Every year in the spring one of the first things I do is make a few dishes that are pure spring on a plate, or in a bowl as the case may be here. Vegetable soup aux pistou is a classic French recipe for vegetable soup, and one that’s perfect for celebrating springs bounty of…
Recipes for Ramps and Wild Onions
Ramps and wild onions are one of the greatest gifts the woods have to offer. If you're new to ramps, refer to my basic intro to ramps first. If you have some you'd like to cook, don't miss ramp leaf butter, oil, and pesto.
Bison Stew with Timpsila, Ramps and Hominy
I started cooking with the Thíŋpsiŋla / Timpsila / Prairie Turnips, and they are so, so delicious. I was lucky enough to get invited out near the Standing Rock Reservation by my friend, Native American ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk this past summer, and for two days, I worked hard enjoying the timpsila harvest with them….
Dried Ramp Ranch Dressing
No, I’m not better than making homemade ranch dressing with ramp leaves. Dried ramp leaves are one of the best wild ingredients to preserve for your pantry in the off season, and there’s probably not a better poster child for them than in some good ol’ramp leaf ranch. Now, I’ve made ranch-type sauces out of…
Eggplant Baked with Tomato and Wild Herbs
Early last fall I was planning a menu to be executed in someones home. It was going to start with a few appetizers, and the client wanted a selection of gluten free, vegetarian, as well as meat centered apps for guests to graze on before I served dinner. It was the very tail end of…
Andy’s Morel and Ramp Spaghetti
Just about every year I try to get out and hunt a few morels with my old chef, friend and mentor Chef Andy Lilja, former Chef de Cuisine of Heartland, Executive Chef of il Vesco Vino, I Nonni, and many others. We usually try to get permission to hunt some land near Frontenac that reliably…
Artichokes with Ramp Leaf Butter
Artichokes with melted ramp butter? No, no that won’t suck at all. I’ve been getting a good amount of questions about how to use ramp leaf butter after it’s made. To me, there’s so many options that the possibilities seem endless, but I get that it can help to have some very specific examples. One…
Ramp Leaf Pasta Dough(s)
Everyone loves green noodles–including me, which is why there’s at least 3 different variations of them already on this site. Ramp leaf noodles needed to happen though, but, unlike other green and colored pastas, I had a vision for the noodles to actually taste like the ingredient used to make them, which, to be honest,…
Ramp Leaf Oil
Forest green, deep and oniony, chefs love a good green oil, and ramp leaf oil is probably the best I’ve ever had. Alot of the time, green oil can be a thoughtless garnish, or lazy drizzle on top of a soup—a little color—nothing more. But with a little care, green oil is not only an…
Ramp Leaf Salsa Verde
If you like ramps and wild onions, ramp leaf salsa verde is a new sauce for you to put on just about everything. I typically keep some sort of herby-mildy spicy sauce around the house for drizzling on things in a pinch, typically made from cilantro, oregano, or lovage, and, while they all follow the…
Grilled Ramps with Chokecherry Sauce
Love ramps and have a bunch? Guess what? You can eat them like a vegetable. Just like green onions, ramps can be grilled or roasted and eaten as a side dish, and it’s a great way to have them–especially the youngest first batch that you harvest since they’ll be the most tender. I did a…
Ramp Ketchup
Besides pickled bulbs, ramp ketchup is one of the first things I ever made with everyones favorite wild leek. At the time, I remember making a few gallons of it to use as a condiment for vegetarian tasting menus, but we eventually started putting it on all kinds of things. Now, homemade ketchup and I…
Ramp Scrap Vinegar
Bright pink and smelling of woodsy garlic, ramp scrap vinegar is one of the first things I ever made with ramps. Back then, when the ramps would come in the restaurant when I worked at Heartland in St. Paul, the line cooks would fight over who got to use them on the menu first. When…
Fried Frog Legs Marinated in Ramp Leaf Oil
A French club was coming in for dinner, and I was told they would expect escargot. The only problem was snails weren’t on the menu, and the party was coming in the next day. Fresh out of helix snails in cans, I gathered a party to excavate the deep freeze of the French concept/restaurant I…