Tis the Season for Ramps! Creamy Wild Garlic Mash with Spring Onions and Mustard

Ramps, wild leek, ramsons, wild garlic; whatever you call it, these flavourful leaves are excellent tossed in salads (both warm and cold), swirled through soup, made into pesto, and blended with mash, as in the wild garlic mashed potato recipe below.

Whether you’ve found a glut of ramps on a foraging trip or you’re a city dweller lucky enough to find some for sale, wild garlic is a seasonal wild food not to be missed. More akin to a sort of cross between garlic and spring onion, this chive relative blankets woodlands from March to June. And unlike its more pungent namesake, the broad leafed plant won’t leave you ponging for days.

Three reliable sources for wild garlic, when it’s in season, are Riverford, Abel & Cole, and Ocado. Natoora supplies Ocado, so you are likely to find some at their shops as well. If you’re extra fortunate, you’ll get a few flowers with your delivery (Ocado/Natoora often include them).

Oftentimes food purveyors throw flowers into their wares for good looks or in a bid to be clever, but with little regard for whether or not they complement the dish. In contrast to perfumed petals, however, wild garlic flowers won’t overwhelm other ingredients with unnecessary aromas; the flowers taste like the leaves, only with a more intense flavour. And hence you can use them in any dish, including this mash recipe, where the flavour of ramps is desirable.