“I like cooking in spring because it’s that in-between time, not winter, not summer. You don’t have to overthink it. Anything goes in the spring. We get out of our winter funk and food is less hearty. We move to brighter and fresher things. It’s a regeneration.” – Chef Arwen Rice
Chef Arwen Rice is pursuing a passion that sparked when she was a young teenager. Growing up with two food-loving parents in culturally rich New Mexico, she entered into the industry when she was only 18 years old, baking and serving customers until she realized that the savory kitchen was where she wanted to be. She enrolled in culinary school with a passion for really good ingredients, and learned from restaurant to restaurant until she settled in Mobile. She was named a 2024 and 2025 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: South, which has only increased her devoted following of hungry customers. Here, she shares what’s on her spring plate.
Chef Arwen Rice’s Spring Produce Guide
Lettuce
Boston Bibb Lettuce
This is my favorite lettuce. It’s tender and delicate and holds up to dressing really well. It somehow feels decadent. All it needs is something simple like good olive oil and a squeeze of Meyer lemon or orange juice and a good grated parm. That would make me happy.
Mixed Baby Greens
We use Local Appetite Grower’s spring mix for our market salad. You can be really creative with salad, almost anything goes. Play around with textures, adding something crunchy and fresh, sharp cheese, roasted veg, pickled veg and fresh veg. Don’t think too hard about it.
Arugula
When it’s in season, it’s fresh and green with a peppery bite. It’s one of my most used pizza ingredients. I would put it on top of every pizza I ate if I could! You can saute it or slightly wilt it. You can use it with melon or with cured meats like prosciutto. It complements everything.
Spring Onions
Scallions
These mild, green stalks are the most readily available at grocery stores and are easy to cook with. A true scallion will never produce a bulb, but they are often used interchangeably with really young spring onions. You can eat the whole thing and they will re-grow if you leave the roots in a cup of water after using the green parts.
Ramps
Ramps are a pungent, garlicky wild leek that grows in the Eastern US during early spring. They have a short, 2–3 week season, and so are cherished whenever they come to market. I turn them into pesto, use to flavor oils and butter, bake onto focaccia or use to make the brightest green sauces over fish. And I love to pickle them to make them last!
Spring Onions
Immature young bulb onions are harvested before the large, round bulb forms. I love to buy vidalia spring onions because the bulb is nice and tender and mild, and the stalks are super fresh with a bright green flavor. Nothing is overpowering in the dish, and there is no burning eyes when you prep them.
Leeks
Leeks are an allium, which resemble a green onion in appearance but are considerably larger. They are known for their mild, sweet taste and appear in many French recipes. I especially love them in soups and sauces. They are so good roasted and added to a pizza with cheese and mushrooms. You can’t eat the dark green part so I add them to my stock.
Green Garlic
Green garlic is the young, tender shoot of the garlic plant harvested in early spring before the bulbs develop. The stalks can be clipped before the flowers bloom and it has a mild flavor with none of that burn of older garlic. It’s hard to find in stores but I buy it from local organic farmer (and doctor) George Koulianos.
Green Peas
You can buy these frozen all year long and they are really pretty good, but fresh, tender spring peas are amazing. I use them to make pesto, or just add them to pasta for a bit of freshness. You can make a chilled pea soup when it’s warm, or a warm creamed soup if it’s still chilly outside. If you can get the tender pea shoots, you can use them like arugula, in salad or on top of pizza. The leaves and tendrils are very delicate and taste like a pea but milder.
Spring Herbs
We make our own boursin cheese so I put all the fresh herbs in there I can get. At this time of year, I love fresh tarragon, mint, chives, dill and fennel fronds. It’s still too cool for basil. The fennel fronds also work great in a stock. We try to waste as little produce as we can, so all the spring vegetable ends go into the stock pot to make delicious risotto, soups and sauces.
Embrace Color
Mixed in with all this wonderful green produce in early spring, we have luscious strawberries, late season carrots, deep purple beets and so much more. Even edible flowers! We often have early season English cucumbers in April, too, and all of this produce pairs so well with soft cheeses.
Christina Quick’s Green Wine Guide
In spring, the color green is ever present, even in wine. Vinho Verde is a crisp, light and often effervescent white wine from the Minho region of Portugal. Vinho Verde translates to “young wine” or “green wine,” referencing the lush, green landscape of the Minho region and the fact that it is meant to be drunk within its first year. It is not a grape variety, but rather a blend of several native Portuguese grapes.
“Vinho Verde is an elevated porch pounder, as I like to call it, and is the perfect wine to pair with a light meal on a warm spring day.”
– Christina Quick, Sommelier at Provision
