March Hare Salad (and Sandwich Filling)

"March Hare Salad (and sandwich filling)," from Make It Like a Man!

Humble, filling, super-fresh, easy, simple, and delicious. March Hare Salad has the soft comfort-foodiness of potato salad or egg salad, but it’s lighter and cleaner.

March Hare Salad (and Sandwich Filling)

Serves

6-8

Bonus! It happens to be ovo-vegetarian.

Ingredients

  • For the Salad
  • 3 cups cottage cheese

  • 2 Tbs sesame seeds

  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

  • 1 med. carrot, diced very small

  • 1 med. ripe tomato, seeded and diced

  • 1 scallion (white and green parts), minced or finely sliced

  • 1 small bell pepper (any color), minced or diced

  • 1 stalk celery, diced

  • 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced or diced

  • 1/2 cup (packed) finely minced parsley

  • 1 or 2 handfuls of alfalfa sprouts (about 2 oz.)

  • 3 Tbs fresh lemon juice

  • 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

  • Salt (1 tsp) and black pepper (1/2 tsp), to taste

  • For Serving (Optional)
  • Tortillas, pita bread, sandwich bread, or toast

  • Mayo, to taste

  • Fresh spinach

  • Garam masala, to taste

Directions

  • Place the cottage cheese in a fine-mesh strainer, over a bowl, and leave it in the refrigerator, preferably overnight. (This isn’t necessary, but it will keep the salad from being too wet to use as a sandwich filling.)
  • Toast the sesame and sunflower seeds, about 3 minutes in a 350°F oven. Allow to cool.
  • Lightly but thoroughly toss all salad ingredients. Refrigerate for at least a few hours.
  • To serve as a sandwich filling, spread your bread of choice with mayo. Dust lightly with garam marsala. Layer with spinach. Spoon about 1/2 cup (or less, to taste) of the salad onto the spinach.

Notes

  • I used small-curd cheese for this post, but I think large-curd would work.
  • Obviously, the salad ingredients are flexible. For instance, you could substitute roughly-chopped bean sprouts for the alfalfa.

As you can gather from the pictures, my favorite way to eat this is as a sandwich filling. But I don’t mean to downplay how great it is as a salad. You could serve it as a salad in lettuce cups, with home-brewed iced tea and freshly-baked orange-nutmeg rolls, out on the patio, on a table that you’ve beautifully set with a tablecloth and napkins, under the shade of a magnificent maple tree, as the sun filters gently down on you and the leaves occasionally rustle in a light, summer breeze.

The Backstory

This is an adaptation of another Molly Katzen recipe.1

Have I ever told you the Moosewood story? Probably, but I feel like telling it again. I was just trying my hand out at cooking, and a very good friend bought me The Moosewood Cookbook, not so much suggesting that I give vegetarianism a try (although I think that may have been an undercurrent), but suggesting that it would be a great book for a beginner cook. It was, and it is. I wound up cooking my way from cover to cover.

Today, I’m not a vegetarian – although I freely admit that what keeps me from it is probably a character flaw. However – and this is due in no small part to my experience with The Moosewood Cookbook – I eat tons of fruits, grains, vegetables … everything that isn’t meat, and meat represents only a small part of my diet. That balance may reflect what I believe to be good for me, but it has everything to do with all the wonderful vegetarian foods that I absolutely love, and Moosewood introduced me to many of them.

"March Hare Salad (and sandwich filling)," from Make It Like a Man!

1Katzen, Mollie. 1992. “March Hare.” The Moosewood Cookbook (Ten Speed Press) 49.


March Hare Salad (and Sandwich Filling)

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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33 thoughts on “March Hare Salad (and Sandwich Filling)

  1. This is a very interesting sounding filling. Though I am not a huge cottage cheese fan, it looks like there are enough chunky bits to offset the tactile feel of the curds.
    anne recently posted…Back Like a Bad Habit

    • Ah, yes – I think so. Indeed, if you used small-curd, and were less gentle during the mixing process, you’d wind up eliminating many of them.

  2. This does indeed sound like a delicious sandwich filling, Jeff! I have to admit that when I saw this title pop up in my inbox, I was expecting some sort of Alice in Wonderland recipe. Perhaps this is the salad the mad hatter serves at the tea party?? Let’s go with that.
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Apple Strudel

    • I really like it. It’s kind of loose, so if you use it for a sandwich, you really want to strain the cheese well.

  3. I’ve been cooking up a vegetarian storm of sorts lately since my 14-yr-old son is now a vegetarian. He started in March . . . maybe because the quarantine made him more thoughtful about life. Hmmmm? In any case, we’ve always eaten a ton of vegetarian meals, but it has made me challenge myself to come up with more creative options. I love this one and we’ll be trying it this week. Looks great as a wrap with the spinach. 🙂 ~Valentina
    (14-yr-old review coming soon. ha!)

  4. What an interesting salad/sandwich filling; I just love cottage cheese so I’m sure I’d love this. Back in the olden days, cottage cheese would have been diet food, so I reckon this salad/sandwich filling could be called that too!
    I must say, I thought I’d have to sit this post out, I thought it might be wild rabbit (as in hare) in this recipe.🤣
    Eva Taylor recently posted…Baja Mexican Spicy Beans with Lime Sauce and Salsa

  5. We’re most definitely not vegetarians, although oddly enough I bet about 70% of the meals we cook are vegetarian. Maybe 80% — we just like the flavors. Anyway, this is a fun recipe. Never seen anything quite like it. Thanks!
    John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…The Brooklyn Cocktail

  6. I flip between liking cottage cheese some days, but some days I’ll pass it over for something else. This is an interesting combination of ingredients. I’ll have to try it on one of those cottage cheese days that I’m liking it.

    • Thanks! Sorry about your comment problems. Is there anything I can do on my end?

  7. I liked the idea of serving salad over tortilla Jeff. The combination of cottage cheese with crunchy sunflower seeds and colorful veggies is pretty tempting

  8. I think I could easily be a vegetarian…or at least a pescatarian. Trouble is, I live with absolute carnivores who wouldn’t support it for more than a day LOL But, I love my vegetarian meals, I make a ton of them for myself. I definitely see the comfort-foodiness in this recipe and I will try it! Love cottage cheese!! Great recipe 🙂
    Marcelle recently posted…Spiced Brown Sugar Baked Oatmeal

  9. Does anyone know how many days this will keep? I use all of Mollie’s recipes for many years including the fruit version which lasts about 3 days but I am unsure on this veggie one.

    • That’s something I usually add to my posts, but it looks like I didn’t for this one. Next time I make it, I’ll keep an eye on that and make a comment.

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