Spring Eats: 10 5-Ingredient Recipes Starring Spring Produce

In-season produce is the star of the show here.

With the onset of spring comes the desire to eat a little bit lighter and enjoy the season’s harvest (while it lasts). Plus, you want to make your meals quick and easy so you can spend ample time enjoying the outdoors — FINALLY. Satisfying these three needs — quick meals, made healthy with spring produce — can be tough, but not to fear: We’ve done all the Pinterest recipe searching for you. Here, we’ve gathered 10 recipes that showcase our favorite spring produce, each using only five ingredients (not counting the staples like oil, salt and pepper). Yup, just five.

From breakfast through dessert, there’s a five-ingredient spring recipe here for every palate (think: fries, tacos and pasta — all made healthy and seasonal). This list might even give you some fresh ideas for using your CSA goodies.

Happy springtime snacking, friends!

Fiddlehead and Tomato Salad with Pecorino
via A Thought For Food

Perhaps one of spring’s most interesting looking crops, fiddleheads are small green swirls of goodness. This recipe calls for the fiddleheads to be blanched and tossed with tomatoes in a light vinaigrette so you really get to enjoy the interesting and slightly bitter taste of the them. It’s all topped off with some shaved parmesan cheese to add a creamy and slightly salty balance to the dish.

Herb-Roasted Parsnip Fries
via Primal Palate

These parsnips get crispy like fries (and who doesn’t love fries?), and are tossed with some fresh herbs, fancy-fries-style. YUM.

Ramp Tacos
via Plate & Pencil

Hmm: Rampos? Racos? Tamps? These tacos (whatever their nickname may be) are super simple to put together, (added bonus: ramps cook nice and quick), making this a great weeknight meal. With a nice dollop of guacamole and some black beans for protein, these tacos are a true vision that we wouldn’t judge you for devouring as often as possible while you can get your hand on the treasure of this season’s produce.

Swiss Chard Salsa Verde
via Bon Appétit

This salsa verde might just be a great topping for those ramp tacos above, or any thing of the sort, really. If you haven’t a indulged in the world of salsa verde before, it’s usually tangy, a little spicy and super delicious. This version has slightly different flavor profile since Swiss chard is the main ingredient, as opposed to cilantro and tomatillos — but it will certainly meet the fresh-burst-of-flavor requirements of salsa verde.

Arugula Gnocchi
via Playful Cooking

Gnocchi is one of life’s greatest gifts, in my opinion. Little pillowy clouds of doughy pasta … what’s better than that? And with this simple recipe, you get a serving of greens without even thinking about it because arugula is actually in the gnocchi dough.

Grilled Lettuce
via Heart Beet Kitchen

I’m not sure about you guys, but my friends have been grilling for weeks now so, it’s certainly not too early to get the grill cranking! Mix up your salad routine by giving a whole head of lettuce a bit of char and season it up with some lemon and parmesan cheese. The next step? Devour.

Asparagus, Sweet Potato and Chicken Skillet
via Primavera Kitchen

Not only is this recipe, working in spring asparagus, a five-ingredient masterpiece, it’s also a one-pot recipe. Music to our ears.

Radish Hash Browns
via Low Carb Yum

This weekend, skip regular ol’ potatoes and egg for this radish hash brown recipe. You could certainly also dress these hash browns up or down for lunch and dinner — they’re basically a blank canvas to do with what you please!

Fava Beans with Red Onion and Mint
via Epicurious

This recipe is super quick and easy, making it a great lunch or side dish option. Though the recipe calls for this salad to be served warm, I can see it doing quite well served cold at your next picnic.

Earl Grey Rhubarb Sorbet
via Sweet Roots

This recipe is a little bit of a time commitment, but what worthwhile dessert isn’t? In this complex sorbet dish (that is five ingredients, including water) the Earl Grey tea adds some citrus and floral notes, while the honey mellows out the tartness of the rhubarb. Added bonus: Rhubarb is chock full of vitamins C and K as well as calcium and fiber, so this is a dessert you can feel good about eating. (And it’s easily made vegan by substituting agave or maple syrup for the honey!)

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