Olivier Style Potato pie

This recipe is unconventional but it may very well transform your life and open your taste buds up to new possibilities of combining old traditions and new ways of thinking. A decade ago I would have thought it blasphemous to try to change a typical Soviet salad into something more Western but now I am not afraid to admit that this archaic dish has been long overdue a makeover. 

Ukrainian food is often not only Ukrainian. For example, take the dumplings, varenyky (Ukrainian: вареники), when I found out that they are called pierogi in Poland and are considered traditionally Polish I was surprised, to say the least. 

Even borshch (Ukrainian: борщ) is so spread out in Eastern Europe that non only Ukraine but probably all its neighboring countries have local borshch variations. At this point, I am cautious when trying to research where in Eastern Europe a certain dish comes from, because through centuries of assimilation, the origins often remain a mystery and it kind of depends on whom you ask. 

Whereas varenyky and borshch are traditional to Ukraine and have been around for a very long time, there are some dishes that are very popular but are not Ukrainian. Such as the famous (or in my opinion infamous) mayo salads. Originating in Russia these are some of the dished that have been spread out across Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union. Because mayo is so versatile and easy to make it has become that one ingredient that could bring random ingredients into a dish. 

Back when I wasn't a vegan yet I used to love the Chef's Table, although even then I struggled through most images of meaty dishes. 

One of the episodes I watched was about the founder of the Moscow-based restaurant called White Rabbit. Listening to the interview with Vladimir Mukhin, the chef gave I, for the first time in my life, heard someone have the same opinion as me - that the Soviet Union in an attempt to make everyone "equal" decreased the quality of not only everything else but food as well. And thus making the food extremely bland, simplistic, and often even disgusting. Many people are kind of aware of this but just choose to accept it as the norm. 

In a famous Soviet New Years Eve's must-watch movie Irony of Fate or Enjoy your Bath (Russian: "Ирония судьбы или с легким паром") the main character famously calls a jellied fish dish "disgusting". Throughout my life, no one really tried to dispute this claim and it somehow still remains a favorite for many. Maybe this is the case of  "no marketing is bad marketing"? 

When talking about disgusting Soviet food, the founder of White Rabbit specifically meant the various mayo salads and I remember how validated I felt when hearing this. It is probably the only similarity that the chef and I have, however, as neither he nor his restaurant is vegan. Nor do I want to research his opinions on the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Because Ukraine has been colonized by Russia, it sometimes makes it hard to separate what was originally Ukrainian and what wasn't. And even with things that are clear, such as the mayo salads, Ukrainians are still the ones who have also been enjoying them for over half a century at least. That is a very long time and that is not something that can be easily forgotten. My personal issue with the mayo salads is not only their insult to my visual aesthetics and taste receptors but also the fact that they use certain meat products as well as eggs, which I never was a fan of. 

I understand that such popular and well-established traditions may continue for a very long time but I think that for those  who are vegan, as well as those who have similar views I want to transform the boring, bland dished and make them a bit more fun and much more delicious. 

This is why in this post I present to you an invention of mine - a potato pie, akin to a Sheperd's pie that has many of the same ingredients as the famous mayo salad called Olivier. The original salad had Doktorskaya sausage (Russian: "докторская колбаса"; which resembles baloney), boiled eggs, pickles, onions, boiled carrots, and potatoes as well as canned peas, mixed with a generous amount of mayo, salt, and pepper. 

My recipe uses marinated tempeh as the meat substitute, and marinated tofu as the egg protein substitute, and it has zero mayo, but a layer of luscious mashed potato to really bring everything together. 

This is a dish anyone can make and even though it takes a bit of time because of the marination processes it can be enjoyed over the course of a few days as is great for meal prep. 

Vegan Olivier Style Potato Pie*

*Some ingredients in this recipe need to be prepared one day in advance