Wurstsalat is a German specialty particularly loved in summer. It’s a refreshing salad made from – usually left over – sausages.
Most commonly used is Bologna, but there are several other types of sausages available in Germany that have a similar texture and are fully cooked, so they can be used in a raw salad. Unless you have a German deli or butcher shop in your area, you’re probably stuck to what you can find in supermarkets and that’s usually Bologna in the US.
Bayerischer und Schweizer Wurstsalat – what’s the difference?
There’s two varietals of this dish – bavarian (Bayerischer) sausage salad and swiss (Schweizer) sausage salad. The difference is easy to spot: the swiss variety has added swiss cheese, the bavarian version does not contain cheese.
There is also a related dish called “Fleischsalat”, which is a finely chopped sausage salad with a mayo-based dressing. I’ll film a video on that one this summer.
Eat this salad with some kind of hearty bread and you have a nice lunch for a hot day.
Wurstsalat
Ingredients
- 4 oz bologna
- 1/4 red or white onion
- 1 small seedless cucumber
- 2 oz swiss or other hard cheese optional - see notes
- 1/4 red bell pepper optional
- 1 tomato optional
- 2 breakfast radishes or a piece of daikon optional
Dressing
- 2 tbs sunflower oil
- 2 tbs vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes optional
- 4 tbs water to taste
Instructions
- Cut all the ingredients to same-size chunks and dress with the dressing. Eat with a hearty bread.