Ramp and Wild Leek Recipes

About

One of the greatest gifts Nature's given to foragers, ramps, also known as ramsons, wild leeks, and wild garlic are a delicious relative of garlic and onions.

Favorites

Ramp Pesto | Ramp Butter | Pickled Ramps | Ramp Sausage |

Sustainability

Wild leeks are a hot topic. The plant is illegal to harvest on public land in most states and info on best practices for harvesting is often speculation. If you're new to them, please read The Forager's Guide to Ramps or Wild Leeks that covers harvesting and sustainability.

Species

North American varieties are only two of a number of different related species that are cooked and enjoyed around the world. A few others are European bear garlic, the victory onion, and the Korean cousin Allium ochotensis.

Edible Parts

There's a number of different parts of the plant you can cook with. Most people will know the leaves and bulbs, but the seeds, scapes and flowers are good too.

Unripe seeds and flowers.

Leaves

The leaves can be cooked similarly to scallions and are wonderful cooked as a vegetable, or made into pesto. One of my favorite recipes is Siberian-Style Fermented Ramp Leaves.

Bulbs

The bulbs are often pickled, but can be used anywhere you'd use an onion. Many people pickle them.

Scapes

The scapes are the unopened flowers. They can be cooked like an onion or garlic scape, fermented or pickled.

Seeds

The unripe green seeds can be dried, pickled or fermented and have a strong onion flavor.

Flowers

Wild leek flowers are delicious, have a long shelf life, and are great anywhere you'd garnish something with raw onion.