Salad Days

“Designer greens” have now become de rigueur for health-conscious Canadians. These leafy mixes, known as mesclun (or cut-and-come-again vegetables), are not only low in calories, but provide more nutritional value than the good old salad standby – iceberg lettuce. And they are very tasty.

Originating in southern France (the name is based on the French word mesclar, ‘to mix’), mesclun is a mixture of baby greens usually consisting of mache, radicchio, chervil, arugula, red oakleaf lettuce and endive. Edible flowers or their petals – bachelor’s buttons, calendulas, marigolds, nasturtiums – may also be part of a mesclun mix.

Use a mild, light dressing so as not to hide the delicate flavours of these greens.

• Mesclun,
• salads,
• lettuce,
• food,
• edible plants,
• Plants,