Photo: futureshape/Flickr

I have never eaten bison, but I want to. Not because bison meat is apparently very good for you — though that’s a plus! It’s because I want to pretend I’m Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I doubt they ate this Vietnamese Bison Salad in The Little House on the Prairie, but it seems as good a starting point as any for showcasing bison’s beef-like meat.

Coming to us from La Tartine Gourmand (with typically stunning photos plus, in this instance, tales from her visit to the Great Plains), this “salad” is hearty enough for January, but also brings fresh, light colors to your plate — so rare and so welcome in this time of casseroles, stews and pot roasts.