Vibrant and Healthy Recipes for Spring

Awaken your taste buds this spring with vibrant, healthy ingredients like fresh in-season produce.

When it comes to matters of the kitchen, there’s no season quite like spring. The fresh produce markets are dusting off the shelves to make room for fresh in-season produce like tender young carrots and potatoes, baby beets, asparagus, and artichokes. The daylight hours are getting longer, and the barbeque grill is getting scrubbed and ready for the first warm spring night.

Budding trees and blooming flowers make spring a time of renewal. Awaken your tastes buds with healthy recipes for spring using vibrant seasonal ingredients. Quick and easy spring recipes allow you more time outdoors, and with our spring dinner ideas, there’s no need to sacrifice healthy choices for time. From vegan and vegetarian spring meals to outdoor entertaining, you’ll find it here.

Quick and Easy Meals

Spring is a busy time with gardening, cleaning decks, and other seasonal chores. Have more time left for fun with these quick and easy spring recipes.

Asparagus and Potato Frittata

Tender young asparagus tips and new potatoes are the key ingredients in this simple recipe for an Asparagus and Potato Frittata. Save time by doing the prep work while the broiler is heating. The potatoes are boiled in cold salt water for 4-5 minutes just until nearly tender, and the asparagus is tossed in for the final minute.

Chopped onion is cooked in oil in an oven-proof skillet until soft. Eggs, cheddar cheese, and seasonings are mixed together, poured into the pan, and topped with the asparagus and potatoes. After 5 minutes under the broiler, the frittata comes out golden brown and cooked through.

After tossing together a simple spring salad of rocket or mixed leaves with a charred lemon dressing, dinner is ready.

Pesto Shrimp and Artichoke Linguini

Many quick and easy spring recipes look like you spent hours in the kitchen. Or much more than the 30 minutes prep& cook time for Pesto Shrimp and Artichoke Linguini. This delicious dinner entree is ready in minutes. And if you’re fortunate enough to have some fresh locally-sourced shrimp available, all the better.

A divine sauce is made from Parmesan cheese, half-and-half cream, artichokes, pesto, and freshly ground black pepper. It cooks for a few minutes before the shrimp are tossed in and is ready when the shrimp turn pink. Top it on a plate of linguine and you have dinner.

Artichokes have amazing health benefits. They’re full of nutrients and help improve digestion and lower blood sugar levels. It’s really a thistle rather than a vegetable, and the edible part is the flower bulb before the flower blooms. This recipe calls for marinated quartered artichokes in a jar, but since fresh artichokes are one of spring’s bounties, you could make this dish with your own marinated artichokes.

Grilling and Entertaining

Warm balmy nights are here again. These spring dinner ideas are perfect for having guests over.

These Spiced Lamb Burgers are quick and easy to assemble with ground lamb spiced with smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, and kosher salt. Serve them on a lightly toasted potato bun and a tangy make-ahead yogurt sauce. Top them with a slaw made of thinly-sliced sugar snap peas, red onions, and asparagus ribbons.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Keep guests happy before dinner by feasting on mouth-watering Spinach Artichoke Dip with melted cheese, creamy spinach, artichoke hearts, and crispy bacon. It’s quick and easy to make, and you can make it especially special by using fresh spinach instead of frozen and fresh artichokes if you cook your own. But it will still be a delicious appetizer to add to your spring meal menu with canned or jarred artichoke hearts and frozen spinach.

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Cinco de Mayo is one of the most popular spring holidays. Add Grilled Chicken Fajitas to your spring meal menu and celebrate or start a new trend called Fajita Friday along with Taco Tuesday. All of the ingredients, boneless chicken breasts, colorful bell peppers, and red onions are grilled, so you’ll have minimal kitchen clean-up. The recipe includes instructions for making your own fajita seasoning, or you can use a store-bought one.

This versatile recipe can be served over rice or in a salad instead of on tortillas. And if you don’t want to fire up the grill, this dish can be prepared in a cast-iron skillet.

Vegan and Vegerarian

Everyone will find these vegan or vegetarian spring meals delicious. They’re perfect for making your diet a healthier one.

Double Cheese and Spring Vegetable Tart

Store-bought pastry makes this Double Cheese and Spring Vegetable Tart easy and vibrant spring veggies like asparagus and fresh peas make it healthy. Shredded cheddar, sour cream, heavy cream, and grated fresh nutmeg add a robust flavor.

Quinoa Veggie Bowl

Quinoa Veggie Bowl is an easy and delicious vegan recipe for spring. It uses fresh roasted veggies like asparagus, tender baby spinach, and radishes. Roasting the vegetables and adding a dollop of pesto really make the flavors pop. A sprinkle of almonds adds crunch.

Quinoa is a healthy plant-based protein, is gluten-free, and a good source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

This is a very versatile healthy recipe for spring. You can substitute or add a variety of vibrant vegetables like green peas, broccoli, or mixed spring greens. Couscous, rice, or orzo can be used instead of quinoa. Add variety to the flavor with different pesto recipes like spinach artichoke pesto or kale walnut pesto.

Spring Vegetable Lasagna

This Spring Vegetable Lasagna recipe with spinach, carrots, and radishes will have the family looking forward to meatless Monday. Using no-boil noodles make it a no-fuss no-muss spring vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients like mascarpone and crumbled farmers cheese, fresh thyme, and oregano make it a flavorful vegetarian lasagna. Serve it with a salad and crusty bread.

Healthy Side Dishes

Either one of these healthy sides will complement your spring meal menus, and they are so, so simple to prepare.

Perfect Roasted Asparagus

Roasting asparagus really brings out the flavor of this popular spring vegetable. Remove the tough, woody ends, place the tender ends on a roasting pan lined with parchment (for easy clean-up), and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Bake it in a 425-degree oven until the asparagus is easily pierced with a fork.

For variety, try adding lemon zest, grated Parmesean cheese, fresh mint or parsley, or balsamic vinegar.

Sweet Sautéed Radishes

Even if you’ve never cared for the earthy flavor of radishes, you’ll love this recipe for
Sweet Sautéed Radishes. A glaze of honey, butter, balsamic vinegar, and a little salt tones down the tang and brings out the sweetness of the radishes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

One of the best and easiest desserts for spring, Strawbberry Rhubard Crisp features bubbling in-season strawberries and rhubarb and a crunchy oat streusal topping. Serve it on a warm spring day with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Plump, juicy strawberries are a top spring fruit, and rhubarb is a funny vegetable that grows in the fall or early spring. The fleshy,edible stalks are popular for using in pies, jams, and jellies.

Spring Minestrone Soup

Spring weather can be fickle, and our neighbors to the north can find early spring days chilly enough for a welcoming bowl of hot soup. This recipe for Spring Minestrone Soup puts a seasonal twist on classic Italian Minestrone with ingredients like new potatoes, fresh peas, asparagus, artichoke hearts, pesto, and mixed spring greens. Use grated Parm or pecorino cheese as a garnish. Make it a vegan or vegetarian spring recipe by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and omit the cheese.

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