This is the time of year when becoming a vegetarian seems almost possible. The farmers’ market is piled high with fresh green artichokes and asparagus, thin skinned new potatoes, and amazingly fragrant spring onions.
When you have fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, a lot of the time you can get away with serving them lightly steamed or blanched, with just some olive oil and sea salt. On the other hand, the bright colors and flavors also bring out my creative side, and make it that much more gratifying to put some effort into preparation and presentation.
Here are seven ideas for getting the most out of your spring vegetables, which by the way, all go great with Easter lamb:
- If you like your veggies raw, or in salad form, add a little savory spread with this 5 minute creamy dressing recipe from Slashfood. It’s incredibly versatile and easy to customize (two things that always win at my house) by adding a little more of this herb, a little less creme fraiche.
- Add some drama to your salad prep with this vivid arugula, blood orange and spring onion salad from Vicarious Foodie
- For an utterly simple and French treat, take a spring radish, spread some good butter on it, sprinkle a bit of fleur de sel and enjoy the satisfying crunch. Round it out with a crusty baguette and a cold bottle of tart white wine, you have yourself a picnic!
- For a festive party presentation for crudites, check out these cocktail glasses full of colorful veggies, “anchored” by green goddess dressing from YumSugar. So yummie you’ll forget it’s bathing suit-friendly party food!
- A lot of people avoid doing artichokes at home, but this tutorial from CityMama will makes the prep seem simple and appealing. Just trim, rub with lemon, steam, and enjoy with butter or aioli. You’ll run to the farmer’s market to get some!
- Growing up, every spring our neighbor, Mr. Urbsas, would bring over big bunches of rhubarb, with giant fan-like leaves. As a kid I didn’t appreciate the sweet/tart combo, but now I can’t get enough of it. The magic of rhubarb is how well it plays with others — check out this long list of rhubarb cobblers from Rhubarb Info, with recipes that use apples, strawberries, bananas, ginger and more!
- Speaking of versatile, you can do pretty much anything to asparagus and make it a winner, especially with the tender spring shoots. You can grill it, fry it, broil it, steam it or put it in a quiche with onions and Swiss cheese. Of course, serving asparagus with Julia Child’s classic Hollandaise sauce will always be a hit!
Lisa is a special needs teacher and a hugger. She always makes time for everyone and lightens up everybody’s lives with her presence. When she is not chasing her students around the yard, she finds time to write about what she truly loves, and you guessed it, its people and relationships.