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Sildesalat
Sørlandet · Southern Coast

Sildesalat

A jewel-toned salad of pickled herring, beetroot, apple and potato bound in a light soured cream.

30 minEasy
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Cultural Context & History

The pink herring salad is a fixture of Christmas and Easter tables alike, its colour from beetroot and its balance from tart apple. Cool, sweet and sharp, it cuts through a rich spread.

Ingredients

  • 3 pickled herring fillets, diced
  • 200 g pickled beets, diced71 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 17.9 g carbs per 100 g
  • 2 boiled potatoes, cubed
  • 1 crisp apple, diced215 kcal · 2.8 g protein · 9.6 g fat · 30.2 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped289 kcal · 10.9 g protein · 0.8 g fat · 59.4 g carbs per 100 g
  • 150 g sour cream200 kcal · 3.3 g protein · 16.7 g fat · 6.7 g carbs per 100 g
  • 2 tbsp pickled beet liquid
  • Salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar0 kcal · 0 g protein · 0 g fat · 1330 g carbs per 100 g
  • 1 hard-boiled egg, chopped, to garnish155 kcal · 12.6 g protein · 10.6 g fat · 1.1 g carbs per 100 g

Per-100 g values shown for ingredients verified against Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central (snapshot 2026-09-11). Ingredients not yet verified show no nutrition line.

Recommended Tools

  • Sharp chef's knifeCuts clean, even dice so no single cube dominates.
  • Balloon whiskBlends the beet liquid smoothly through the sour cream.
  • Non-reactive mixing bowlGlass or ceramic won't stain or taint from the beetroot.

Product suggestions are editorial references only; no purchase or affiliate links are currently configured.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Dice the herring, beets, cold potatoes and apple into small, even cubes, keeping everything roughly the same size.

  2. 2

    Tip into a bowl with the chopped onion and fold together gently so the pieces stay whole.

  3. 3

    Whisk the sour cream with the pickled beet liquid until it turns a bright rose pink.

  4. 4

    Fold the pink cream through the diced ingredients and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

  5. 5

    Chill for at least an hour to let the flavours settle, then scatter with chopped hard-boiled egg to serve.

Chef's Tip

Make it a day ahead — an overnight rest lets the beetroot bleed right through, deepening the colour to a true rose and rounding off the sharpness of the pickle.

Chef's Tip

Dice the potatoes only once they are completely cold, and choose a firm, waxy variety — they hold their cube when folded rather than breaking down and clouding the cream.

How this page was made

Written by
The Norcook editorial archive. No individual author is named yet — see the editorial and food-safety policy for what that means and what has to happen before a byline appears.
Content last checked
— “checked” records an editorial check, not a qualified review. Where one exists, the recipe-specific review record appears in the food-safety callout.
Regional context
Sørlandet — the hub carries the wider background, the ingredient glossary and its own sources.
Sources
No page-level sources are recorded for this recipe yet. The cultural background above is written as general context, not as a sourced historical claim.

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