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Salad Olivier - The modern version contains peas, potatoes, carrot, eggs, etc.

It would be cool to cut everything into same-size spheres...

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    You mention peas, so that sounds like a melon baller would be too big. Also carrots are quite hard which would make it more difficult
    – Chris H
    May 29, 2018 at 12:59
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    There is a classic very french knife skill called tournee that is all about making everything the shape of very american footballs. As to the peas: Maybe make some kind of patty/fritter of them and saute it as a topping.
    – rackandboneman
    May 30, 2018 at 0:09

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I think @ChrisH is on to something with the melon baller. They come in various sizes such as 1 cm, 1/2", 3 cm, and 1", to name a few. While 1 cm is the smallest I could find, it will still be larger than the peas which have an average size of .5 cm.

That said, you could use the 1 cm or 1/2" melon baller for the rest of your veggies and the egg. Of course, the egg will have to be cooked before scooping. But I think that is the answer for the carrots, too. Clean them and cook them whole before scooping.

While you could go either way with the potatoes, I think I would peel and cook them first.

With the harder veggies, you want to be sure they are fully cooked, but be sure not to overcook them. Too soft and the scooping could be a disaster.

The other option for the harder vegetables would be to partially cook them, scoop the balls out, and then finish cooking to your desired doneness.

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I used to have a potato peeling machine that tumbled potatoes around a grater-surface, was kind of useless for just peeling, but I enjoyed using it to create perfectly spherical potatoes and carrots. I cut them in equally long, wide and deep pieces (but could still be a cylinder), and put them in for quite a while. Sometimes I had to help the machine a bit and nick some edges off some of them that wouldn't become round.

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  • How small are the finished spheres?
    – Cindy
    May 29, 2018 at 20:16
  • It was a small machine, so about an inch (2.4 cm) gave the best result, so carrots could just be cylinders of a carrot. I think anything pea-sized wouldn't have the weight to grate itself properly.
    – Tor Langballe
    May 31, 2018 at 9:43

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