Vinaigrette salad is one of the most recognizable Eastern European vegetable salads, built around boiled root vegetables paired with sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers. It’s the contrast between the sweetness of the beets, the neutral potato, and the sour, salty pickled ingredients that gives this salad its distinctive, balanced flavor.

It’s best to boil the vegetables separately and with the skin on — this preserves more of their color and flavor, and keeps the beet from bleeding into everything else while it’s still cooking. Some cooks prefer roasting the beet instead of boiling it, which concentrates its sweetness even more, though it takes a bit longer.

There’s one practical thing worth knowing: if all the vegetables get tossed together right away, the beet quickly stains everything pink. To keep more of a color contrast, toss the beet with a bit of oil separately before combining it with the rest — a thin coating of oil slows down the staining a little.

Classic vinaigrette salad keeps well in the fridge for two to three days, and some people think it actually tastes better the next day, once the flavors have had time to meld. Serve it as a stand-alone appetizer or as a side alongside meat or fish dishes.