Hungarian Summer Salads

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   From Culinaria Hungary:

 Salads are not served as an independent course in traditional Hungarian cuisine, but as an essential accompaniment to many hearty dishes, especially meat dishes. Salads emphasise the flavour of the main dish, aid the digestion and add a touch of colour to even the plainest table. A small plate of salad is therefore an important part of plain home cooking.

Culinaria provides a traditional Hungarian salad dressing recipe that is easy and versatile:

3/4 cup (200 ml) water
3.5 Tablespoons vinegar (6% acidity)
2 Tablespoons confectioner's sugar
Salt

Combine ingredients thoroughly. Vary the proportions of the individual ingredients to suit your own taste; the main thing is that the dressing should taste slightly sour.

Here are some traditional varieties of Hungarian salads, as provided by Culinaria:

 Fejes Saláta: Quartered lettuce with a dressing, sometimes includes hard-boiled eggs and slices of lemon.

Káposztasaláta: Finely-grated white or red cabbage is salted for one hour, then pressed, and seasoned with chopped onion dressing and caraway.

Paprikasaláta: Bell pepper (capsicum) rings. Leave to absorb the dressing for one hour before serving. The rings are sometimes blanched in salt water first.

Paradicsomsaláta: Sliced tomatoes with a dressing, if desired, seasoned with pepper, chopped, fresh parsley and oil, sometimes topped with onion rings.

Uborkasaláta: Cucumber salad, preferably from thick cucumbers with a "warty" skin." The cucumber slices are salted for 30 minutes, then pressed. The dressing is poured over the cucumber slices, and garnished with pepper, paprika or finely-chopped parsley. A dollop of sour cream is placed on top of the paprika. Sometimes, the cucumber is flavoured with garlic or combined with finely-chopped onion.