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| Indian or Miner's Lettuce |
This week's vegetable is one that is really growing on me, one that I hadn't seen before getting my weekly CSA box, but one that I've grown to love now! Presenting....
Indian Lettuce!
Or for you latin-lovers - Claytonia perfoliata, also known colloquially as miner's lettuce or winter purslane (I think I may have heard of that...). This one tends to grow in more northern, harsher climates, like in the mountains or just in cold weather (like here right now, was brought over to Europe in the 1700s). It's a fairly mild tasting and nutritious winter green, filled with lots of vitamin C - it apparently got it's name because California miners used to eat it to prevent scurvy! What do you know!
At first I thought they'd messed up and given me some sort of weed...I though, are you supposed to eat this?!
But in the meantime I really enjoy it fresh (it shrivels a bit when cooked or fried, kinda like spinach, so I prefer to eat it raw) as a salad base or even cut up and mixed into a pasta salad! This is my favorite way to eat it at the moment: whole-grain pasta cooked and the mixed with this lettuce (chopped), cut-up fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and a pesto dressing. This recipe is filled with vitamins and healthy fats and satisfies you on cold days!
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