The ingredients themselves are the luminaries of spring. They are often verdant: peas, leeks, asparagus, spinach. A pink (rhubarb) or brown (lamb) jumps in too. These recipes center the season’s finest ingredients, using techniques and sauces to complement — not overwhelm — their pristine gestalt.
Asparagus Pakoras
A tender asparagus stalk is a perfect specimen. It needs little to twinkle. Then you go and coat it in a chile-spiked batter made from chickpea flour, fry it til it shatters, dust it with salt, and, suddenly the spear downright scintillates. Get the recipe.
Braised Leek with Chile Bean Sauce
Searing long leek halves turns them charred, sweet-bitter and melting. Braising then softens them into willing submission. They soon clamor for a finishing complement, which a frisky combination of Sichuan chile bean paste, soy sauce, garlic and black vinegar readily provides. Get the recipe.
Broccoli, Bacon and Boursin Quiche
Quiche is always the right idea. It is all the better when loaded with smoky bacon, lush Boursin cheese and nubbins of Broccolini. Serve the entire entity for a brunch gathering. Or parcel it into meals for days on end. Get the recipe.
Lowland Celery Salad
Celery, please step center stage and into the spotlight. No, more to the right and pick up some dates, toasted walnuts and extra-sharp cheddar. Close, but to the left a touch, that mustardy sherry vinaigrette can join you. There! You made it. Feeling the love and attention you have always merited? Get the recipe.
Rhubarb Crisp
A crumble topping loaded with oats, pecans and Chinese five-spice powder. Rhubarb done two ways: unadulterated and treated with baking soda to shave away some of the plants’ sharp edge. A rhubarb crisp is classic springtime, and this variation nudges the dessert into the modern age. Get the recipe.
Sabzi
We are just on the other side of the spring equinox but the hunger for an ongoing, explicit spring jubilee persists. Spinach has the tonic earthiness the season necessitates; lamb is the holy protein of now. This Afghan braise stars not just spinach as the green blast, but also a wallop of green onions and cilantro. Steadying and lush, sabzi is a spring headliner. Get the recipe.
Shakshuka
Shakshuka, that stewy egg dish, is everywhere. You may as well have a baseline recipe for your home kitchen. This one from chef Yotam Ottolenghi is basic with no frippery to speak of. Just tomatoes, harissa, red peppers, cumin and final filip of yogurt. It’s an optimal diving board for shakshuka-fiddling. Get the recipe.
Spring Peas with Mint Butter
Nearly every possible kind of pea shows up here. Snow peas, English peas, snap peas: They have all come to play. That means frolicking, after a quick blanching, in a butter bath loaded with chives and mint. Use the best butter you can find; finish with chopped toasted hazelnuts and flaky salt. Just because. Get the recipe.
Get into the greenery of it all while you can