Purslane!
I love this crisp, juicy, slightly lemony green - and I was thrilled to find it at the farmer's market today.
To my mind purslane makes every salad taste better - simply wash it well (the leaves tend to cling to dirt, so don't be careless about this), and strip the leaves right into the bowl alongside your garden-variety salad greens. It makes terrific tacos, quickly steamed, stirred into a quick green salsa and topped with queso fresco. Steamed and mixed with tomatoes and olives, it makes a fine Moroccan salad.
But today, I think, I'm going to mix it into a cucumber and tomato salad with a very lemony vinaigrette.
Begin by peeling, seeding and dicing a few cucumbers until you have about 2 cups. Dice a pound or so of tomatoes, until you have an equal amount. Add some chopped scallions or a half of a diced red onion, and a cup and a half of coarsely chopped purslane leaves.
Now stir in a cup of chopped Italian parsley and then mix it all with a lemony vinaigrette (2 tablespoons of lemon juice whisked into 3 tablespoons of olive oil, along with salt and pepper). If I have the time, I think I'll add a few whole pieces of lemon as well, although peeling lemon sections can be annoyingly time-consuming.