This super easy, four-ingredient wild garlic (ramps) butter is the classic way to make the most of this wonderful seasonal ingredient. It keeps well and is easily freezable, so you can have a taste of spring year-round.

Ultra creamy, bright and flavoursome wild garlic butter has to be the easiest way to preserve this special seasonal ingredient. Not only is it SO easy (literally throw 4 things in a food processor or bowl and press go) but it’s one of the best ways to add a hit of spring flavour to so many dishes.

Drizzle it over new potatoes, and asparagus, toss through pasta or rice, spoon onto grilled meat or seafood or simply slather onto toast!

Ingredients

You only need FOUR ingredients to make this delicious butter.

• Wild garlic (ramps). These beautifully fragranced leaves only appear for about 1 month a year in spring. They have a lovely subtle garlic flavour. If you’re lucky, you can forage for them yourself (just make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for as they are often mistaken for lily of the valley, which is poisonous). You can also find them at farmers’ markets, and online retailers Able & Cole, Riverford and Ocado stock them in the UK.
• Butter. We’re using unsalted butter to better control the level of salt in the finished butter, but you can use salted butter if that’s all you have. If you do use salted butter, make sure you taste it first and then reduce the amount of salt you add.
• Lemon. We’re using the zest of the lemon and a little lemon juice for freshness, so ideally, you want to use a fresh lemon here.

How to make it

Add the softened butter, wild garlic leaves, flaky salt, lemon zest and lemon juice to the bowl of a food processor or chopper. Blitz for a couple of minutes, scraping down the sides as you go, until a creamy, light green whipped butter is formed. Taste, and add a little more salt if you like.

You can also make this butter by hand. If you’re doing that, chop the wild garlic leaves finely, then vigorously mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Seven ways to use wild garlic butter

• Replace regular garlic butter with it in this recipe for garlic butter potatoes.
• Use it to make the most fragrant roast chicken (this juicy herb roasted chicken is great with wild garlic butter under the skin).
• Swap regular garlic naan for wild garlic naan in this 2 ingredient dough garlic naan recipe.
• Drizzle it over grilled steak, salmon, chicken or prawns/shrimp.
• Use to it make the best butter board around.
• Brush it on top of quick garlic butter dinner rolls.
• Or simply slather it on toast! Try it with this super easy no-knead Vogel’s style seed bread, no-knead rosemary parmesan bread or no-knead focaccia.

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