Lamb's lettuce
Valerianella locusta
Other names
Corn salad, Mâche, Field salad
Similar veggies
Salad mix, rucola, winter purslane, summer purslane
A quick introduction
Lamb's lettuce grows in fall and is a great crop to plant in the greenhouse after taking out the summer crops such as tomatoes and eggplants. It is a delicious, nutty-tasting salad green that is very popular in Switzerland (so we learned from our Swiss colleagues). The plants are usually harvested with the roots attached and you will have to cut them off at home before preparing your salad. We grow a specific variety of lamb's lettuce that grows a little bigger than what you might find in shops. It tastes the same but the larger leaves save us some harvesting time.
Storage
As with all leafy greens we recommend washing lamb's lettuce in cold water (we do pre-wash it at the farm), then dry it and store in a closed container in the fridge. This way it will keep for almost a week.
Season
Spring to fall
Suggestions for preparation
Before turning these delicious leaves into a salad we advise you to take off the roots. In Switzerland, lamb's lettuce is used to make the classic 'Nüssli salat' with bacon and eggs. Here is an English recipe.
Do you want to make a full meal out of any salad? Here are Stadsgroenteboer Andres' basic guidelines to make a filling salad. Make sure you have at least a few of the ingredient types below:
-Crunchy & juicy elements like kohlrabi, carrots, turnips.
-Spicy elements such as mustard greens, rucola or radishes.
-Green elements like carrot greens, lettuce and radish tops (if very tender) and in this case: lamb’s lettuce!
-Spring onions, chives or young garlic.
-Filling elements like roasted sunflower seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sprouts, tofu or mushrooms
-Some delicious edible flowers such as nasturtiums, borage or rucola flowers.
-A vinaigrette with good olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and whatever else you like.
And voilá, there you have your salad!