Miner’s lettuce is a delicious wild salad green with a crisp, mild (slightly spinach-esque) flavor that is available from about March to June.  This salad, made with pine nuts, cheese, homemade vinaigrette, and dried cranberries really allows it to shine while contrasting shapes, flavors, and colors for an interesting presentation.

Ingredients (per person):

1 large handful of fresh miner’s lettuce
1-2 thin slices of blue cheese (we recommend Point Reyes Blue Cheese or Maytag Blue Cheese)
7-10 dried cranberries
7-10 pine nuts
1 tsp camelina seeds, lightly toasted (optional, provides additional crunch & nutrition)
Lemon zest or orange zest for garnish

Also: Homemade Vinaigrette (we used Camelina oil, champagne vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and salt).

Directions:

1. Arrange the miner’s lettuce on a white porcelain plate, and sprinkle on the dried cranberries.

2. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry pan on the stove top.  This can also be done in the oven, but pine nuts burn extremely easily, so the stove top allows you to keep a better eye on them.  Try to flip them over by shaking the pan in order to brown them evenly.  As soon as they start to develop a light to medium brown color on the sides and smell nutty, they’re done. 

Sprinkle them over the salad hot or allow them to cool first.  You can also add lightly toasted camelina seeds at this stage to sneak extra vitamin E and omega-3′s into your salad.

3. Slice the blue cheese as thinly as possible and arrange on the plate. 

4. Using a spoon, whisk, or squeeze bottle, drizzle small amounts of the vinaigrette on to the plate and miner’s lettuce.

5. Using a Microplane or citrus grater, grate a little lemon or orange zest over the top of the salad to finish.

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