taste
  • Salt: to taste

Preparation:

Boil the eggs hard. Cool.

Boil the chicken leg (or breast) in salted water until tender (about 30 minutes after boiling). Cool.

Peel the onion, wash and cut into small cubes.

Wash the mushrooms and cut into small cubes.

Heat a frying pan, pour a little oil. Place mushrooms and onions in the pan. Fry over medium heat, stirring, for about 10 minutes.

Separate the chicken meat from the bones and cut into pieces.

Wash cucumbers (or sweet peppers) and cut into cubes.

Separate the whites from the yolks. Grate the protein on a fine grater.

Grate the yolk on a fine grater.

Cool the mushrooms.

Combine prepared meat and cucumbers in a bowl.

Add salt to taste, season with mayonnaise.

Mix well until smooth.

Combine the yolks with mayonnaise and mix well. (Bring to the consistency of thick sour cream.)

Place the salad on a flat dish (black or burgundy will look more impressive), using a knife to form a horse’s head. You can prepare a pattern in advance.

Brush the horse silhouette with the yolk mixture. Lay out the mane of mushrooms.

The last layer is proteins. Finalize the head and ears.

Make eyes and nostrils (for example, from olives), decorate the New Year's salad as you wish. Let the salad sit in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours. New Year's Salad "Horse" is ready.

Crab stick salad “Mice”

Ingredients:

  • 150 grams of hard cheese (can be processed)
  • 240 g crab sticks
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 250 g mayonnaise
  • 1 carrot
  • parsley
  • peppercorns

Preparation:

1. Grate cheese, crab sticks and garlic on a fine grater.

2. Cut the carrots into slices.

3. Combine cheese and garlic with mayonnaise, mix well.

4. Place the finished mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5. Form oval molds from the cheese mass.

6. Then roll them in grated crab sticks on all sides.

7. Make ears from carrots, tails from crab sticks, and eyes from black pepper.

Sakura branch«

Ingredientsfor salad:

300 grams of smoked chicken or pork, cut into strips;

2 small beets, chopped;

A jar of pickled champignons;

Egg yolks 4-5 eggs;

Grated cheese 200 grams;

Grated whites.

You can add fried or pickled onions after the beets.

Preparing the salad:

Coat all layers with mayonnaise.

Sakura flowers are made from protein colored with beet juice, branches from finely grated black and green olives, and leek leaves.

The stamens are from the yolk.

The design depends on your taste.

flower pot«

The salad is prepared in a pop-up baking dish. If there is none, you can use a simple cardboard tape, fasten it in the form of a ring, and wrap it in foil. Place in this ring in layers, coating each with mayonnaise:

1. grilled or smoked chicken, cut into pieces;

2. prunes, cut into strips;

3. champignon mushrooms, fried with onions;

4. cucumbers, cut into strips (let them stand before placing and drain excess liquid),

5. carrots in Korean.

For decoration: Radishes are used that are soaked in beet juice.

If you want lilac flowers, add them to red cabbage juice.

Free the salad from the outline, place unsweetened crackers around the “pot”, garnish with whatever green leaves are on hand. In the photo, the salad is decorated with sorrel.

Lay out the flowers, fill the middle with yolk, and place the egg white, grated on a fine grater, in between.

Keep in the refrigerator until serving.

Salad "Pansies"

Salad "New Year's cracker"

You can see the recipe for the New Year's cracker salad with step-by-step photos

Salad “Snake” for New Year 2013

Recipes for New Year's salad “Snake” (7 pcs) with photos can be viewed

Crab Salad

You can see the recipe for Crab Salad

Salad "Goldfish"

You can see the recipe for the “Goldfish” salad and decoration options

Salad “Pearl”

You can see the recipe for the “Pearl” salad

White Birch Salad

You can see the recipe for White Birch salad and decoration options

Salad "Tsarskiy"

Preparation of the Tsarsky salad and decoration options, you can see

Salad “Cornucopia” No. 1

You can see the recipe for the Horn of Plenty salad No. 1

Salad "Violet"

salad ingredients: smoked chicken leg, prunes, fried champignons with onions, fresh cucumber, Korean carrots, mayonnaise.

cooking : Lay out all the ingredients for the salad, spreading it with mayonnaise in a salad bowl or springform pan. Cut the radishes into slices and soak in red cabbage juice so that the violet petals turn lilac. Place spinach leaves on the salad, and then make flowers from radish circles. Make the centers of violets from egg yolks. Line the sides of the salad with crackers.

Salad “Fox coat”

Salad preparation and decoration options, you can see

Salad "Spiderweb"

salad ingredients: sprats, butter, onions, hard cheese, boiled eggs, mayonnaise. Fresh cucumber, black olives, ketchup, herbs for decoration.

cooking : Mash the sprats with a fork and place on a plate, then add finely chopped onion with mayonnaise. The next layer is grated cheese with mayonnaise, then three pieces of butter, and finally eggs.

To decorate, mix 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise with ketchup and draw a spider web. Make a spider from a black olive. Decorate the sides of the salad with cucumbers and herbs.

Eggplant appetizer “Peacock tail”

You can see the preparation of snacks with step-by-step photographs

Fireworks Salad

salad ingredients: ham, boiled eggs, yellow, red and green bell peppers, tomato, mayonnaise, onion

cooking : Cut all salad ingredients into thin slices. On a plate, place the ham in the first layer, with onion strips. Next, add three colors of bell pepper, alternating them with egg whites. Top with tomatoes and mayonnaise, which we hide under grated egg yolks. Mayonnaise can be served separately in a gravy boat.

Lady's Hat Salad

salad ingredients: is based on

ingredients for decoration : suluguni rope cheese, tomato, black olives

Salad "April Olivier"

salad ingredients: boiled eggs, boiled carrots, boiled potatoes, pickles, fresh cucumbers, boiled sausage, green onions, smoked sausage, parsley, dill, mayonnaise.

ingredients for decoration : radishes, fresh cucumbers, lettuce, curly parsley, salami for roses, olives, egg white.

cooking : Cut the salad ingredients into cubes and season with mayonnaise. To decorate the salad, place lettuce leaves on a plate. Place the salad on top of the leaves. Cut the cucumber in half and cut into slices. Cut the radish in half. Place radishes and cucumbers on the sides one by one. Place curly parsley on top around the edges. Before preparing the salad, cut a piece from the boiled eggs and cut it in half. Place the halves in a circle. Place a salami rose in the middle. It turns out it's very simple to do. Cut 7 thin pieces of salami, wrap the first piece in a tube, and place the rest next to each other and secure with toothpicks.

Cut the olives into thin slices and decorate the salad with them in the area of ​​the eggs.

Green Rose Salad

salad ingredients: boiled chicken fillet, processed cheese, fresh cucumbers, boiled eggs, pitted olives, red Crimean onion, mayonnaise.

cooking : Cut the salad ingredients into cubes and season with mayonnaise. Decorate the salad with slices or slices of fresh cucumber in the shape of a rose.

Mexican salad

salad ingredients: boiled chicken fillet, radishes, fresh cucumbers, boiled eggs, green onions, boiled potatoes, chili peppers, lettuce, pickled cucumbers, lemon juice and vegetable oil

cooking : Cut the salad ingredients into cubes and season with lemon juice and vegetable oil. Place lettuce leaves on a plate and top with the salad itself. Using toothpicks, assemble a cactus from pickled cucumbers.

Salad "White Crocuses"

salad ingredients: boiled eggs, Chinese cabbage, canned corn, pickled champignons, green onions, fresh cucumbers, mayonnaise.

preparation: Chinese cabbage, pickled champignons, green onions, cut fresh cucumbers into cubes, add corn and season with mayonnaise. Place the salad on a plate and sprinkle finely chopped eggs on top.

For decoration, we take 7-8 small seeded onions (they are sold by grandmothers at the market), a bunch of green onions and 1/4 of a carrot. We clean the small onions. Now take a sharp knife and cut out the cloves along the top of the onion. We take out the “insides” of the onion and, using a toothpick and green onions, insert the stems into the “onion cups” and place a small piece of carrot in each onion.

Liver cake “Chamomile”

preparation: Let's prepare liver cake according to this recipe. Decorate with chopped dill, add chamomile from egg white and yolk.

Salad "Championship"


salad ingredients : green peas (young or frozen), canned. corn, boiled potatoes and carrots, balyk, eggs, green onions, dill, mayonnaise, quail eggs.

cooking : cut all the ingredients into cubes and place layers on a square plate coated with mayonnaise in the following sequence: potatoes, green onions, eggs, balyk, corn, carrots, potatoes. Garnish the salad with green peas and dill. Make the field markings with mayonnaise and the soccer ball with a quail egg.

Salad "Snowdrops"


salad ingredients : boiled beef, onions marinated in lemon juice and sugar, eggs, mayonnaise, hard cheese

cooking : The salad is laid out in layers in the following order: pickled onions, boiled meat, boiled eggs. Do not coat each layer too thickly with mayonnaise, including the top one. Press lightly. Sprinkle the salad with grated cheese, make snowdrop stalks from the feathers of green onions, and cut the petals from thinly sliced ​​daikon radish slices.


salad ingredients : unsweetened round crackers, canned pink salmon, saury or tuna, boiled eggs, garlic, green onions, mayonnaise

cooking : Place the crackers on a plate in a circle in the shape of a flower. Next is a layer of eggs with mayonnaise, then a layer of crackers, then canned food with mayonnaise and green onions, and grease the last top layer of crackers with mayonnaise and sprinkle with finely grated eggs. Garnish the salad with tomato slices, olive halves and sprigs of herbs.

Salad “Vegetable with garlic”


salad ingredients : tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, vegetable oil, herbs

cooking : Cut the vegetables into slices and arrange them in rows on a round dish. Sprinkle with crushed garlic, herbs, and pour over vegetable oil.

Crab Spring Salad


salad ingredients : crab sticks, or crab meat, fresh cucumbers, eggs, grated hard cheese, Chinese cabbage, olives. Sauce: mix mayonnaise and sour cream in equal parts, seasoning with a little mustard.

cooking : cut crab sticks, cucumbers, eggs, and olives into cubes, tear Chinese cabbage into small pieces. Add cheese and season with sauce, place in pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove the salad, transfer to a platter, and garnish with green onions and crab stick flowers.

Mimosa salad with mice


salad ingredients : boiled eggs, boiled carrots, boiled potatoes, onions, canned fish (sardine in oil), mayonnaise, greens

ingredients for decoration : pieces of cheese (for the ears and tail of the mice), black peppercorns (use as eyes for the little mice)

Salad "Aquarium"



salad ingredients : sea cocktail, onions, canned red beans, pickled champignons, pickles, grated hard cheese, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : seaweed, red bell pepper (to make fish and star), mayonnaise, several mussels to make crabs

Sunflower salad


salad ingredients : boiled chicken fillet, onions, fried champignons, boiled eggs, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : Pringls chips and olives

Salad "Wicket"


salad ingredients : avocado, shrimp, fresh cucumbers, boiled eggs, onions, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : green onion feathers, salted straws, a piece of black bread to make the bottom

Salad "Corn"


salad ingredients : boiled chicken breast, pickled cucumbers, onions, fried mushrooms, boiled eggs, parsley and dill, mayonnaise, canned corn

ingredients for decoration : leek leaves and canned corn

Salad "Hedgehog"


salad ingredients : boiled chicken breast, pickles, boiled carrots, green onions, dill, parsley, canned corn, eggs, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : Place the salad on a hedgehog-shaped plate.

Grate the eggs on a fine grater, mix with mayonnaise, and coat the hedgehog. Use potato chips for the needles, and squeeze out circles from the skin of a pickled cucumber for the eyes and nose.

Salad "Crab Paradise"


salad ingredients : crab sticks, pickled mushrooms, processed cheese, canned corn, garlic, mayonnaise, greens

ingredients for decoration : red caviar, olives, curly parsley

Salad "Watermelon slice"



salad ingredients : smoked chicken fillet, fried champignons, boiled carrots, boiled eggs, grated cheese, garlic, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : red bell pepper (watermelon pulp), olives (pits), fresh cucumber (peel)

Salad "Gift"


salad ingredients : boiled veal, boiled carrots, boiled beets, steamed prunes, walnuts, boiled eggs, grated hard cheese, mayonnaise, parsley

ingredients for decoration : Cut ribbons from boiled carrots and garnish with parsley.

Salad "Gill wood grouse's nest"


salad ingredients : boiled chicken fillet, ham, pickled champignons, eggs, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : potatoes cut into strips, fried in vegetable oil, lettuce, for bird eggs: processed cheese, egg yolks, dill, mayonnaise, garlic.

Starfish salad


salad ingredients : crab meat or crab sticks, canned corn, boiled eggs, lightly salted salmon, grated hard cheese, garlic, dill, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : shrimp, red caviar, salad laid out in layers.

Salad “Hares in the garden”


salad ingredients : smoked fish fillets, such as butterfish, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, boiled carrots, pickles, greens

ingredients for decoration : make a “bed” of carrots in the middle, put bunnies made of eggs on the sides

Orange slice salad


salad ingredients : boiled eggs, boiled carrots, onions, chicken fillet, pickled champignons, grated hard cheese, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : Lay the salad in layers, shape it into an orange slice, garnish with grated carrots and egg white.

Salad “Cornucopia” No. 2


salad ingredients : boiled chicken fillet, boiled potatoes, pickles, canned corn, eggs, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : lettuce, vegetables, lightly salted salmon, greens, and cheese

Salad "Pineapple"


salad ingredients : smoked chicken, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, grated hard cheese, pickles, onions, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : walnut halves, green onions

Tiger salad


salad ingredients : smoked or fried pork, onions, boiled carrots, eggs, grated cheese, prunes, fresh cucumbers, paprika, garlic, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : The salad is laid out in layers, garnished with grated carrots, black olives, and egg whites.

Salad "Bunch of Grapes"


salad ingredients : canned fish (cod liver, for example), green onions, boiled potatoes, eggs, grated hard cheese, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : blue seedless grapes

Salad “Male whim”




salad ingredients : smoked chicken fillet, boiled beef, eggs, Crimean onion, grated hard cheese, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : sandwich cheese for the calla flowers, green onions for the stems, and yellow bell pepper to make the pistil

Salad “Lovers”


salad ingredients : boiled shrimp, Korean carrots, grated hard cheese, eggs, mayonnaise

ingredients for decoration : olives and red caviar

You can watch some more beautiful ideas for decorating salads in this video.

Decorating salads: original ideas for the festive table

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Original decoration of salads is a must when decorating a festive table. Snacks with an unusual bright design will help surprise guests and look even more appetizing. Even the simplest budget salad made from the most affordable ingredients, after decoration, will be a worthy addition to the holiday table.

When deciding how to decorate salads for March 8, special attention should be paid to the main number of the holiday. It would be relevant to place an edible figure eight on the appetizer. You can make it from any vegetables, herbs, canned legumes, or decorate it with any sauces.

By March 8, you can place any flowers on the salad. Finely grated cheese or the yolk of a boiled egg will help to depict a fluffy mimosa, pieces of white and yolk - chamomile, cherry tomatoes with a cut tip - red tulips, and thin rolled slices of ham or red fish - roses of different shades.

It will be very impressive if edible flowers are in a “basket”. It can be drawn with mayonnaise or cheese sauce at the bottom of the dish. Also, the interlaced basket is easily laid out from thin strips of smoked cheese, green onions, and fibers of boiled chicken.

For birthday, anniversary

A birthday salad should be especially bright and appetizing. You can endlessly experiment with its design. There is no single theme for this.

An interesting idea is to make a birthday salad in the form of a birthday cake.

  • The entire surface of such a snack (be sure to choose a puff version) should be covered with chopped herbs, grated cheese or egg, potato strips fried until golden brown, Korean or boiled grated carrots.
  • “Cream” roses can be easily created from mayonnaise, soft cheese or any thick sauce. A pastry bag or a cut off corner of a regular bag will help the housewife with this.
  • On the surface of such a “cake” you can place either real candles or ones made from blocks of cheese and pieces of red pepper that imitate a flame.

On birthday salads, you can use any delicious ingredients to display the age of the birthday person or write wishes for him with sauces.

Original vegetable decorations

Numerous vegetable decorations can be made interesting and unusual.

There are several such options:

  1. Onion chrysanthemum. To make it, the peeled vegetable head is cut (not completely) first crosswise in the middle. Then shallow additional cuts are made - if you lower the knife too low, the vegetable will simply fall apart. All that remains is to place the onion in cold water for 1.5 - 2 hours and wait until it “blooms”. If this happens too slowly, you can gently help the vegetable with your hands.
  2. Tomato tulips. For this purpose, oval elongated tomatoes are always used. At the end they are cut crosswise to create sharp ends. If desired, you can remove the core with a spoon and stuff the fruit, for example, with cheese, mayonnaise and garlic.
  3. Roses. Appetizing roses can be created from many vegetables. The main thing is to cut the products into as thin slices as possible. This could be radishes, cucumbers, beets and others.
  4. Palm. This is a very quick decoration option. For him, the salad is pierced with two long skewers. Place several whole pitted olives on each one. Their top is decorated with fluffy parsley.
  5. Ladybugs and bees. Such guests for salads can be made from cherry tomatoes, black olives, and olives. For example, to create “ladybugs” you need to place half a small tomato with the tip cut off on the appetizer, and the beetle’s head can easily be depicted with half an olive. Black dots are created from the same cut olive or pepper. For the “bees”, olives and olives are cut into pieces and placed, alternating, on the salad. “Wings” for them are made from thin slices of cheese or pickled cucumber.

For children's parties

When decorating salads for children's parties, it is worth using your favorite cartoon characters, fairy tales and simply funny animals in their design.

  • A very simple and popular design option is “Mouse Fuss”. To do this, any salad is first covered with finely grated cheese or egg yolk. Delicious edible “mice” sit on top. You can make them from a boiled egg. The tail and cheese are created from slices of cheese, and the eyes and nose are made from black pepper.
  • It is no more difficult to design a salad in the shape of a hedgehog. To do this, it is laid out in the shape of an animal body and completely covered with grated protein. The spines are created from olive slices. The nose and eyes are made from pieces of olive. You can also place a cherry or a miniature apple on the resulting delicious thorns.
  • The design of the salad in the form of a watermelon slice looks very impressive. The salad can be anything that can be given the appropriate shape. The appetizer is topped with grated cucumber first, and the next layer is formed with grated cheese. And finally (closer to the middle of the plate) small pieces of tomato are distributed. Thin olive slices will imitate pits.
  • If you don't plan to add anything to the mayonnaise salad, you can easily turn it into a fun crab. To do this, the body of the sea creature, as well as the lower and upper claws, is laid out from the appetizer on a large plate. They are decorated with pieces of boiled carrots or sweet bell peppers. The muzzle is drawn from a piece of any bright vegetable (mouth) and egg slices with sweet peppercorns (eyes).

Egg decorations for holiday table salads

You can even use ordinary boiled eggs to decorate salads for the holiday table.

There are a huge number of design options for snacks made from such products. Both chicken and quail eggs will do. They must first be boiled until the yolk becomes firm.

  • To make a swan, two eggs are used at once. One is left whole (body), the other is cut into pieces (head, wings and tail). Eyes are depicted on a rounded block using black pepper, and a beak is made from a piece of carrot. All additional parts in the right places are inserted into the first egg.
  • To make delicious mushrooms, soak the egg white halves in tea for 15 to 20 minutes. When the products are colored, they should be placed on whole white boiled eggs. All that remains is to supplement the composition with a large amount of greenery. The resulting delicious caps can also be decorated with drops of mayonnaise.
  • A variety of characters can be easily created from eggs - chickens, fish, penguins, snowmen, piglets. Their body becomes a whole boiled egg or its half. Additional parts of the characters are created from pieces of olives, boiled carrots, cucumbers, and cheese.
  • A boiled egg cut into pieces easily turns into a flower. You can put chamomile, lily, chrysanthemum on a salad from it.

Portioned salad for Defender of the Fatherland Day can be served in the form of shoulder straps. To do this, the appetizer is laid out on a plate in a rectangle. Top with small pieces of kiwi or chopped herbs. All that remains is to draw even stripes on the salad with ketchup and add cheese stars.

You can also decorate the dish in the form of a tank. To do this, the salad is laid out on a large flat plate. From it you need to form a tank with all the details. All that remains is to decorate it with fresh/pickled vegetables. For example, make a star out of carrots, and wheels out of cucumber or olive slices.

DIY salad decorations for beginners

It’s easy to effectively decorate a salad with your own hands, even for those who are far from cooking. The simplest way to present a snack is as a gift. To do this, the salad is simply laid out in the shape of a square and covered with “ribbons” of cucumber. You can make a “bow” from strips of boiled carrots. Or add a rose from any vegetable to the middle of a delicious gift.

You can always simply place the resulting treat on lettuce leaves. This will already give it a festive look. All that remains is to top the appetizer with any sauce pattern or vegetable decoration.

If the holiday is dedicated to a specific date, then it will be enough to display the salad in the form of the corresponding number to surprise the guests. For example, on March 8, appetizers of eight are served. Grated cheese/yolk or canned corn, as well as a large amount of fresh herbs, will help complete the decoration.

When serving food, it is important not only what it tastes like, but also how it looks.

After all, any housewife would want to surprise a guest with a truly exquisite treat, which is also beautifully decorated.

Decorations for salads can not only make them look more appetizing, but also add new notes to the taste.

Quartered eggs, casually placed on top, will add elegance and a little minimalism. In addition to eggs, slices of tomatoes or halves of cherry tomatoes are used; you can add beets or green leaves.

Boiled eggs are finely grated and sprinkled on the dish; for this you can use either the whole egg or the white or yolk separately. Just circles or slices will also look interesting if you make a decoration from 2-3 on the edge.

The easiest way to make various shapes from eggs is with the help of toothpicks, these can be:

  • cockerel (a carrot comb on top);
  • mouse (ears made from sausage, radishes or cheese);
  • hare (ears also made of protein);
  • bug (antennae made of greenery);
  • hedgehog (needles from grated carrots or carrot segments).

The shape of the egg best suits the body of the animal and has the optimal color for this. Such jewelry will become truly unforgettable due to its originality.

From vegetables

Roses made from cucumbers or sausage, mushrooms made from eggs and tomatoes will certainly be a very elegant addition to the dish. A lot depends on the consistency of the salad itself, because the components themselves can become its decorations. Most often, alternating large, finely chopped and grated vegetables is used. With their help, you can lay out various patterns, against which figures and compositions are created. By laying out thin slices of radishes, tomatoes or cucumbers, we get beautiful patterns or flowers that can be used in the middle or complemented with something around the edges.

You can create cute lambs from broccoli and olives, and tulips from tomatoes and cheese (suluguni or soft cheese). In fact, there is a huge choice of what can be created from vegetable pieces.

From a bow

The most suitable for decoration would be onions with pinkish colors; their rings are used both raw and pickled. The white root of the onion needs to be cut and sprinkled beautifully around the edges.

And, of course, the simplest and most popular option, which is most often used for fur coats and vegetable salads, is chives. At your discretion, you can also finely chop it, or stick its greens into the dish. If you want to use onions, starting to open the circles at the top and carefully trimming them around the edges will create a beautiful flower.

From mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is the basis of almost any sauce, but it can also be used as an independent element. Using sauces, you can draw any patterns, for example, a checkered pattern or simply make zigzags in a thin stream. Chopped herbs can also be sprinkled on top of the sauce.

Sauces can really make a salad extraordinarily attractive, in addition, sauces will help add specificity to the usual taste. The most ordinary vegetables will sparkle in a completely new way; in this combination, a dish made from even the simplest ingredients will become amazingly tasty.

Salad decoration options

Let's look at how you can decorate various salads.

Olivie

The most popular salad in Russia has long acquired its stereotypical appearance, but let's try to dispel it and come up with something to decorate it with. Since Olivier is one of the main symbols of the New Year, this reference can also be used in the festive design of dishes.

You can cut out arrows and numbers from sweet peppers and assemble a dial indicating 12 o'clock. Also, with the help of dill, you can easily create a Christmas tree or a fir branch, which can be decorated with bright vegetables in the form of Christmas tree decorations. The salad itself can be placed on a platter in a wide variety of forms, in the form of an animal, a Christmas tree, a wreath or a large flower. However, of course, Olivier is present at more than one holiday, and it is not at all necessary to always use exactly this design.

Mimosas

Mimosa is traditionally made with an egg base and is yellow in color (as its name suggests), so the most popular way to decorate mimosa is to sprinkle grated yolk on top of an even layer of mayonnaise. In addition, you can use yellow analogues and grate the cheese; this will make the taste very unusual, but will not spoil it at all. Using an egg as the basis for decorating the salad, you can place mice or bees of a matching color on top of it.

Herrings under a fur coat

Herring under a fur coat is one of the most colorful salads at any feast, but the top layer can be further decorated. Small pieces of carrots or herring are used to lay out a beautiful pattern diagonally, which ends with dill leaves at the ends. Nuts will look beautiful against a dark background.

It is better to make decorations for a fur coat in white, yellow or green. Flowers or geometric patterns can be made from onions or eggs. Fish drawn with mayonnaise or laid out from grated eggs will look very original and cute. Most often, halves of raw onion rings are laid out over the entire surface, which look like scales, and at the end they draw eyes and a mouth.

Crab

Crab salad can be sprinkled with corn on top, decorated with slices of crab sticks or roses made from them. Crackers or snacks can be served as an appetizer; therefore, they can be casually placed on one side of the salad bowl. An addition in the form of seafood, for example, shrimp or a couple of pieces of red fish, will also be interesting, but only as a decorative element.

Vegetable

Vegetable salads can be topped with some ingredients, for example, peas, corn, or cucumber slices. The best decoration for vegetable dishes is, of course, greens: you can put a couple of sprigs of dill, parsley or lettuce on top. Finely chopped greens will look beautiful if you generously sprinkle the top layer with it.

The appearance will become much more interesting if you chop all the ingredients coarsely and add bright seasonings to them. Especially if some of the seasonings, nuts, herbs and small ingredients are left in the center and mixed just before serving. Large slices of citrus (not only lemon, but even lime) will add an unusual accent not only to the design, but also to the taste of the ingredients.

In addition, the salad ingredients can be laid out symmetrically from the center to the edges, and the dish can also be mixed just before serving.

For a children's party

When decorating a table for a children's party, it is better to use simple and funny shapes, for example, on top of a salad you can lay out the shape of a car or a flower from olives, tomatoes and vegetables. It will be very convenient for children to eat canapés on colorful skewers. In addition, using skewers or toothpicks you can create various shapes:

  • fly agaric (egg - leg, tomato - cap);
  • a ship with a sail (a thin slice of cucumber or lettuce leaf placed on a toothpick in the shape of a sail);
  • bees (alternating olives and olives, radish wings).

At children's parties, fruit salads and snacks are especially popular, since for children they are much preferable to vegetables, and besides, such a dessert will be much healthier than ice cream or cakes. It is not necessary to mix the fruits; they can be served cut on a plate, with skewers and sweet additives, jam, hot chocolate and honey placed around the edges.

Decorating snacks and cuts

Various snacks and cuts themselves look very attractive if they are carefully laid out in a circle or in rows. But, of course, little additions will only make them more appetizing and even tastier. Most often, products that form a tasty combination with them are used to decorate slices. You can add olives and black olives to the edges of the sliced ​​meat; you can take them together with a skewer, and this way their taste will become much brighter. Greens, a handful of nuts, sauces around the edges - all this will give the dish elegance and new notes in taste.

Serving salad

In essence, serving a dish is its presentation, and a lot depends on how beautifully it is presented.

Choosing a beautiful salad bowl

The most beautiful salad bowls have always been considered to be dishes made of thin material, such as porcelain. But bright ingredients will also look beautiful in a glass salad bowl, either elegantly shaped with patterns or in a minimalist style. It is better to select a salad bowl that is slightly larger than the volume of the salad itself, so that it does not fall over the edges and cause inconvenience to anyone. It will be much easier to prepare it this way, and there will be room for decoration.

DIY salad bowl

The salad can be served in tartlets or on a lettuce leaf, a very unconventional way of serving, but quite beautiful, especially if you add some vegetable slices on the edge.

For salads that are laid out in layers, for example, with fried champignons, mimosa, herring under a fur coat, “tenderness,” there is another interesting way of serving. A cylinder is cut out of an ordinary plastic bottle, placed on a plate, a salad is made inside it, then the mold is removed and a multi-colored cylinder of the dish remains, in which each layer is visible. Of course, this form does not have to be used specifically for puff pastries, but they will look the most interesting.

The shape can also be cut out of vegetables: a pumpkin salad bowl or improvised tartlets from cucumber halves; for fruit compositions, the shape can be created from orange peels.

Examples of salad decoration

Some examples of decorating salads at home and in a restaurant.

At home

Jewelry that can be created at home is not as intricate as professional ones. However, this does not make them any less original or sophisticated. The good thing about cooking at home is that you can make it your own and let your imagination run wild.

After all, no restaurant will serve a dish decorated with an egg mouse or a fish, but it’s so cool. At the same time, you can even entrust the decoration of salads to a child; it will be a wonderful activity for him to create animals from vegetables, and this will help the baby fall in love with healthy foods.

In restaurants

Of course, in restaurants, the beauty of serving a dish plays a much larger role, as this is assessed by management, guests and critics. Therefore, professionals are obliged to make a work of art from any dish, quickly, simply and tasty. In restaurants, it is important not only to have decorations, but also that the dish itself looks like a decoration. Therefore, they pay special attention to details, sauces and seasonings when preparing. Conclusion

Decoration is an important part of preparing a salad, because it is the appearance that makes the dish even more appetizing. In addition, the process of creating jewelry is very interesting and not at all complicated. They can be made from absolutely anything: any vegetables, sauces, herbs. This will make the housewife’s life a lot easier, and she will finally have a favorite step in preparing salads for the holidays.

Salad decoration is an important part of the entire serving. You can decorate dishes not only with the usual herbs, but also with a variety of cuts, mayonnaise designs, and figurines. Dishes that received proper attention during presentation are always much tastier and more beautiful than the rest.

“Shuba” salad is one of our people’s favorite salads because it consists of simple and affordable ingredients, and their combination gives a unique and delicate taste. “Shuba” is often prepared for the New Year and Christmas holidays, and it always evokes a feeling of triumph and joy in a person, even on the most ordinary everyday day.

Herring under a fur coat got its name only because the fish is covered with many “fluffy” vegetable and mayonnaise layers with which it is covered on a serving dish. But how boring the same salad bowl with this dish can look at every holiday. Nowadays, it is popular and relevant to create an unusual and original presentation for everything, and “fur coat” is no exception.

The most common and “boring” serving of herring salad “Shuba”

Original serving of the standard salad “Herring under a fur coat”:

  • One of the methods involves giving the salad the shape of a fish; it is not necessary to imitate the herring itself, but the shape of a funny, even slightly childish fish can provoke joy and a smile in everyone
  • To do this, the salad should be laid out on a plate in advance in a specific shape: an oval with a tail
  • All the details that are characteristic of a fish can be created from scrap materials: scraps of vegetables, olives, herbs, onion rings, mayonnaise designs


original presentation of the “herring under a fur coat” salad in the shape of a fish

Unusual presentation of the salad “Herring under a fur coat”:

  • One of the most unusual variations of serving “shuba” salad on the table is serving it in the form of a roll.
  • This salad contains a set of standard ingredients, which differ only in that all layers are placed on cling film and in reverse order: beets, carrots, egg, fish, onions, potatoes (depend on your recipe)
  • Then all the contents are carefully rolled up using film and a roll is formed.
  • The roll should be put in the refrigerator to harden and only after a sufficient amount of time has passed, when the mayonnaise has held all the layers together, carefully place it on a plate.


unusual presentation of “shuba” salad in the form of a roll

You can decorate the “shuba” salad roll with bright greens and a mayonnaise “mesh” pattern.

Beautiful presentation of the salad “Herring under a fur coat”:

  • This serving involves arranging the salad in the shape of a ring.
  • To do this you will need a special hard or silicone baking dish.
  • In order for the salad to keep its shape, all layers must be laid out slightly compacted and pressed tightly against each other.
  • The salad in the form is placed in the refrigerator for several hours to “set”
  • After the time has passed, you need to cover the mold with a serving plate, sharply turn the mold with the plate upside down and tap the mold a little so that the salad comes away from it.
  • Decorate the finished salad with herbs and chopped vegetables


beautiful presentation of salad “herring under a fur coat”

Decorating the Olivier salad, original ideas for serving a familiar dish

“Olivier” is the most popular and most common dish on holiday tables. Like “Shuba”, they love to cook it for New Year and Christmas, and the taste of this salad will certainly evoke pleasant associations for everyone. But no matter how tasty and beloved this salad is, its standard and usual presentation in the form of a “heap” can be boring and uninteresting.

An original and non-standard presentation of a familiar dish will help to correct the situation and decorate, as well as diversify the table. There are several winning variations for this.



Regular and standard serving of Olivier salad on the table

Original serving of Olivier salad:

  • The original Olivier salad should contain pickled chopped cucumber
  • Not everyone knows the delicious and very balanced combination of pickled salted and fresh cucumber
  • Try decorating the salad with slices of fresh cucumber, which will not only make the dish festive, but also make it more “fresh” and juicy
  • In order to do this beautifully, you should use either a wide, well-sharpened knife, or a special vegetable peeler (which is much more convenient, faster and easier)
  • Cucumber slices should be cut lengthwise. You can lay them out in the form of a fan, in the form of ruffles or curls.
  • If you wish, you can decorate the salad with potato chips (this is important, since the recipe itself also contains potatoes)


original presentation of the usual Olivier salad, decorated with fresh cucumber and potato chips

An unusual presentation of the standard Olivier salad:

  • The unusual presentation of the usual Olivier salad involves a little “game” with the ingredients of the dish
  • In order to give it a beautiful shape, you will need to use either a special salad mold or any round jar
  • Prepare the salad as you usually do, the only condition is not to add peas
  • Place the salad tightly in the mold so that it holds its shape.
  • Blend the peas without liquid in a blender until a paste forms.
  • Place the resulting paste in an even layer on top of the salad, level with a knife
  • Remove the mold. Place the decoration on top of the green cap: a boiled quail egg, cut in half and a spoonful of red caviar
  • Be sure that such a dish will sparkle in a new way and give you a completely different taste sensation.


unusual presentation of Olivier salad on the table

Beautiful presentation of Olivier salad on a festive table:

  • As mentioned earlier, “Olivier” is a real New Year’s dish
  • A beautiful presentation involves decorating this salad in the shape of a New Year tree and this is not at all difficult to do
  • For this design you will need a two-liter plastic bottle
  • Cut the bottle in half and place the salad in dense layers in its narrow part (where the neck is).
  • Let the salad sit in the refrigerator for several hours
  • After this, cover the salad with a plate and turn it over, pull the bottle up, the salad will remain on the plate
  • The resulting “slide” should be decorated with sprigs of dill; pomegranate seeds can be toys


beautiful presentation of the usual Olivier salad on the festive table

Mimosa salad is one of the simplest dishes for a holiday or everyday table. It can always be prepared from inexpensive ingredients, because its highlight is canned sardines. Salad is always eaten with pleasure: both at lunch and on holidays. Its unusual design can distinguish it from other dishes and make it your “calling card” on the table.



usual serving of traditional sardine Mimosa salad

Original serving of Mimosa salad:

  • An original presentation of Mimosa in a humorous style will help surprise guests and delight everyone at the festive table.
  • You can create decorations for a beautiful presentation using the ingredients themselves: boiled eggs that will become “mice”
  • In principle, creating such a feed is not at all labor-intensive, but it requires patience and accuracy
  • The salad should be prepared in the standard way - in a “slide”, a bit like a ball of cheese.
  • Garnish the salad with grated yolk, which will add color and brightness.
  • Three boiled eggs should be decorated with cheese, olives and sprigs of herbs, forming ears, eyes, nose and antennae
  • The mice should be evenly distributed over the entire area of ​​the “head of cheese”


original decoration for Mimosa salad for the holidays

Unusual serving of Mimosa salad:

  • This serving involves serving salad in portions.
  • It looks like several unique mounds, each of which can be taken and placed on its own plate.
  • We can say that these are several small Mimosa salads at once.
  • This salad is prepared traditionally, each layer is laid out after the other and at the end sprinkled with yolk or yellow cheese
  • You can place such mounds on lettuce leaves that line the bottom of the serving dish.
  • Such a “hilly” serving will distract from the standard and arouse guests’ interest in trying the dish
  • Garnish the mounds with parsley sprigs and black olives


an unusual presentation of Mimosa salad on a festive table

Beautiful presentation of Mimosa salad:

  • One of the simplest, but nevertheless beautiful ways to serve a salad is the image of the mimosa flower itself.
  • The salad got its name due to the fact that its top layer of yolk is very reminiscent of a fluffy mimosa bloom.
  • That is why you can decorate the salad by “drawing” twigs, the basis of which will be dill tassels
  • The salad should be decorated in this way just before serving because the greens may “weather” during the time spent in the refrigerator and lose their decent appearance.
  • For the background, it is proposed to lay out a layer of grated egg white, and make flowers and a frame from the yolk


beautiful presentation of Mimosa salad with the image of a blooming mimosa

Garnishing salad with pepper? How to beautifully decorate a salad with bell peppers?

Bell peppers are a fairly suitable material for decorating salads and other dishes. It has a good color palette: yellow, orange, red, light green, green. Its elasticity is also important, thanks to which you can set the desired shape and contour of the pattern.

There are several most popular ways to decorate a salad with bell peppers:

One way suggests you create a certain figure, for example, a dragon. This is especially true in the Year of the Dragon according to the eastern calendar or for a party in a certain medieval style. It is easy to cut out the shape of a dragon's face, its spines on its back, wings and legs from bell peppers. Eyes and some fine details can be carved from olives.



decorating salads with bell peppers, creating figures with bell peppers

In another case, bell pepper - An excellent form for serving the salad itself. You can use absolutely any salad. The pepper is carefully cut in half and cleared of seeds. A salad is placed in the lower part from the remains of the pepper and a boat sail is formed with skewers. It should be remembered that for serving you need a perfectly smooth pepper without external damage.



original serving of salad and decoration of salads with pepper

An easier way is stuff the peppers with a certain salad. This is a neat and beautiful way to serve a salad that brings out the wonderful, light flavor of the peppers.



peppers stuffed with salad for serving

The color palette of pepper allows give your any salad a certain color, therefore, this vegetable gives you huge scope for creativity and decorating salads like fruits, flowers and other interesting objects. To do this, just chop the pepper very finely and lay it out in an even layer.



how to decorate a salad with bell peppers?

Smooth and beautiful bell pepper rings can be a beautiful decoration for any salad, no matter how you place them, the main thing is to do it with taste and soul.



salad decoration with pepper. How to decorate a salad with pepper?

How to decorate a salad with pineapples? Pineapple salad garnishes

Pineapple is one of the most popular salad garnishes in modern salads. Sweet canned pineapple goes well with meat, chicken and mushrooms. Pineapple jewelry is always original and unusual.

Most often you can find a decoration that symbolizes an open flower. As a rule, it is complemented by other elements: currants or pomegranates, greens.



standard and traditional salad decoration with canned pineapple

You can also decorate the salad with simple cubes of canned pineapple mixed with bell peppers and cranberries: sweet, sour and fresh taste will be mixed at the same time, which will give the dish a special impression and exclusivity.



salad decoration with canned pineapple cubes

Canned pineapple rings can be easily transformed into flowering carnations, you just need to be diligent and careful.



salad decoration with canned pineapple rings

Don’t forget about the regular pineapple, half of which can become not only a decoration, but also a form for a salad.



salad decoration with pineapple, beautifully served in half a fresh pineapple

Salad decorated with tomatoes. How to decorate a salad with tomatoes?

Tomato is one of the best “materials” for decorating and decorating any salad. From an elastic vegetable you can cut out various figures of various shapes:

  • mugs
  • hearts
  • stripes and much more

The tomato can be blanched (peeled) or used as usual. When decorating a salad with a tomato, remember that you will only need the soft part of it; the seeds should be completely removed.

The easiest way to give your salad an interesting look is to create a ladybug. To do this, you will also need black olives to create spots and faces.



decorating any salad with a tomato in the shape of a ladybug

An unusual and rather complex way to decorate a salad is to make tulips out of tomatoes. To do this, you need to observe some subtleties:

  • You should choose and buy only elastic, elongated tomatoes.
  • Each tomato is carefully cleaned of seeds
  • To remove seeds and the inside of a tomato, you need to cut it into four petals; if it doesn’t work out, don’t worry. You can always hide the “bad” side by placing it on a plate, and reveal the beautiful side to your eyes
  • Each tulip is stuffed with lettuce, be careful: the lettuce must be finely grated or chopped so as to “keep its shape” and not make the flower crumpled
  • The flower stem can be made from greenery or green onion feathers


how to decorate a salad with tomatoes? unusual ways to decorate tomato salad

If you cut the skin of a tomato thinly and carefully enough lengthwise with a sharp knife, then you can make a beautiful rose from the resulting “ribbon.”

how to decorate a tomato salad in an unusual, original and beautiful way?

You can decorate cherry tomato salad in a unique way. To do this, slightly oblong tomatoes need to be cut slightly diagonally and the two halves of two tomatoes should be combined in the shape of a heart.



How to beautifully and unusually decorate a salad with tomatoes?

The standard and traditional way to decorate a salad with tomatoes is to stuff them with lettuce. Olives and mayonnaise will help create a certain pattern.



decorating salads with tomato figurines

Salad decorated with cucumber, how to beautifully decorate a salad with cucumber?

Just like the tomato, the cucumber is an excellent material for decorating absolutely any salads. Thinly sliced ​​cucumbers can always become a flower, where each piece imitates a separate petal. Moreover, you can use both fresh and pickled vegetables.



original and unusual decoration of salads with cucumber

You can always cut leaves of any plant of various shapes from the skin and center of a cucumber. Decorating salads with such leaves is a pleasure.



decorating salad with cucumber, creating patterns and “leaves” from cucumber

salad decoration with pickled cucumber

In order to create figures and patterns from a cucumber, it must be sliced ​​very thinly using a wide sharp knife, a vegetable peeler, or a special cucumber cutter that makes a spring out of it.

How to decorate a salad with an egg? Egg Salad Decorations

Eggs are not only beautiful, but also delicious decorations for salads. You can use ordinary chicken eggs for salad, or you can use quail eggs, which, due to their miniature size, are neat and aesthetically pleasing. The salad should be decorated exclusively with boiled eggs.

One of the most common methods involves cutting flower petals from whites and creating a center from grated yolk. These flowers can be used to decorate Mimosa and any other salad that contains eggs.



How to decorate a salad with an egg in a beautiful and original way?

Even just quail eggs cut into halves can give any salad a festive and very “tasty” look. To do this, place the halves throughout the dish or lay them along the edge, repeating a certain pattern. Quail eggs can be decorated with a “bead” of red caviar if it is a fish salad and with a ring of black olive for any other salad.

Small halves of quail eggs also perfectly embody the petals of a flower, for example, a daisy. From the larger halves you can make boats, animal faces, the image of a snowman or Santa Claus for certain holidays.



salad decorated with quail eggs stuffed with yolk and mayonnaise

Easter salad decorated with halves of quail eggs painted with food coloring

salad decorated with flowers made from egg white; salad can be decorated with eggs in the shape of mushrooms, the second half of the mushroom is painted with onion skins

You can decorate the salad with a snake made from egg rings

How to decorate a salad with mayonnaise?

Mayonnaise is the easiest way to quickly and beautifully decorate any salad. Mayonnaise is included in almost every salad and therefore decoration and designs from it are always relevant. Mayonnaise decoration is drawings on the salad with a thin stream of sauce. They can be applied in three ways:

  • making a small hole in the sauce packet and squeezing it onto the surface of the dish carefully
  • placing the sauce in a plastic bag (forming it into a bag similar to a pastry bag) and making a small hole in it
  • Place the sauce in a pastry bag or syringe

There are several ways to decorate a salad with mayonnaise:

  • drawing a neat mesh on it
  • by drawing lace or curls from a mayonnaise stream on it
  • by drawing certain details of the figures on the salad and vegetable figurines

There are several rules for decorating a salad with mayonnaise:

  • for decoration, purchase mayonnaise only with the highest percentage of fat content so that it “keeps its shape”
  • Apply the mayonnaise pattern right before serving the salad to prevent the sauce from darkening, turning yellow, running or spoiling.
  • do everything with special care and then your work will not go unnoticed


simple traditional salad decoration with mayonnaise

“mesh” of mayonnaise - a simple and unusual salad decoration with mayonnaise

How to beautifully decorate salads with herbs?

Greens are a good and practical material for decorating salads. As a rule, you can always create patterns from greenery that replicate vegetation:

  • twigs
  • bushes
  • trees
  • grass
  • leaves

Absolutely any greenery can be suitable for decoration, which just needs to be used creatively. Most often, chopped greens are used to create a green background on which you can plant fungi from an egg, ladybugs from a tomato, or simply make the green part of the watermelon rind in the Watermelon Slice salad.



Salad "Violet" - an unusual decoration for a salad made from thinly sliced ​​radishes and green basil leaves

Herringbone salad, where the shape and color of the tree can be made from chopped parsley

“Mushroom Glade” salad, where chopped greens are laid out as a background - grass in a meadow where mushrooms grow

How to decorate a salad with dill?

Dill, due to its small branches, becomes an excellent decoration for salad. Especially if you chop it finely. It can be conveniently distributed over the entire area of ​​the layer; it will create a uniform and non-transparent background. It is often used to “paint” spruce branches on your salad. This is relevant when preparing festive New Year and Christmas salads.

Before you decorate your salad with dill, try to follow a few important rules:

  • choose only fresh, rich green dill for decoration
  • Decorate the salad with dill right before serving so that it does not lose its appearance during long-term storage.
  • by choosing fresh dill you guarantee not only the color, but also the taste of your dish


Christmas wreath salad decorated with dill on the festive table

Ideas for decorating holiday salads for holidays and every day

Decorating salads is a noble cause. So, you get incredible aesthetic pleasure from the dish without even tasting it. Ordinary everyday and especially holiday salads for the New Year, Birthday and even March 8 require decorations.

How much time and effort you spend on decorating the salad affects the overall perception of the dish and even how long the salad will stay on the table. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try to decorate the salad with any edible details at hand:

  • sliced ​​vegetables
  • sliced ​​from different types of cheese
  • sliced ​​smoked and dried meats
  • black olives
  • green olives
  • pickled and boiled vegetables
  • boiled chicken and quail eggs
  • red caviar
  • regular and leafy greens


decorating a holiday salad with grated boiled vegetables and a boiled egg

garnishing the salad with boiled egg halves and carrot slices

salad decoration with herbs and orange peels

Unusual edible decoration for children's salads made from figurines

Children are real gourmets; they often eat only what suits them. But not much suits them. It is for this reason that caring mothers are increasingly having to invent unusual decorations from edible materials so that their children show interest in food. Boiled eggs and vegetables, herbs, cheese and meat are used.

Creating a beautiful and even voluminous design on a salad or snack for your baby is not difficult. However, you should show a lot of perseverance, be patient and be careful.



children's bunny salad made from boiled egg

children's salad "Tiger Cub", made from boiled egg, boiled carrots and sausage

children's salad "Strawberry" decorated with chopped tomato and cucumber

Original design and decoration of snacks for the festive table

The appetizer is the first thing guests try at the holiday table. It should always be distinguished by its special delicate taste and external aesthetic appearance in order to attract everyone. The snack usually consists of boiled eggs, vegetables, olives, sausage and cheese. It’s not uncommon for appetizers to include delicious seafood.

You can beautifully decorate any appetizer - fish or meat - with the help of halves of boiled quail eggs filled with a variety of dressings - red, black, capelin.



garnishing the appetizer with boiled quail eggs

salad decoration with shrimps and swan-shaped tomato mats

garnishing the appetizer with thinly sliced ​​vegetables

Video: " How to decorate salads and appetizers for the holiday table in an original way?”

Aesthetic pleasure from the sight of a salad affects taste perception. So it is advisable that in relation to dishes the definitions of “attractive” and “tasty” always go together. It’s not enough to just prepare a delicious appetizer; you also need to think about how to decorate the salads, and for this it’s useful to consider several successful design ideas.

General principles

If the question arises of how to decorate salads with your own hands, then first you need to decide on the occasion for which the dish is being prepared. It could be New Year, a child's or adult's birthday, a wedding. And for each occasion it is required to follow a certain theme. If it is enough to simply diversify the everyday table, then the design may consist of an interesting technology for arranging products and choosing a more original dressing. One has only to remember the beautiful design of salads from restaurants - they do not have excessive decoration, but both in the photo and in reality they look very appetizing.

  1. A very simple way is to find a suitable “container”. And I don’t mean an ordinary plate, but half a bell pepper, zucchini or pumpkin.
  2. You can choose a recipe that involves a combination of shapes and colors - this will be a beautiful decoration for salads.
  3. Sliced ​​cheese and meat can be used as a base for a salad slide - this is easy to do, and such an appetizer looks interesting.

For the New Year

You can decorate salads with your own hands for such a long-awaited holiday: just give the salad mass the shape of a Christmas tree. A good idea for a classic Olivier, the green color with a recognizable silhouette is completely optional, but garlands of corn or olives will be a beautiful addition. Many housewives prefer to build on the patron of the coming year:

  1. If this is a dog, then you can lay out the muzzle: cover the circle with ears with grated yolk, make eyes from whites and olives, and make a tongue from milk sausage. The basis can be a simple salad of pate with cucumbers and eggs.
  2. There is still a long time until the Year of the Snake, but when it approaches, you can form this symbol from any salad with mayonnaise, and lay out the scales with thin semicircles of cucumber, and the eyes with corn kernels.
  3. And when the Year of the Dragon approaches, this majestic creature can be laid out similarly to a snake and add sprigs of dill as whiskers, and powerful wings can be formed from Chinese cabbage.

And you can do this every year! Each salad is a figure symbolizing the coming year. It’s not difficult to form such an appetizer at home and serve it to the table.

For a birthday

Usually the central dish is complemented with verbal congratulations. And if the salad has become such a dish, then it can be decorated even more impressively than a cake. Here you should listen to the following tips:

If the child’s birthday is approaching, then they start from the interests and individual preferences of the birthday boy - this is a win-win option.

For a children's party, you can decorate salads in different ways:

  1. Unusual shape. This move is usually used when preparing a cake. You can do the same with a salad, laying out the ingredients in the form of the necessary figure - a bear, a car, a bunny, a bow. But this method is only suitable for snacks that contain mayonnaise or sour cream as a binding component. Without the dense and thick consistency of the salad mass, the figure will not hold its shape for long.
  2. Painting. And it’s not at all necessary to try to depict a masterpiece on the surface of the salad. Even simple flowers and a small sun will attract children's attention. Favorite cartoon characters are also a good solution.
  3. Volumetric decor. This requires skill. But the simplest option is to portion the salad into “boats” of zucchini, cucumbers, and peppers and supplement them with skewers with thin slices of cheese - this will create real boats.

Color spectrum

Professional chefs have no doubt that you can make a salad beautifully with any product, be it ordinary cucumbers or sausage. Even if the salad includes only a jar of canned fish and an onion, you can create an original design. For the appetizer to take on a finished look, you just need to stock up on imagination, a bit of skill and have some free time. Particular attention should be paid to dyes that are easy to obtain from available products:

  • red: lingonberries, cranberries, pomegranate seeds, tomatoes, red bell pepper;
  • raspberry: beets;
  • orange: oranges, sea buckthorn, carrot juice;
  • yellow: egg yolk, saffron, corn;
  • blue: juice from regular red cabbage;
  • green: spinach and any greens;
  • black: pitted olives.

With these multi-colored products, it's so easy to create the desired color scheme on the finished salad.

Decoration from vegetables, nuts, eggs

The selected products must keep their shape, so vegetables are usually taken that have not been heat-treated. Various figures are cut out of the products using a figured knife and laid out on a dish in a pre-designed or random order.

But you can also use simple decoration options, which are already considered classics in cooking:

Snacks are also often decorated with nuts. The usual basic sprinkling of crushed nuts makes the salad more appetizing, but you can think about the shapes of the kernels and create a full-fledged picture from them. A classic of the genre - winter salad, decorated with walnut kernels. And sesame grains are often chosen for assorted diets. Only first the nuts are roasted.

And if eggs are used as decoration, then they must first be properly cooked so that the yolk does not fall apart during processing. To do this, professionals cook them in a special way: they put the product in cold water until it completely covers it, wait until it boils, count nine minutes, take it out and quickly cool it.

Decorating with eggs usually involves creating single flowers or bouquets on the surface. To do this, you need to cut the egg lengthwise and place the resulting halves in the desired shape and in the required direction.

But there are other interesting options:

  1. Petals are made from “slices”: the egg is cut vertically into a couple of plates half a centimeter thick.
  2. The egg yolk is turned into crumbs and simply sprinkled on ready-made salads. It is also used to create yellow mimosa balls when preparing the salad of the same name.
  3. If you take out the yolk, the white halves can be used as boats. You can put a toothpick with a slice of cheese or a bent circle of cucumber in them to get a boat. Or you can simply stuff the halves with any ready-made salad.

Original design

There are also more unusual options that are used to decorate salads less often, but this does not make them look any less impressive. With original ideas, decorating snacks will be very enjoyable:

  1. Ice. Make a bowl of ordinary frozen water, inserting pieces of vegetables into it. The salad is served there.
  2. Jelly. They can be used to pour prepared ingredients and serve snacks cut into portions. An alternative method is to create dense figures from the jelly to decorate the dish.
  3. Carving. This design is very often found in restaurants. Carving design involves beautifully shaped cutting of fruits and vegetables, but it can also be used with sausage or cheese. Home carving can be turned into an interesting family leisure activity. You can form a bouquet from boiled sausage, cut into thin slices, and using a peeler, you can cut a cucumber into long flexible layers and decorate a blossoming bud.

You can also consider full-fledged compositions, the creation of which is also not difficult. Here are simple step-by-step options for designing snacks:

  1. Christmas wreath. Take any salad as a base and lay it out in a ring. Dill sprigs are used as the main decoration. Stars cut from bell peppers, carrots or cheese are placed on top.
  2. Mimosa. Even a novice cook can cope with the task. The salad is placed in layers in a glass container: first the salted fish, then the whites, carrots, onions, potatoes. Each layer is coated with mayonnaise. And on top there is a decoration - crumbled egg yolks.
  3. Garnet bracelet. A glass is placed in the center of the serving dish, and the ingredients are laid out in layers around it: boiled chicken, carrots, mashed potatoes, nuts, beets, nuts, onions and more nuts. The top layer of mayonnaise is generously covered with grated beets, and pomegranate seeds are laid on top.
  4. Rubik's Cube. Each dense ingredient is cut into small squares and folded into colored cubes. Typically, beets, carrots, cucumber and cheese are used to prepare such a snack.

In general, there are a lot of ideas for decorating salads. You can use proven and classic options or come up with something completely unique. Here you can safely trust your imagination and not be afraid to experiment, because this will not compromise the taste of the finished salad.

Attention, TODAY only!

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