Spring

Mashing peas with the back of a spoon just won’t cut it. Think potato masher + elbow grease if you want to bring out their natural creaminess.

If you don’t want to make the chicken stock from scratch for this congee recipe, simmering some store-bought broth with a few slices of bacon and ginger for 20 minutes or so will give you a huge head-start on flavor.

If you have a wok, gold star goes to you! Use it!

Once you get the hang of it, forming these dumplings is easy, but it may take a little practice at first.

Ramps, a wild leek, are one of those fleeting vegetables that whip chefs and cooks into a springtime fever.

Any cooked rice or grain will work in this stir-fry, but for best results make sure they are completely cooled—overnight is ideal.

Is it necessary to blanch, then shock, the ramp greens? If you want a super-green (not khaki) pesto, it is.

Green beans! Green asparagus! Green pistachios! ... You get the idea—this salad is a celebration of spring. If you can’t find fava beans, substitute English peas or sugar snap peas instead.

If it looks good at the market, it will be good in this salad.

This simple process works for practically any fruit; gauge how much sugar to use based on the fruit’s sweetness, and try cardamom or ginger in place of cinnamon.

This dressing is also great as a dip, and most of the vegetables listed here can be left in bigger pieces and treated as crudités instead.

Use the brine as liquid for vinaigrettes. Add the chopped garlic to salads, potatoes, pesto, or schmear it onto sandwiches.

Available in the spring, green garlic is somewhat less intense than grown-up garlic, but still very pungent and extra-juicy. The dairy fat and tang of the labneh provide cooling balance.

The pungent garlic notes in ramps make them the perfect accompaniment for any pasta dish.

Spring onions are a young allium with a tiny bulb and a tender stalk. After caramelizing, use the leftover oil for bread dipping.

Pickling the onion in lemon juice gives it a fresh, less acidic finish. If you like, soak the carrot ribbons in ice water for 10 minutes to make them curl.

You can crisp the shallots and hard-boil the eggs a day ahead, but wait until closer to serving time to make the yolk filling.

If you have a grill basket, this is a great time to use it. If not, lay the ramps perpendicular to the grill grates so they don’t slip through.

These breezy cocktails are the kind of thing you can drink all afternoon.

Breakfast just got a major upgrade.