Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Easy Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Written by Becky

I found the perfect spring vegetable sauté recipe that requires just a few ingredients and is completely adaptable to whatever spring or summer vegetables that you pick up at the market. This Spring Vegetable Sauté uses asparagus, radishes, peas, and leeks, but feel free to use what you have on hand. I found the inspiration for this recipe on a new cookbook, Vegetable Literacy, that I picked up for light reading with new baby. The vegetables I found at my favorite local market, Liberty Heights Fresh.

Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Vegetable Literacy turned out to be a fabulous resource for me on seasonal vegetables.  The book explains the varieties of each vegetable, how to use the whole plant (like even using the greens of radishes), how to choose or pick the vegetable, and good companions for each vegetable. Every vegetable section also comes with several recipes for inspiration, some simple and others more complex. I chose this very simple recipe to share today to easily enjoy your spring garden.

Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe with ghee

Our local farmers market officially opened up last week and I picked up a few fresh veggies but I hope to pick up even more this week.  Everything is pretty green right now at the market, lots of lettuces like spinach, kale, chard, and one of my favorites, sorrel or as some call it, lemon spinach, (you can read what to do with sorrel in this post). I also spotted fresh herbs, peas by the basket full, long and lanky asparagus, and bright, juicy strawberries.

I have also discovered lately a few products that I’m enjoying using!  High quality products and fresh produce allow you to make simple dishes highlighting the bright fresh flavors of the season. One product I’ve been using is ghee, a clarified or pure form of butter. I found ghee at Liberty Heights Fresh, and you should be able to find it at most specialty health foods stores. Ghee is easier to metabolize than butter, has lower cardiovascular risks than butter, has a higher smoke point, and because it’s preparation method requires heat, it has a toasted, nutty flavor.

Easy Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe with Tarragon

If you find yourself filling your bag with lots of fresh spring produce, this recipe is an easy one to master and perfect for enjoying the real flavors of the food, as it has only light added flavor with the broth, herbs, and yogurt sauce.  Also, feel free to make this as a side dish and omit the yogurt sauce. Enjoy!

What spring vegetables are you looking forward to savoring this season?

Easy Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Easy Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

An easy spring vegetable recipe that you can adapt with any fresh vegetables you have on hand.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Gluten Free, vegetarian
Servings 2 dinner servings or 4 side dish servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 leeks
  • 10 ounces pod peas, shucked (about 3/4 cup of peas)
  • half of a bundle of asparagus
  • 1 bundle of radishes, with their leaves
  • 2-3 teaspoons of ghee, or high quality butter
  • 1 cup chicken of vegetable stock
  • sa salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions
 

  • Wash all the vegetables. Slice radishes and asparagus, making all the pieces more or less the same size. Slice off the end of the leeks then slice the white and light green part of the leeks, leaving the dark green ends.
  • Melt a few teaspoons of butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and 1/2 cup stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Season with a few pinches of salt, add the radishes and asparagus and simmer for 3 more minutes. Next, add the peas and radish greens, making sure there is enough liquid in the pan as you go and adding more stock if needed. Continue cooking until the peas are bright green and tender (a few minutes longer). The radish leaves will wilt and taste mils and slightly nutty.
  • When vegetables are done, remove from heat and add a heaping spoonful of ghee/ butter. Season with salt and stir in the tarragon and lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasonings.
  • Serve with a dollop of seasoned fresh yogurt and bread.

This is totally optional but we enjoyed these vegetables with some lavash bread (bought at Trader Joe’s) and a few spoonfuls of savory Greek yogurt.  Here’s how we like to flavor our Greek yogurt for sauces.

Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

Easy Sautéed Spring Vegetable Recipe

An easy spring vegetable recipe that you can adapt with any fresh vegetables you have on hand.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Gluten Free, vegetarian
Servings 2 dinner servings or 4 side dish servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 leeks
  • 10 ounces pod peas, shucked (about 3/4 cup of peas)
  • half of a bundle of asparagus
  • 1 bundle of radishes, with their leaves
  • 2-3 teaspoons of ghee, or high quality butter
  • 1 cup chicken of vegetable stock
  • sa salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions
 

  • Wash all the vegetables. Slice radishes and asparagus, making all the pieces more or less the same size. Slice off the end of the leeks then slice the white and light green part of the leeks, leaving the dark green ends.
  • Melt a few teaspoons of butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and 1/2 cup stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Season with a few pinches of salt, add the radishes and asparagus and simmer for 3 more minutes. Next, add the peas and radish greens, making sure there is enough liquid in the pan as you go and adding more stock if needed. Continue cooking until the peas are bright green and tender (a few minutes longer). The radish leaves will wilt and taste mils and slightly nutty.
  • When vegetables are done, remove from heat and add a heaping spoonful of ghee/ butter. Season with salt and stir in the tarragon and lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasonings.
  • Serve with a dollop of seasoned fresh yogurt and bread.

Comments (7)

    • Heather, you’ll have to let me know what you think. This was the first time I’ve cooked radishes. Before this I’ve always eaten them raw on salads. They are great cooked!

  1. So simple and beautiful! Visited Liberty Heights for the first time this week, loved it. I needed some local honey and was happy to see they had Clifford Farms, the honey we always bought in Provo.

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