Last Updated on April 9, 2024 by Real Men Sow
Serving corn salad – mâche as a vegetable is the way to do it. Corn salad is a mild-flavoured green that is sweet and slightly nutty. Its flavour is subtle enough that other leafy greens or dressings can mask it. You can eat it alone or with strong-flavoured greens like chicory and arugula. Mâche’s peak season is spring, but you can also grow it all year round in a greenhouse.
Choosing Corn Salad
Choose bright, vibrant green leaves that are clean and free from any signs of yellowing or wilting.
Storing Corn Salad
It’s possible to keep mâche in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Additionally, you’ll have to wrap it in a paper towel and place it in a perforated bag.
Preparing Corn Salad
Wash mâche only just before you serve it. Make sure you drain thoroughly. You’ll also have to trim away rootlets.
Serving Corn Salad – Mâche Suggestions
You can use mâche in fresh salads. You may also use it as a substitute for lettuce in the early spring. Eating mâche with tender leafy lettuces like Boston or Bibb is also good. Mesclun is the green lettuce mixture, and its common ingredient is corn salad. The subtly flavoured mesclun is mixed with pungent greens like mustard or cress. You can use mâche with winter greens like Treviso radicchio or Belgian endive.
Dress mâche using walnut, hazelnut or grapeseed oil dressing. To ensure maximum tenderness, add the dressing at the end. You can garnish soups with mâche by cutting them into small pieces. Use mâche to add colour to omelettes and rice. You may also use mâche in poultry stuffings.
Using mâche with apples, beets, and nuts is a great combination. With boiled beets and celery, mâche can be served cold. Mix mâche with ham or bacon and beets. Steam the leaves as spinach to serve mâche as an appetizer or side dish. Put the leaves in a steamer basket and cover with slightly salted water. Steam the leaves until tender.
Flavour Partners
Mâche is a flavour-affinity for champagne, vinegar, chives and lemons, nuts, sherry vinegar, tarragon, and wintergreens.
Nutrition
Mâche is high in vitamins A, C, carotene and iron.
More Information on Corn Salad
Depending on the variety, mâche can be found in rosettes with spoon-sized oval or round, grey-green leaves measuring 4-12 inches (10-30cm) long. The leaves can feel a little velvety to the touch. Frost-resistant mâche is an annual for cool weather. Frost can enhance the flavour of mâche.
Its French name is Mâche. Because this green grows wild in American cornfields, corn salad is often called Corn Salad. Lamb’s lettuce has an old English name. This green first appears in spring during lambing seasons. Each leaf is somewhat like a lamb’s tongue and is a favourite food of lambs. Mâche is a native of the Mediterranean region. It has been in cultivation since ancient Roman times.
Valerianella locusta is the botanical name for mâche. V. Ariocarpus, a related variety, is also known as Italian corn salad.
