28 Seasonal Recipes to Make This Spring
Pizza with Garlic Cream and Nettles
You can use either green garlic or scallions for the garlic cream, and feel free to use baby arugula instead of nettles, too.
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Spinach-and-Green-Pea Empanadas
Mauricio Couly uses a mix of spinach, fava beans, green beans and a good amount of mint. He makes his own paprika-spiced empanada dough; store-bought empanada wrappers (available in the freezer section of many supermarkets and specialty food stores) work well, too.
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Spring Vegetable Stew
When fresh fava beans are available, use them in place of the cranberry beans.
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Roasted Radishes with Radish Greens
Gerard Craft came up with this clever recipe one year when his local farmer had an abundance of radishes. Craft tried roasting them. The result: warm, crisp-tender radishes with delightfully bitter greens, which he finishes with butter and lemon.
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Garlic-Rubbed Pork Shoulder with Spring Vegetables
Pork shoulder is often braised or smoked, but Andrew Green rubs it with garlic and herbs, then slow-roasts the meat until it’s juicy and crusty.
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Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Spring Vegetables
To layer the flavors in this dish, chef Rory Herrmann marinates beef short ribs and vegetables in red wine overnight, then uses the marinade in the braise as well. Spring vegetables help lighten the rich stew.
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Spring Panzanella with Asparagus
Recipes for panzanella (a Florentine bread salad popular in the summer) typically call for tomatoes, but in the spring, Mike Lata prefers using seasonal ingredients like asparagus and radishes.
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Morel-and-Asparagus Salad with Frisée and Butter Lettuce
This light, simple salad highlights poached morels and asparagus with a combination of frisée and butter lettuces.
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Beer-Braised Chicken Stew with Fava Beans and Peas
Paul Kahan is a big fan of chicken thighs because they have so much flavor and are so inexpensive—the best of both worlds. He braises the thighs in beer to make an excellent spring stew that he (naturally) pairs with more beer, such as Pere Jacques from Chicago's Goose Island Beer Company, a Belgian-style ale full of caramelized malt flavors.
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Pea Consommé with Mint
This delicate broth is full of vitamin C, thanks to the pea pods Jeremy Fox simmers. (Snow peas are just as delicious and easier to find.) He tops the consommé with shards of white chocolate because he likes the way it brings out the peas’ sweetness while adding only a little fat.
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Veal Stew with Spring Greens
This lemony stew has a delicious mix of spinach, sorrel, watercress, romaine and herbs.
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Spring Lettuce Salad with Roasted Asparagus
This top-rated salad from Amber Huffman combines mixed spring lettuces, Parmigiano-Reggiano, asparagus, and a simple dressing.
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Lemon, Poppy and Chèvre Cheesecakes with Rhubarb
“I am obsessed with the chèvre from Texas’s Pure Luck Farm,” says Laura Sawicki. “I love how well it pairs with the cooked rhubarb in my cheesecakes.”
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Creamy Spring Onion Soup
This fresh-tasting soup can be prepared with scallions or green garlic (which is harvested before the cloves have matured and has a subtle garlic flavor). A swirl of buttermilk mixed with fresh goat cheese at the end adds a nice tang.
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Grilled Asparagus Subs with Smoky French Dressing
Tyler Kord smokes the French dressing for his asparagus sandwiches over wood chips. This simplified version gets its smokiness from chipotles and smoked salt.
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Sautéed Radishes with Orange Butter
Emeril Lagasse sautés radishes and their greens with bacon, shallots and orange juice until they’re perfectly crisp-tender.
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Spiced Rhubarb Soup with Vanilla Ice Cream
This silky fruit dessert is delicious on its own or topped with vanilla ice cream. Just be sure to only barely cook the rhubarb, so that it retains its crispness—and plenty of tangy flavor.
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Fava Bean Pasta e Fagioli
Chef Mike Lata’s spring version of pasta e fagioli, the Italian soup, uses fresh fava beans in place of borlotti or cannellini beans, along with meaty bits of bacon and a sprinkling of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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Farro Salad with Radishes, Snap Peas, Olives, and Pecorino
Farro has a sweet, earthy flavor and delightful chewy texture; it adds a wonderful hardiness to the fresh, crunchy vegetables and salty olives and cheese in this salad. If Meyer lemons aren’t available in your area, use regular fresh lemon juice and increase the honey to balance the dressing.
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Strawberry-Buttermilk Cobbler
A mixture of spelt and almond flours, gently combined with cold butter and creamy buttermilk, creates tender, fluffy biscuits that cover this juicy strawberry cobbler filling. Use the sweetest, best-quality berries from the market; their flavor is the foundation of this seasonal dessert.
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Roasted Baby Artichokes with Parsley and Mint
Removing the outer leaves and inner thistle of each baby artichoke reveals its lightly astringent, mildly sweet core, tender enough for quick cooking. Be careful to wash your cutting board and knife well after preparing the baby artichokes as they can leave behind a bitter residue.
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Ricotta-Fava Toasts
The delicate, milky flavor of fresh ricotta pairs with the grassy, lightly sweet taste of fava beans. Use best-quality cheese, produce, and bread here for a toast that’s more than the sum of its parts.
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Rhubarb-and-Currant Mostarda
This slightly sweet mostarda gets plenty of gentle heat and acid from dry mustard, mustard seeds, and red wine vinegar. Dried black currants plump up as they absorb the liquid, providing a juicy bite.
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Garganelli with Speck, Peas, and Scallion Cream
Sweet spring peas and garlicky sauce flood tubular garganelli pasta, making each bite a surprise. Substitute penne if you can’t find garganelli, and don’t skip the lemon and mint at the end, which bring balance to the dish.
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Baked Spaetzle with Green Pea Pesto
While spaetzle is traditionally boiled like pasta, here the mini dumplings are tossed in olive oil and baked with leeks until crisp and browned, then blanketed with a creamy fonduta. The herb-and-pea pesto takes the dish from comfort fare to a vibrant spring side.
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Fennel and Arugula Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette
Meyer lemon has a tartness that’s more tamed than lemon, which is why we love it with peppery arugula and crisp shaved fennel in this simple salad. Soaking the shaved fennel in ice water helps the thin slices retain their crisp.
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Roasted Asparagus and Mushrooms
A drizzle of syrupy aged balsamic balances the earthiness of the mushrooms and slight char on the asparagus.
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Wine-Poached Strawberries and Apricots
Semi-dry Riesling, which is refreshing and not too sweet, is the secret to this impressive, balanced dessert. Dried apricots lend a gentle bitterness while the strawberries add sweetness and impart the rosiest color.