This beautiful layered tuna salad makes a real statement and is perfect for special occasions. It's called the Mimosa Salad and is made with potatoes, carrots and eggs. All these ingredients are so simple, but the presentation makes it really special.
Mimosa salad was a staple for holiday meals in the former USSR. Growing up in Belarus, hearty salads like Olivie or Shuba (Fur Coat Salad) were a must to make for birthdays, holidays and weddings. Mimosa or Mimoza salad, has nothing to do with the mimosa drink, but was named this way in honor of the yellow flowers on a mimosa tree.
A layered salad takes very simple ingredients and transforms them into something so much more special. It looks so much more elevated and upscale, but is really quite easy to create. Even though these ingredients are hearty, grating most of the ingredients on the small holes of a box grater gives them a really cloud-like and much more fluffier texture. This salad would look and taste very different if you just chop everything up and mix them with mayonnaise.
Layered salads are great because you can make them in advance, but they also look stunning too. Garnish them with some fresh herbs and I even made some cute carrot flowers to make it every prettier. Not only is the Mimosa salad a statement piece for special occasions, but it tastes great, so I often make it for meal prep to enjoy for lunches throughout the week.
Ingredients:
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the printable recipe with measurements.
- canned tuna
- My favorite tuna to use is yellowfin tuna packed in oil. You can also use canned tuna packed in water as well.
- Instead of the tuna, you can also use canned or cooked salmon or even sardines.
- If you're not a fan of tuna or seafood, another great option is to use chicken. Canned chicken, rotisserie chicken or cooked chicken can be used too and it works really well.
- potatoes
- I love the color and flavor of gold/yellow potatoes, but any type of potatoes will work for this recipe.
- carrots
- hard boiled eggs
- salt, ground black pepper
- mayonnaise
- fresh herbs, like parsley or dill, to use as a garnish
How To Make Mimosa Salad (a layered tuna salad)
- First, cook the potatoes and carrots.
- Place the carrots and potatoes in a pot, cover with water so that it barely covers the vegetables. Season with salt.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook just until the vegetables are cooked through and can can be easily pierced with a paring knife. Don't over cook the vegetables!
- Drain the water. When they are cool enough to handle, peel them.
- Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs. Cool the eggs, peel them and separate the eggs whites from the egg yolks.
- Drain the tuna and mash it with a fork. Mix the tuna with about ¼ cup of mayonnaise and add some ground black pepper. (You can also add some other herbs and spices, if you'd like, such as red pepper flakes, mustard, dry or fresh herbs, etc.)
- Finally, assemble the salad. Place a springform pan on a cake stand or any serving dish that you want to use.
- Grate the potatoes on the medium holes of a box grater, and spread them out evenly as the base layer of the salad.
- Drizzle some mayonnaise over the potatoes.
- Place the mayonnaise in a ziptop bag and snip off a tiny hole in one of the corners. Drizzle about ¼ cup of mayo over the potatoes. (Use more or less mayo depending on how much potatoes you used.)
- Spread the tuna over the potatoes.
- Next, grate the carrots on the medium holes of the box grater as well. Drizzle with the same amount of mayonnaise as the potatoes.
- Use the medium holes of the box grater to grate the egg whites. Drizzle with mayonnaise and for this layer, go over the drizzled mayonnaise with a spoon to spread it out.
- Lastly, spread out the egg yolks over the egg whites as the final layer of the salad.
- Mash up the egg yolks with a fork in a small bowl, or press them through a fine mesh sieve.
- Sprinkle on top of the salad.
- Keep the salad refrigerated until you are ready to serve. Remove the springform pan and enjoy.
Serving the Mimosa Salad
Salads like this one are so great for holidays and special occasions because you can make them in advance. You can make this salad 1-2 days ahead of time, then simply take it out of the refrigerator, remove the springform pan and it's ready to be enjoyed.
I usually cook extra carrots and make some very simple carrot flowers and place them on top as a garnish, along with some fresh herbs, like parsley or dill.
To make the carrot flowers, cut the cooked carrots into slices and cut out some petals using a paring knife. You can even use tiny cookie cutters to make the flowers too.
Use a serving spoon to serve portions of the salad or you can even cut it into wedges.
Helpful Tips
- You can use an 8 or 10 inch springform pan to make 1 large salad or use 2 6 inch springform pans to make 2 salads.
- We often used shallow plates to assemble the salad, in which case I would make 2 salads too.
- You can also assemble the salad in a glass pyrex dish of some sort.
Instead of the tuna, you can use several other things to create other delicious options of this salad.
- Canned salmon or cooked salmon (mix with mayo)
- Canned or cooked chicken (mix with mayo)
- sardines (I love this option, simply mash it up, no mayo needed)
- smoked salmon (finely chop up the salmon and spread out over the potatoes instead of the tuna)
This really makes all the difference in creating the individual layers of the salad and also to keep it so fluffy and cloud-like, not dense and heavy.
It works so well for this salad.
- As I already mentioned, make the entire salad 1-2 days in advance.
- You can also cook the potatoes, carrots and eggs a few days in advance.
Layered Tuna Salad (Mimosa Salad)
This beautiful layered tuna salad is made with potatoes, carrots and eggs. The presentation makes it really special, perfect for holidays.
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Sides
Ingredients
- 3 medium yellow/gold potatoes
- 4-5 carrots
- salt, ground black pepper
- 6-8 eggs, hard-boiled
- 2 cans (5 oz each) tuna
- 1 ¾ - 2 cups mayonnaise
- fresh herbs, to use as a garnish, like parsley or dill
Instructions
- Cook the potatoes and carrots. Place the carrots and potatoes in a pot, cover with water so that it barely covers the vegetables. Season with salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are cooked through and can be pierced with a paring knife.
- Drain the water from the vegetables and cool them.When they are cool enough to handle, peel them. It's really easy to do with a butter knife or a paring knife.
- Hard boil the eggs. Peel the eggs and cut them in half to separate the egg whites from the egg yolks.
- Drain the tuna and mash it with a fork. Mix the tuna with about ¼ cup of mayonnaise and season with ground black pepper. You can also season the tuna with other herbs and spices.
- Place the ring of a springform pan on a serving plate.
- Use the medium holes of a box grater to grate the potatoes, carrots and egg whites.
- For the bottom layer of the salad, grate the potatoes and spread them out evenly inside the springform pan.
- Place the mayonnaise in a ziplock bag, cut a small corner off and drizzle the mayonnaise over the potatoes, covering them in a thin layer. (Use more or less mayo depending on how much potatoes you use and your preference.)
- Next, spread out the tuna over the potatoes.
- Grate the carrots in the same way that you did the potatoes, followed with drizzled mayonnaise.
- For the eggs, we're going to place them in separate layers. Finely grate the egg whites over the carrots (the same way as the potatoes and carrots) and drizzle with a final layer of mayonnaise. This time, spread out the mayo with a spoon evenly on top of the egg whites.
- Mash up the egg yolks with a fork in a small bowl, or press them through a fine mesh sieve. Sprinkle on top of the salad.
- Keep the salad refrigerated until you are ready to serve it. (You can make the salad 1-2 days in advance.)
- Remove the springform pan ring before serving the salad and garnish with fresh herbs, like parsley or dill. I also made some simple carrot flowers by cutting cooked carrots into slices then cutting out a few petals with a paring knife.
Notes
- This recipe makes 2 (6 inch) salads or 1 large 8-10 inch salad.
- Instead of using tuna, you can also use cooked or canned salmon or chicken, adding mayonnaise as well.
- Smoked salmon or sardines can be used instead of the salmon, but in that case, you don't have to add the mayonnaise.
- If you choose to use chicken instead of tuna, add a layer or fi=-nely grated cheese on top of the chicken - so good!
This is one of my all time favorite Russian foods. THIS here is what convinced my friends that Russians don't eat only boiled potatoes & fish!
Olga---my refrigerator broke the other day, so my family decided to make the best of it & have a big dinner as not to waste the food. This salad was so delicious alongside some cherubeki, various pickles, of course potatoes and some sausages. I myself am vegetarian, so we made "lent style" salad---I put in slightly mash chickpeas, with a bit of crushed nori, instead of the tuna. This worked perfectly.
Your site makes me smile. Thank you for this awesome collections of home style food 🙂
Excellent recipe for a classic salad!
Hi Olga,
I love your blog! I just discovered it recently and have already tried a few recipes with great success! I was wondering if I could use mild cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella because that's all I have on hand right now, but would love to make this today.
You sure can, Vita. I'm sure it would work. Thank you for visiting my blog. I really appreciate it.
This is a favorite in our home. I have never used tuna fish and it was delicate and delicious.
I just put the potatoes as the first level. Thank you for a new version of memoza. This one is a keeper. Made this for Chrismas and New Year, awesome.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Victoria. How do you usually make Mimoza?
The recipe that was taught to me by my Mom does not have potatoes. The egg whites, sardines w/mayo, onion /w vinegar, carrots, cheese or butter, egg yolks. The base is made from egg whites and there is diced, vinegar soaked and rung out onion level. It gives it a little zing, but the salad will "run", after the first day of preparation.