Recently, I’ve been having all sorts of kitchen fun, so I thought that I would add a new feature to this blog and title it “Food Fridays.” It will appear anytime I have purchased something really cool at the nearby farm or at various farmers markets. And the really cool thing that I am featuring today is….
Ramps!
Ramps are available only for a brief time during early spring. Another name for ramps is wild leek.
When I cook with ramps, I like to use the entire thing, which includes the leaves.
The first thing that I made with the ramps was a soup. Ingredients include potatoes and celery. I also used homemade bone broth that I had in storage in the freezer. If you’re interested in the recipe, you can find it here: https://learningandyearning.com/ramps-or-wild-leeks/
I really like this recipe and would definitely use it again. Here are some of the pictures from the soup making process.
Here are the ramps and celery cooking with a portion of the broth.The ingredients are cooking in the big pot, and it’s time to cover the pot and let it cook slowly for about thirty minutes. Once the vegetables are soft, you then use the immersion blender to puree the soup. After pureeing the soup, you add half and half. That’s what the recipe called for. I chose to substitute creamy oat milk for the half and half, which I guess would result in the soup being a little lighter.The soup is ready, and last instruction is to add salt and pepper to taste. For me, that would mean adding a small amount of salt, as well as a few gluten-free crackers. And I must say, the result was yummy!Why not have ramps for breakfast?This omelette is actually made with a single egg. Other ingredients include ramps, oat milk, and feta cheese. I had leftover jasmine rice, so I added that to the dish. My beverage was decaffeinated tea with honey and lemon. I don’t always drink decaf tea but I like it because I’m kind of the odd ball. Caffeine makes me sleepy.Today’s salad features ramps, a butter style lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes, microgreens, and feta cheese. I bought the lettuce, the ramps, the microgreens, and the cherry tomatoes at the nearby farm. The ramps grow wild and are harvested by local people, and the lettuce and the cherry tomatoes are grown at a nearby hydroponic farm. The microgreens are also grown locally. One thing that I like to encourage people to do is to shop locally, especially food. The shorter a distance your food has to travel, the fresher and tastier it is. Also, it’s a good thing to support local farmers. They are grateful for your business.
Next time: I was told that the next yummy early spring crop that I will be able to purchase will be rhubarb! I am excited to see what I can do with rhubarb and am looking forward to sharing it with you!
