7 Recipes That Make Spring Produce the Star of Your Meal

Farmers’ markets across the country are officially back in full swing, just bursting with spring produce for all your favorite seasonal recipes. And, hey, even if you’re still buying all your groceries at the supermarket, at least we’re long past the point where people are throwing elbows to get what’s on their list. Overall, we can all agree that food shopping is much more enjoyable now than it was a year ago.

With so many vibrant new veggies in season, cooking at home is more exciting, too. In Well+Good’s Cook With Us Facebook group, we’re celebrating spring produce all month long with a monthly challenge devoted to finding new ways to cook with the veggies. Each week is a different mini-challenge to highlight a specific vegetable that’s in season right now.

The goal of the challenges is to find new ways to cook with the featured veggie. The Cook With Us group is a place where members can swap recipes and share what they made. Need some inspiration? All the videos rounded up here use one of the highlighted veggies in a delicious, creative way. Check them out and share your own ideas in the group.

Easy spring produce recipes

1. Beet hummus

If you’ve never cooked with beets before, this beet hummus recipe is the perfect place to start. The vitamin A, C, and potassium-rich vegetable is blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and cumin for a dip that’s as flavorful as it is pretty. Pink hummus is just so much more fun.

2. Maple-roasted carrots

Roasting carrots and drizzling them with a little maple syrup completely transforms their flavor and texture. Here, olive oil, hot sauce, and salt are also worked into the recipe, lighting up all your tastebuds. Sweet, salty, and spicy, these maple roasted carrots really have it all.

3. Carrot cake smoothie

Carrots are often regulated to the dinner table, but you can absolutely enjoy them in the morning, too. Here, they’re used to make a smoothie so decadent it tastes like dessert. Also in this recipe are pineapple and warming spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.

4. Carrot cake

If that smoothie had you craving the real thing, here’s a carrot cake recipe that will 100 percent satisfy your craving. It’s also gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-sugar.

5. Radish pancakes

Chances are, you already have a sweet pancake recipe you know and love, but what about a savory one? “Daikon radish is slightly sweet and has a little bit of spiciness that radishes typically have, but grated, it makes a great base for a pancake batter,” says Mina Park, co-owner and chef of Baroo in Los Angeles. Enjoy these cakes for literally any meal of the day.

6. Radish kimchi

In this recipe, yeolmu—aka young radish—is combined with dried kelp, shiitake mushrooms, Asian pear, garlic, ginger, gochugaru (Korean chili flakes), and rice flour to make a nourishing side dish. “It’s a very refreshing dish,” says recipe creator Mina Park.

7. Spicy daikon radish salad

Daikon radishes are the star of this recipe from Mina Park to make a simple yet flavorful side dish. Make sure you have plenty of garlic and gochugaru on hand.

Join Well+Good’s Cook With Us Facebook group to get in on the monthly challenge and see more spring produce repices.