5 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Spring

Is winter over yet? Let’s face it, Spring is a hot and cold lover. With sunny weather one day and then freezing rain for days. But it’s also one of my favourite seasons as so many vegetables appear. Over the years I’ve shared my favourite ramp recipes from foraging in the forest.

I’ve foraged on private land and am lucky enough to be in a group where we are the only ones using the land so we ensure sustainability each year. But please read the post below if you’re foraging on public land.

MUST READ: Spring Guide to Foraging Edible Plants

Ramps are like natures perfect onion, so delicate but fragrant. They only appear for a few weeks each year and then make way for summer. I wanted to share these ramp recipes in one place as they are great for beginners and don’t take much time to make.

Our Best Ramp Recipes

5 Easy ramp recipes that are great for cooks looking to explore foraged foods.

Pickled Ramps

Ramps only appear for a few weeks but I like to enjoy them year round. Ramps are great as pickles and it ensures that if you buy/pick a bunch and aren’t able to eat them all that you aren’t wasting precious ramps.

They are amazing over pasta, can be battered and fried, or served on crostini. The flavour is so delicate as a pickle that I love them on their own.

Ramp pasta with prosciutto is an easy recipe using foraged wild leeks also known as ramps.

Ramp Pasta

One of the easiest ramp recipes as there is no preparation. I love this ramp pasta with prosciutto and parmesan because it’s so comforting on cold rainy spring days. The saltiness of the prosciutto and cheese complement the onion for a pasta that is everything full flavoured but light. Best of all, this ramp pasta takes less than 10 minutes to make.

Ramp Kimchi

Kimchi isn’t just for cabbage! Like regular leeks, people often wonder what to do with the greens from wild leeks – aka ramps. An easy way to use them is to ferment them into kimchi. They are fantastic as a condiment, like on the hot dogs above or mixed with a bit of goat yogurt to make a dipping sauce.

Kimchi seems intimidating but really it’s not so hard and pretty low maintenance. It’s great way to use all of the ramps and extend the flavour.

Charred Ramp Pesto

Pesto is just like Argentinean chimichurri or French pistou – you can use so many different kinds of greens. Here’s another one of the ramp recipes that aims to use all of the plant. You torch the ramp before combining it with pesto ingredients.

If you do not have a a torch at home you can do this by putting the plants under the broiler.

Beer Battered Ramps

This may be one of my favourite recipes. I call it nature’s onion ring. People rave about this simple beer batter mix with the ramp kimchi mayo. It’s so simple to make and so decadent. You can make this recipe with fresh or pickled ramps.