Mâche, also known as corn salad or lamb’s lettuce, is a wild green native to Europe.  You may have seen it; it’s grown increasingly popular among salad enthusiasts in the U.S. in the last few years.  In the Seattle area, it’s been available at farmers’ markets from Willie Green’s Organic Farm all winter.  Mâche is an ideal salad green.  With mild, delicate flavor, small leaves, and a smooth texture, it’s a taste of spring even before spring weather arrives.  It’s also full of vitamins and nutrients.

I’ll use mâche in anything that requires a delicate green, like dishes calling for spinach, but salad is where it truly shines.  Mâche holds up equally well in a complex salad as a simple one.  For a simple salad, just add your favorite mild homemade dressing and maybe crumble in a bit of fresh goat cheese.  I can easily eat a large bowl of mâche with a simple dressing and not be tired of it. 

This salad recipe (if you can really call a salad description a “recipe”) falls somewhere in between complex and simple.  I wanted just a few complementary flavors that would let the fresh, local ingredients shine.  I also wanted a variety of textures and some good proteins and fats.  I combined the mâche with cold mutton, some walnuts from the Ballad farmers’ market I’ve been slowly savoring since late fall, some shaved parmesan, and a simple lemon-butter dressing.  This salad was worth savoring slowly, but I admit “inhaled” might be a more fitting verb to describe how I ate it.  It was satisfying.

I used cold, grass-fed mutton, leftover from a small Sea Breeze Farm cut I’d cooked and stretched for many, many meals (it was roasted in the oven with thyme, garlic, pepper, salt and olive oil).  But you could use any good quality red meat (or leave it out, if you’re vegetarian).  Leftover lamb or beef would be delicious.  So would quick-sautéed beef stir-fry meat (Skagit River Ranch sells this cut) cut into small pieces and left rare on the inside -- add it to the salad hot or cold.  A salad of mâche would also work well with bits of smoked salmon or gravlax.  Experiment, and let us know how you like to use mâche best.

Mâche Salad with Mutton, Walnuts and Parmesan

1. •Mâche
   

2. •Leftover mutton or other meat (see note above)
   

3. •Walnuts, raw or toasted
   

4. •Parmesan, shaved (other mild/nutty or fresh/springy cheese would work nicely as well)
   

5. •Homemade buttery lemon-herb dressing (#2 in this post)
   

6. •Fresh black pepper
   

I’m not giving you measurements, because the idea of measuring anything with salad is ridiculous.  Put in as much of each ingredient as you’d like.  Start with the mâche.  Fold in the dressing shortly before serving.  With the dressing weighing the leaves down slightly, you’ll have a better idea of how much you really have in the bowl, and can adjust quantity accordingly.  Add in small pieces of meat, walnuts, and shaved parmesan in the ratio you’d like best.  Add a little fresh black pepper and serve.