14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (2024)

  • Ramp

Ramps are highly sought after alliums with a sweet and complex flavor and a very small season. Dig into this list to learn why they're so beloved.

By

Rabi Abonour

14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (1)

Rabi Abonour

Rabi Abonour is a planner specializing in transportation, but has also been a photojournalist, writer, and editor for several online and print publications.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated April 26, 2023

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14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (2)

Until I moved to the East Coast, I don't think I had ever even heard of ramps—and, during the first spring I spent in New York City, I remained skeptical. Surely admiring over an expensive regional allium with a short growing season bore all the hallmarks of a Brooklyn cliché. But once I actually tried them, I suddenly understood what all the fuss was about: Ramps have a sweet and complex flavor—one that's fresher and less harsh than that of scallions or leeks—that can be craveable.

To preserve those essential qualities, it's best to keep it simple when preparing ramps. Sautéing them in butter brings out even more depth of flavor; once you've done that, you don't need many other ingredients. Because ramps are so closely identified with this time of year, some of our recipes pair them with other springy vegetables, like asparagus in a bright green soup, or snap peas and English peas in a salad bursting with seasonal freshness. Others just use them to add a dash of oniony flavor to everyday items like drop biscuits or quesadillas. Study up on your local farmers market schedule, show up early to beat the crowd, and dig into the list of 11 recipes below, certain to keep you busy throughout the fleeting ramp season.

  • Grilled Ramps

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (3)

    To fully appreciate your ramps, especially if you're trying them for the first time, you can't do much better than coating them in extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and charring them quickly on a ripping-hot grill. The high heat is perfect for emphasizing the vegetable's complex sweetness.

    Grilled Ramps

  • Spring Salad of Asparagus, Ramps, Snap Peas, and Peas

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (4)

    As long as you're spending your early mornings stalking your favorite ramp supplier at the farmers market, be sure to pick up some of the other terrific spring produce available. This salad is like a fresh spring cornucopia tossed together in a bowl—ramps, snap peas, asparagus, and English peas. You can substitute almost any other green vegetables you've got on hand, though, including Brussels sprouts, young broccoli, and fava beans. A delicate poached egg, a bright lemon zest vinaigrette, and an asparagus purée top it off.

  • Extra-Rampy Ramp Risotto

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (5)

    If you've gone ramp-crazy (and maybe brought home a few more than you know what to do with), this pretty green risotto will deliver the most intense ramp flavor possible by incorporating the allium in three ways. First, we sauté ramps and garlic together instead of the more typical shallots and garlic—using the whites of the ramps only, since they hold up better to long cooking. We stir in a purée of blanched ramps just before the dish is finished for freshness of flavor, then top each bowl with a sautéed ramp.

    Extra-Rampy Ramp Risotto

  • Orange-Glazed Carrots With Ramp Barley and Spinach

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (6)

    Stir-frying cooked whole grains is a great way to infuse them with flavor from the other ingredients in the skillet. Here, we sauté ramps and spinach and toss them with cooked barley, then serve the mixture alongside carrots glazed in sugar and orange juice, which bring out the carrots' natural sugars. A sprinkle of toasted almonds adds a nice crunch.

    Orange-Glazed Carrots With Ramp Barley and Spinach Recipe

    Continue to 5 of 14 below.

  • Bacon and Ramp Dumplings

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (7)

    Though the flavors of smoky bacon and sweet ramps work wonderfully together, getting them to balance in dumplings takes some finesse. Using only bacon would overwhelm the ramps, so we cut it with ground pork for these dumplings and add cabbage to serve as a counterpoint. Bring out the ramps' flavor by lightly charring them before mixing them into the filling.

    Bacon and Ramp Dumplings

  • Ramp and Chorizo Quesadillas

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (8)

    In the spirit of treating ramps simply, this recipe combines them with just a few ingredients: chorizo (either fresh or cured works); grated jack, cheddar, or Oaxacan cheese; and soft flour tortillas. Before mixing everything together, cook the ramps quickly in the rendered chorizo fat so they get a chance to soak up that flavor. When constructing your quesadillas, we recommend using a single tortilla and folding it in half—it's way easier to flip compared to the two-tortilla design.

    Ramp and Chorizo Quesadillas

  • Asparagus and Ramp Soup With Yogurt

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (9)

    For this easy, creamy soup, we sauté ramps in butter until they're lightly browned and blend them with blanched asparagus, broth, and yogurt—the latter adds both richness and a little acidity. We garnish each bowl with reserved asparagus and ramps and a generous drizzle of olive oil, for a dish that's as pleasing to look at as it is to eat.

    Asparagus and Ramp Soup With Yogurt

  • Mapo Tofu with Ramps

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (10)

    Mapo dofu (or, more commonly in the States, "mapo tofu") is a Sichuan classic made with silken tofu, a little ground beef, and a variety of spices and sauces, Sichuan peppercorns key among them. In this recipe, we simply substitute in-season ramps for the standard garlic, giving the dish a deep onion flavor that pairs well with the mouth-numbing peppercorns.

    Mapo Tofu with Ramps

    Continue to 9 of 14 below.

  • Puffy Ramp Frittata

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (11)

    A super-simple frittata flavored with ramps sautéed in butter, this one is made extra fluffy by whipping up half of the egg whites into soft peaks. The whipped whites puff up during the cooking, making for a much lighter, airier frittata than you'd get from beaten eggs alone.

    Puffy Ramp Frittata

  • Ramp Compound Butter

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (12)

    Ramps are only in season for about a month or two, but there are a few ways to preserve them so you can enjoy their flavor all year long. One great preservation technique is makingramp compound butterand storing it in the freezer. The ramps, locked inside the confines of the frozen butter like Han Solo in carbonite, are essentially stored indefinitely, capturing the "rampy" essence of early spring at any time of year.

    Ramp Compound Butter

  • Ramp Gravy

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (13)

    Smother your biscuits with ramp gravy, a simple cream gravy that achieves a new dimension of flavor thanks to the pungent allium. Or, try it on chicken-fried steak or mashed potatoes.

    Ramp Gravy Recipe

  • Fried Eggs With Ramps, Morels, and Bacon

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (14)

    Ramps, more than any other allium I can think of, have a way of releasing their flavor into whatever fat (whether it's bacon fat, butter, or olive oil) you're cooking them in. Meanwhile, there is no mushroom—perhaps no food,period—that is better at absorbing those flavors than a morel, with its hollow core and deeply ridged surface. The bacon—well, it's bacon, which needs no explaining.

    Fried Eggs With Ramps, Morels, and Bacon

    Continue to 13 of 14 below.

  • Quick Pickled Ramps with Coriander and Chili Flakes

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (15)

    Ramps, which are actually wild leeks, are good roasted, grilled, sautéed, whirled into vinaigrette or pureed into pesto. They also make an outstanding pickle.

    Quick Pickled Ramps with Coriander and Chili Flakes

  • Spring Ramp and Asparagus Frittata Recipe

    14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (16)

    When you have amazing seasonal produce, a frittata is one of the best, and easiest, ways to showcase it. In this version, fresh-picked asparagus and ramps add a juicy green bite that's as pure a celebration of spring as you can get.

    Spring Ramp and Asparagus Frittata

14 Ramp Recipes to Celebrate Ramp Season (2024)

FAQs

What is ramp on a menu? ›

Ramps are a type of wild allium that are related to spring onions and leeks and boast a pungent garlicky onion flavor.

What is a ramp and how do you cook it? ›

Ramps can be eaten raw, like green onions or scallions, but they're frequently cooked down, like leeks. While they aren't as hardy as leeks, the leaves are much more resilient to heat than the delicate shoots of chives or scallions, so don't be afraid to add some to a stir-fry or side of sautéed greens.

What is a ramp food wise? ›

On first glance, ramps somewhat resemble spring onions; they both have stringy roots and thin stems. Unlike the young onion, ramps' green tops fan out into broad leaves. Their flavor is undeniably garlicky, which mellows once they're cooked. Like spring onions, you can eat ramps from top to bulb.

How do you prepare ramps? ›

To enjoy raw ramps, simply slice them and use them as you would scallions or chives. Sprinkle raw ramps into salads, on scrambled eggs, over the top of tacos, or on a baked potato with sour cream. You can cook whole ramps by tossing them lightly in olive oil and searing in a grill pan or on a hot barbecue.

What is ramp seasoning? ›

Ramp salt is a flavored salt infused with taste and aroma of fresh ramp leaves. It's easy to make at home with a dehydrator or in the oven and can be used as a finishing sprinkle on different dishes. It's a good entry-level way to preserve ramps.

What is a ramp a good example of? ›

A ramp and a hill are examples of inclined plane. An inclined plane is a simple machine with a sloping surface.

What vegetable is a ramp? ›

Ramps, also sometimes called wild leeks, are a type of wild onion, and they look similar to a scallion or spring onion — they have a bulb and a tall stalk and long, flat green leaves on top.

Do you have to boil ramps? ›

"I really enjoy ramps in the uncooked state. We like to macerate them into vinaigrettes, marinades, condiments, or just raw, finely sliced. You can use them interchangeably with any recipe calling for garlic. The season is so short that I kind of like the idea of savoring the pungent flavor that can stick with you.

How do you cut ramps for cooking? ›

Here's how:
  1. Thoroughly wash ramps as described.
  2. Blanch the ramps' green leaves for 15 seconds, followed by an ice bath. ...
  3. After thoroughly drying the leaves, coarsely chop them, along with the ramps' bulbs and stems, which do not need to be blanched before freezing.
Mar 22, 2024

What is another name for ramps food? ›

Allium tricoccum – commonly known as ramps but also is sometimes called wild leek, spring onion, or ramson – is frequently collected and sold at farmers markets or served in upscale restaurants in the spring as a delicacy for its strong garlic-like odor and sweet spring onion flavor.

Are ramps onions or leeks? ›

Ramps are not leeks, nor are they scallions, nor are they exactly shallots. Ramps — which are sometimes called wild leeks or spring onions, adding to the confusion — look like scallions, but they're smaller and slightly more delicate, with one or two flat, broad leaves.

What are ramps like onions? ›

What are ramps? They're really a type of wild onion with a unique garlicky-onion flavor, which some people find overwhelming. Most folks either love them or despise them. Some internet sources say they look like scallions, but they look nothing like scallions.

How do you harvest and prepare ramps? ›

The best way to harvest ramps in the wild or in your garden is to remove just one leaf from each plant. You can leave the other leaf and the bulb intact and it will continue growing, which is a great way to help preserve wild populations of ramps and reduce your impact on ramp patches in the forest.

Do ramps need to be refrigerated? ›

Though the leaves are fragile, properly handled ramps will stay fresh in the fridge for up to a week: Rinse and dry them thoroughly with paper towels, then tightly wrap them together in plastic, remove all the air, and store them in the crisper in the fridge. Or, you can vacuum seal the raw ramps and freeze them.

What is the definition of a ramp? ›

A ramp is a slope or an incline, a surface that tilts from one level to another. Someone using a wheelchair might need a ramp to get from the doorway of a building down to its parking lot.

What does ramp mean in sales? ›

Sales rep ramp, also called sales ramp rate or sales ramp-up time, is a measure of how long it takes your sales team to go from new hire to full productivity. Everyone knows brand new sales reps don't come in and start hitting their sales quota on day one.

What does ramp stand for in sales? ›

In sales compensation, a ramp refers to a gradual increase in a salesperson's commission or target earnings over a predefined period, typically during the initial stages of their employment.

What is the purpose of a ramp? ›

Ramps are often used in professional healthcare settings where there are many users of mobility vehicles such as mobility scooters or wheelchairs. Ramps provide the essential function of allowing a gentle gradient to allow the user to wheel up the ramp in safety and securely positioned on the ramp during transit.

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