Tuesday at the Table

With the weather starting to slowly improve around here, I've been more in the mood for some good salads. So I've been purchasing a variety of greens - lettuces, spinach, kale, arugula - and making salads alot more regularly than usual. Well I had one the other night when we visited friends, and it rocked my salad world. I mean it was reallllly tasty, and I want to try making it myself.

Adapted from the "Spring Mâche Salad" in Food to Live By, I'm sharing the version I so enjoyed last weekend.

          Ingredients
          1/2 cup fresh shelled English peas (from 1/2# unshelled peas)
          4 oz. (1 cup) fresh sugar snap peas, stems and strings removed
          3 1/2 oz. (about 5 cups) mâche, carefully rinsed and dried, if needed
          1 small jicama, peeled and cut into matchstick-size pieces
          About 1/4 cup Lemon Vinaigrette (below)

1. Just before serving, place the mâche in a large salad bowl. Add 2 Tb. vinaigrette and toss lightly to coat leaves, then taste, adding up to 1 Tb. more of vinaigrette if needed. 
2. Place the English peas, sugar snap peas, and jicama in a separate bowl and toss with 1 Tb. vinaigrette  Arrange vegetables on the greens and serve immediately.

Lemon Vinaigrette
1/3 cup plus 2 Tb. fresh lemon juice, preferable Meyer
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tb. Dijon mustard
3 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3/4 tsp. kosher salt


Place all ingredients in a glass jar and seal tightly. Shake jar vigorously to combine ingredients. Vinaigrette can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week. Let it return to room temperature and remove the garlic cloves before using.


Note
The original recipe included kohlrabi instead of the jicama, and also had radishes, as well as 1 Tb. each fresh tarragon and chervil. I liked my friend's combo of veg, but I'd like to try it with the added herbs. Also, if your peas are young and tender, great. If not, cook until crisp-tender in boiling water for 1 minute, then plunge into ice-water, draining before adding them to your salad.


Mâche is a new ingredient to me, though I had heard of it and also by its other name, "lamb's lettuce". I found a list of recipes using it here, so I'll be checking that out, but I'm curious if you've used mâche in your salads or whatever. OR what's your favorite salad green. Please do tell.