This Grandmas Project recipe for minestra di verdure—a chunky Mediterranean vegetable soup—is a great way to cook through a bumper crop of late-summer veggies, which you can vary depending on what’s available (or on sale). We love serving this stew the day after it’s made to let the flavors marry. Minestra makes an even more complete, satisfying meal when served with crusty baguette and a runny fried egg on top.

Featured in “This Italian Nonna’s Vegetable Soup Is a Portal to Her Past,” by Rooksana Hossenally.

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Credited with the invention of this famous chilled potato leek soup, Chef Louis Diat of New York City’s original Ritz-Carlton Hotel once prepared eight portions of the dish to be delivered to the Manhattan townhouse of Sara Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D.’s mother—and enclosed this vichyssoise recipe. The best potatoes to use for something like vichyssoise are low-starch varieties, such as Yukon Golds, which will retain their creamy flavor and velvety texture even after a long cooking and double-straining process.

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These wild leeks are delicious with pasta, but also try them in buttermilk biscuits or an asparagus and morel quiche.

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Ramps, the wild leeks native to the forests of eastern North America, are one of the first edible plants to break through the soil in the early spring. Prized for their mild, garlicky flavor, they also have a relatively short season. As such, they’ve been bestowed food-world celebrity status (as far as produce is concerned) and can be challenging to source, whether you’re foraging ramps yourself or picking them up at the farmers’ market.

Along with asparagus, ramps are the hallmark of spring cooking. After weathering winter with hearty root vegetable recipes and warming soup recipes, you’ll be relieved to rotate your produce for new seasonal ingredients. We’re obsessed with ramps cooked, simply, in oil, but they also go so well with eggs. The little guys are incredibly versatile in sauces and salads, but when you need something a little more substantial, look no further than ramp pizza. Preserve your ramps as pickles so you can reach for the allium year round. From escabeche to beurre blanc, here are the very best dishes to get your ramp fix this spring.

Ramp Escabeche

Pizza with Ramps, Morels, and Eggs

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Ramp and Wild Greens Pesto

Ramp Jam

Pickled Ramps

White Cheddar Grits with Grilled Ramps

Bacon and Ramp Vinaigrette

Salmon with Green Olive and Ramp Beurre Blanc

Grilled Zucchini with Ramp Aioli

Ramp and Mushroom Tart

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A cousin to onions and garlic, but with a sweeter, more subtle flavor, leeks are less brashly assertive than many of their allium cousins. As suitable as the center of a dish as it is as a supporting player, leeks are endlessly versatile. Many hearty winter soups and stocks call for leeks—what combination is more classic and comforting than creamy potato and leek?—but their subtle flavor plays just as nicely in a lighter spring soup.

First things first: check out our all-inclusive guide to buying and preparing leeks before placing them in your stockpot. Once you’ve made your grocery trip, it’s time to get creative. Stuff them with raisins and blue cheese before roasting for a wonderfully fragranced stuffed leek recipe. Or cook the leek tops briefly for a bright onion-flavored green dish. From Swiss cheese soup to braised pork belly with leek and ginger, here are the 18 best leek recipes in our arsenal.

Crab, Spinach, and Artichoke Dip

Stuffed Leeks with Blue Cheese, Raisins, and Almonds

Chilled Mexican Potato and Leek Soup (Sopa de Poro y Papa)

Swiss Cheese Soup

Braised Pork Belly with Leeks and Ginger

Cold Soba with Mushroom and Leek Seiro Broth

Chicken with Cauliflower and Leeks in Red Wine Sauce

Clam, Leek, and King Oyster Mushroom Foil Yaki

Mustard Tart

Verjus-Brined Pork Chops with Marinated Leeks

Grilled Greens and Leek Tops with Chile-Garlic Sauce

Cream of Fennel Soup

Marinated Leeks with Herbs (Poireaux Vinaigrette)

Leek Bread Pudding

Six-Onion Pizza

Cong Bao Rou Si (Stir-Fried Pork with Leeks)

Leek Terrine with Goat Cheese

Hummus with Pan-Seared Duck, Leeks, and Tapenade

Leek and Herb Frittata (Kuku Sabzi)

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When the masses first pack away their wool sweaters and start eyeing their summer swimwear, you know that somewhere in a yet-unforaged field, ramps are pushing their littlest green leaves up out of the soil.

A species of wild onion that grows rampant (pun definitely intended) across North America, ramps are a much-loved springtime ingredient. Their white, narrow bulbs ombré their way into a vibrant pinkish violet before unfolding into a pair of rabbit-ear leaves. Entirely edible from root to tip, they taste like earthy, delicate garlic and find their way into menus pickled, grilled, sautéed, even battered and fried.

Puerto Rican restaurateur Jose Enrique (Miel, Capital, Jose Enrique) stopped by our test kitchen recently to provide a new twist on America’s favorite allium. He reminisces fondly on the breaded and fried rounds of king fish in escabeche in his native Puerto Rico while he chars the ramps on the grill pan. Escabeche refers to both the dish itself as well as its vinaigrette-like sauce made from vinegar, oil, and a sweet element like sugar or honey. This preparation, usually reserved for chicken or fish, may seem a surprising choice for preparing ramps, but Enrique ensures us otherwise: The vinegar in the sauce gives the ramps a gentle pickling, meaning they can survive in the fridge well past the end of their brief season.

Enrique’s escabeche uses rice vinegar for its base, and is sweetened with honey and rounded out with olive oil. He grills the ramps over high heat to give them a good char without overcooking them, which can cause their delicate flavor to fade. You can grill them, dress them, and serve them right away, or preserve their garlicky goodness for later: Combine grilled ramps and escabeche in a large glass jar, seal, and store in the fridge. It’ll keep for 2 months.

Get the recipe for Jose Enrique’s Ramp Escabeche »

Jose Enrique’s Ramp Escabeche

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