April Spring Greens Calendar

Kick off your month of green with this delicious salad. It’s packed with flavor from fennel pollen, ground cumin, cinnamon and licorice powder.

Get your weekend greens in at brunch. Cook the eggs on the stove or in the oven—but be sure to use moderate heat so they stay jiggly and delicious.

Green your lunch with these terrific sandwiches that call for asparagus both raw (shaved into long, thin strips) and roasted. Aged goat cheese adds richness.

To make these brightly-flavored, vegetarian samosas, mash the peas, but not too finely; you want little pieces, for texture. You can make your own buttery dough, but frozen empanada wrappers, widely available in supermarkets, are an excellent substitute.

This hyper-seasonal pasta salad is lemony and fresh. We love it as a picnic side dish.

This fresh, sweet and tangy salad from Diane Cu and Todd Porter gets its pleasant crunch from sliced almonds and bean sprouts.

Chef Jenn Louis gives this creamy and refreshing chilled watercress soup a modern spin by topping it with za’atar, the fragrant Middle Eastern spice blend.

A Spanish tortilla is like a frittata. Francis Mallmann makes a lovely spring version with yogurt, fresh mint and sweet peas, baked until just set. It's delicious served warm or at room temperature.

This smoky asparagus sandwich gets its flavor from chipotles and smoked salt. It’s a perfect way to have a tasty, green lunch.

Pump up your Passover Seder with this elegant, seasonal chicken dish filled with leeks and peas.

You can squeeze in some green with these special mashed potatoes. Cook, cool and rice your potatoes. Then, stir them into the hot butter and cream until thickened. This springy version is then finished with a puree of bright green peas, mint and lemon zest.

This refreshingly crunchy salad makes for an excellent spring lunch or super-quick dinner.

No one ever said your green had to be in vegetable form. It’s worth finding cultured butter to make this riff on a classic French appetizer; it’s slightly tangy and high in butterfat.

Friday calls for pasta. Pancetta and an almond-arugula pesto make this whole-wheat pasta dish especially luscious.

Instead of making shakshuka with red tomatoes, this version uses a mix of Malabar spinach and tomatillos along with jalapeños, cilantro and spices. The result is a bright, tangy and spicy brunch dish that’s ideal with slabs of rich, toasty challah.

Go green at Easter brunch with an upgraded arugula salad. This lemony version is topped with grilled asparagus, butter-fried eggs—duck eggs, if available—and freshly shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The salad that accompanies this grilled marinated steak has a surprise ingredient: rhubarb. It adds a delicious tartness to the watercress, asparagus and peas.

Chef Alex Guarnaschelli puts her spin on spinach salad by adding sweet candied bacon, salty feta cheese and sautéed fennel.

For Mario Batali's riff on the traditional antipasto of prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, he wraps spears in pancetta (which, unlike prosciutto, becomes nicely crispy when cooked) and grills them.

Thinly shaved local baby artichokes add refreshing crunch to the classic niçoise salad.

Vibrant peas bring the green to this grilled salmon dish. It’s perfect for weeknight dinner.

These dumplings are crafted with a lace-like pinch around the edges, characteristic to Russian-style dumplings called vareniki. The green, tender filling includes seasonal spring ingredients like asparagus, peas and basil.

This fast shrimp dish's bright pea, pine nut and Parmesan pesto would also make a great dip for crudités.

Chopped broccoli stems take the place of rice in this creamy spring risotto, making it a healthier and lighter version than the traditional kind. When shopping for broccoli, choose broccoli stalks with thick, long stems—the thicker they are, the less peeling you'll have to do.

Everyday ingredients—snow peas, romaine, capers and egg—come together brilliantly in this flavorful stir-fry.

This fresh asparagus dish is super-simple—it has just six ingredients.

Star chef Mario Batali’s outstanding vegetable pasta boasts juicy roasted tomatoes with asparagus, Broccolini and shavings of ricotta salata cheese.

Ham steaks make a quick and easy dinner; dressing them with a simple sauce of peas, leek and tarragon finishes them perfectly.

Get a skillet really, really hot before adding the snap peas; they make a fun popping sound when they hit the pan. Then put the skillet straight into a hot oven, tossing the peas every few minutes so they don’t burn.

Perfect for springtime, this delicious side dish features haricots verts sautéed in olive oil and butter with fresh morels.