That's an interesting name, isn't it? I translated it from Russian. I took it from a recipe I found in the cooking section of a local newspaper but this isn't the same recipe. I took some inspiration from the original but I changed the ingredients to make a vegan version. I notice a lot of vegetarian recipes include cheese and I'm not always sure if that's because cheese combines particularly well with certain vegetable ingredients or because of a tendency to try to include something more substantial or 'properly nutritious' along with the vegetables in order to create a balanced dish. It's probably a bit of both and most likely it depends on the attitude of the person who creates the recipe. I have a fair number of recipes which include cheese but I believe that vegan ingredients can be substituted in almost every case to give a dish that is both equally tasty and equally nutritious. Taste wise, I think cheese does combine rather well with many vegetables but there are always good alternatives.
The recipe I found suggested layers of grated cheese between layers of grated carrot and beetroot, which I thought was a rather predictable and uninspiring combination. Instead of the cheese, I devised a simple tofu-based layer and this resulted in an interesting vegan salad which could definitely be called both substantial and nutritionally well balanced. In fact, it makes a meal in itself.
Why is it called 'Lovers' salad'? I don't really know, but Sveta suggests that, since there is raw garlic in it, if you were planning to include it as a part of a romantic meal shared with a close friend, you would have to make sure both of you ate some if you wanted to be in with a chance later in the evening.
Ingredients
250g cooked beetroot
200g raw carrot
2 large cloves of garlic
200g of tofu
Half of an onion
1 cup of chopped/crushed walnuts
A small bunch of green coriander
4 dessertspoons of mayonnaise
A little olive oil
Salt
Peel and grate the carrots and beetroot. Chop the onion, garlic, coriander and tofu. Don't be fussy with the tofu as it's going to get mashed eventually. Fry the onion in a small quantity of olive oil for a couple of minutes then add the tofu. Fry it until the tofu starts to go golden in places, then transfer it to a bowl, add a little salt and mash it enough to break up any large pieces.
Build your salad on a medium-sized plate and be gentle. Don't flatten everything down. Sprinkle the ingredients rather than spread them and leave the layers rough at the edge. The finished salad will look good. Start by making a layer with half of the carrot and then sprinkle over half of the garlic, a third of the nuts, half of the coriander and a little salt. Cover with the rest of the carrot and then two dessertspoons of mayonnaise. Next, use all of the tofu mixture to form another layer and on top of this, put half of the beetroot. Sprinkle over the same nut, garlic, coriander and salt mixture then top with the rest of the beetroot. Put two more spoons of mayonnaise on top and sprinkle with the last of the nuts.
Put the salad in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving, to let the tastes mingle.