SALADS The king of salads on Finnish Christmas dinner table is the mixed beetroot salad, or herring salad (left). It is made with both freshly cooked and pickled vegetables: carrots, potatoes, beetroots, pickled gherkins, fresh apples and onion and finely chopped salted herring, all diced and mixed together. Picture on left: bowl of mixed beetroot salad garnished with parsley. Dressing for the salad is made of either whipped cream, smetana or crème fraîche, seasoned with salt, white pepper and sugar and dyed slightly pink with beetroot pickling or cooking liquid. Another typical salad is mushroom salad, made with salted wild mushrooms mixed with chopped onion and smetana, crème fraîche or whipped cream, and sometimes a dash of mayonnaise. Picture on right: mixed mushroom salad. These salads can be served throughout the meal, although the mixed beetroot salad is traditionally eaten with ham and vegetable casseroles and the mushroom salad may be served with cold cuts as a part of the hors d'œuvre. You will find recipes for some of the dishes mentioned above in here. Read more about traditional Finnish Christmas here.