Ramp leaf garum is a fermented, plant-based substitute for fish sauce made from ramp leaves, salt, water, and time. A few of my chef friends have been trying to make vegetarian fish sauce recipes using different things to replicate the umami flavor. Most of the techniques include lots of ingredients like coconut aminos, shiitake or…
Ramp Recipes
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.
Cheremsha: Siberian-Style Fermented Ramp Leaves
Cheremsha, also known as Tjeremsha and Черемша are a wild allium used to make one of the most interesting traditional foods I’ve tasted to date. Essentially, you can think of them as lacto-fermented ramp leaves, although the traditional plant used to make the ferment is Allium victorialis-the victory onion, reputed to have been brought to…
Foraged Spring Vegetable Soup with Ramp Pistou
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…
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 Leaf 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 Gratin with Tomato and Bee Balm
Early last fall I was planning a menu to be executed in someone’s 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…
