Our Springiest Spring Vegetable Recipes
These recipes epitomize the season.
ByKelly Vaughan
Published On
Photo by Rocky Luten
The start of spring doesn’t just mean the end of winter blizzards and stick-to-your-ribs stews; it’s a sign of warmer weather and seasonal produce galore. Sugar snaps and fresh sweet peas are here, as are spring onions, ramps and rhubarb, artichokes and asparagus, and every kind of potato. While a few of these are readily available year-round, they’re just better during spring. We are welcoming the season with open arms and a hungry appetite, which will be satisfied with these 30 spring recipes.
A Little Bit of Everything
Did you go a little crazy at the farmers' market and now have a tote bag overflowing with potatoes, carrots, radishes, asparagus, leeks, and peas? This recipe will put each and every spring vegetable to use, all while making your heart soar, thanks to an aromatic creamy butter sauce.
A traditional Panzanella salad consists of tomatoes, cubed bread, cucumbers, bell peppers, a little red wine vinegar, and a whole lot of basil. In this spring-forward version, you’ll find leeks, asparagus, English peas, and snow peas tossed in a basil-mint pesto sauce.
This salad is for all of spring’s forgotten favorites: radishes, pea shoots, red cabbage, and scallions. They’re not exactly the popular kids, but that doesn't mean they don’t bring something delicious to the dinner table.
A late spring or early summer recipe that’s brimming with the best of both worlds: There’s asparagus, parsnips, and sugar snap peas, as well as cherry tomatoes, all of which are stir-fried together in a wok and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
Everything you love about spring—sunny days accompanied by warmer temperatures, color abound, and a seemingly endless wealth of fresh, fragrant produce—is expressed in this Italian vegetable stew.
In less than 10 minutes, this recipe turns from an abundance of green vegetables sprawled out on your countertop to a crisp, crunchy, flavorful salad that is the ultimate addition to an Easter feast or weeknight dinner.
Artichokes
If you’ve never tried playing around with fresh artichokes before, start here. This recipe will teach you how to prep them and cook them, so you’re left with tender flesh and fresh flavor that’s accessorized with really good homemade aioli.
There are a lot of different layers to this artichoke spread, but don’t be discouraged: Each step is ridiculously simple. Take the tapenade, for example; make marinated artichokes, let them sit in the brine for a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months. Once you’re ready to use them, pulse them in a food processor with citrus zest and spread it on some crackers. The end!
So many of our favorite artichoke recipes use just the hearts, but that certainly doesn’t mean that you should let the artichokes go to waste. In this recipe, take advantage of the all-too-forgotten leaves by roasting them quickly with feta cheese and black olives. Serve alongside a quick aioli that uses store-bought mayonnaise for the base.
Asparagus
The salty edge of tonnato sauce is all thanks to a trio of capers, anchovies, and tuna; its punch will immediately make blanched asparagus and fava beans the talk of the town.
Asparagus can totally and completely stand alone, but I promise you that not a soul will complain when you sauté it with pancetta, butter, garlic, citrus zest, pine nuts, and parsley.
Two canned pantry staples—anchovies and cannellini beans—make their way into this fresh-from-the-garden recipe, featuring wild arugula, asparagus, and mint leaves.
Beans
Aside from a simple steam-and-serve prep, this is about as easy as a green bean recipe gets (and it’s also the most delicious).
We can’t talk about green beans without also talking about its Oscar-winning role in this classic casserole recipe. Since most home cooks are usually making this for Easter or Thanksgiving, we tried to make things easier by developing a recipe that doesn’t require any oven space.
Cabbage
The weeks leading up to spring can be confusing—you might start to see some robins in your front lawn or watch Canadian geese flying back north and settling in for the summer. One day is warm and the next could deliver six inches of snow. For those less spring-like days, there’s this cabbage recipe. It appropriately uses an in-peak vegetable in a creamy, comforting way that will warm you from the inside out.
16. Cabbage Bake
Recipe developer Lavanya Narayanan eats this family-style dish during Dussehra, a ten-day festival that celebrates good over evil. “We often put out a large spread of food and it always includes this dish. It's a dish from nowhere: Though it has South Indian flashes and contains many common North Indian spices, I've never come across anything quite like it,” she writes.
Carrots
Buttered carrots are one of my favorite symbols of spring cooking. They’re utterly simple and wildly delicious. This recipe makes them just a little more interesting, thanks to the inclusion of orange juice and fresh minced ginger.
Everything about this recipe is rabbit ready. Beets and carrots are roasted together with nothing more than caraway seeds, salt, and olive oil. As soon as they come out of the oven, they’re served over a bed of citrusy dill yogurt.
Leave it to Alison Roman to create our new favorite carrot recipe. “Roasting carrots hot and fast will give you something that is caramelized and deeply flavorful on the outside without sacrificing their snappy texture, and roasting them with seeds means you don't have to toast the seeds separately to coax out their flavor,” she writes.
Leeks
Do you find that, come Spring, you’re always inspired to cook with leeks but never really know what to do with them? Me too. Fortunately, this well-executed, mind-blowingly flavorful recipe from Antoni will save us both.
Yes, this is basically vichyssoise soup but it’s also so much better than the delightful creamy but slightly bland version you might be picturing. There are the usual suspects—leeks, potatoes, garlic, shallots, and vegetable stock—plus a few new members: hot smoked paprika, ground coriander, and ground cumin.
Another delicious way to put leeks front and center!
Peas
Surprise! No spinach here in this creamy spring side dish. Instead, fresh garden peas, scallions, and crunchy lettuce take the place of the usual greens for a fresh take on a seasonal classic.
“Welcome the season of leisurely brunches, rosé-filled picnics, and green vegetables galore with this vibrant salad that almost shouts, “Hello, spring,” writes recipe developer Asha Loupy. Instead of a salad made with a base of mixed greens or arugula, this one gives pea shoots, fresh mint leaves, and dill fronds a chance in the spotlight.
The worst crime a home cook can commit is boiling market-fresh snap peas to death. To keep our readers out of trouble, this recipe requires no cooking at all.
Ramps
Blink and you’ll miss the season’s supply of ramps. Don’t hesitate: Buy more than you ever think you’d want or need, bring them home, and get to work, starting with this fantastic cheesy frittata. It’s just as apt for a weekend brunch as it is for a speedy supper.
27. Ramp Carbonara
We’re breaking the rules just a little bit in order to make use of ramps as much as possible. This pasta recipe still has all the crucial ingredients to make carbonara, plus an extra garlicky spin. Don’t believe me? Food52’s readers voted this recipe their favorite use of a spring allium.
Rhubarb
Anyone who prioritizes pie filling over the crust will love this delicious preparation of an inseparable couple: strawberries and rhubarb. Serve this sweet-savory combo over vanilla ice cream, yogurt, or a buttermilk biscuit.
Like ramps or leeks, you might be motivated to cook with rhubarb but have no idea what to do with it. Here, warm chunks of rhubarb and apple are infused with Earl Grey tea, cardamom, and orange; the mixture is baked into individual crocks and then topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Pineapple takes a backseat to rhubarb in this cheery spring cake. Once you invert the cake, you’ll reveal a slightly messy, super pink layer of warm, jammy rhubarb snuggled into a buttery crumb cake.
What spring vegetable are you most excited to cook with this season?