So, I’ve always wanted to try ramps. I’ve seen them on restaurant menus, but I’ve never bought them. Ramps look like Springtime to me. Green, sleek, and fresh. And, I love their elusiveness. Ramps are only available in the Spring for a couple of weeks. What are ramps, exactly? Think of them as a type of leek. They have a similar look to scallions, whereby there is a leafy green top and white bulb on the bottom, and both are edible. What do they taste like? Think of a mix of garlic and scallions. That’s pretty much a great flavor combination in any cuisine, if you ask me. Like many New Yorkers, we get our groceries regularly from online grocer FreshDirect. They routinely show their freshest items and I kept seeing ramps, so I finally took the plunge. While this is an example of wild ramps with the bulb and leaves, they only had the leaves, which I used for this recipe, as you will see in the photos below.

Now, what to make with ramps? Most recipes I found add ramps to pasta, and some people create flavorful compound butters with ramps, but when I eyed potatoes in our pantry that I needed to use, I knew it would be a terrific combination — what better pairing with potatoes than garlic and onion, right? A quick online surf brought me to this curried potatoes with ramps recipe, courtesy of Panfusine on Food52. As soon as I read the reader comments, especially this one — “I just made it again with scallions & garlic ‘stead of ramps. I am, like, scraping the herbs & spices off the bottom of the pan & licking the spoon like a lollipop. Please don’t tell.” — I looked no further and KNEW I had to make it!

How did I know? The ingredients: black mustard seeds, turmeric, ground coriander, sun-dried mango powder (amchur), cumin powder, and sun-dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), and crushed red chilies. Small Yukon gold potatoes twice cooked and dry roasted with golden turmeric, herby coriander, and soured by sun-dried mango in just the right way, would taste great anyway, but I couldn’t imagine the flavor combination of adding fresh ramps to the whole thing. I tweaked the recipe a little because I have a newborn baby and didn’t have time to roast and grind cumin seeds and coriander seeds, which is a slight adaptation I share below.

The result was fantastic. Perfectly cooked potatoes that were caramelized and garlicky. Honestly, these aren’t really Indian potatoes, they are just really, really flavorful potatoes. If you can still find ramps, and can get a couple of the ingredients online (or at your local Indian grocer, if you’re not under a stay-at-home order like we are here in New York) you must make this! If you can’t find ramps, remember, you can use scallions and garlic. Let me know if you make this!

Curried Potatoes with Spring Ramps

Ingredients

• 3 cups small Yukon Gold potatoes
• 20-24 ramps, finely chopped (OR 1 bunch of scallions and 3 cloves of peeled garlic)
• 1 tablespoon salt (for adding to water when boiling the potatoes)
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric (for adding to water when boiling the potatoes)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chillies (OR 1 small green chili, finely chopped)
• Salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried mango powder (amchur)
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/8 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves
• Fresh lime wedges
• Finely chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, combine the dried mango, cumin and coriander powders, brown sugar and dried fenugreek leaves. Set aside until needed.
2. Wash the potatoes and boil them in water with salt and turmeric. This gives the potatoes a bright yellow color without coloring the ramps. Cook until fork tender. Drain the water, and set aside (you may cut them up so that they are of uniform size).
3. Cut and discard the roots of the ramp. Chop the entire plant as you would chop a scallion. Set aside.
4. Heat olive oil in a skillet. when it begins to smoke, add the mustard seeds. When they sputter, lower the heat, add the fresh ginger root and chilies. Stir and add salt to taste.
5. Add the ramps and sauté until the greens are limp and the white parts begin to soften. At this point, add the potatoes and stir to combine well. Cover and allow the flavors to blend.
6. Next, add the spice blend and stir to coat the potatoes evenly (you may drizzle some extra oil at this point to ensure that the spice mixture sticks to the potatoes. Heat through for 2-5 minutes before transferring to a serving dish.
7. Squeeze a wedge of lime & garnish with finely chopped cilantro prior to serving.

Adapted from Ramps & fingerling potatoes curry – an Indian Ramp Tramp contagion