Homemade Ramp Butter!

Create an amazing spread using fresh and simple ingredients.

Spring will be here soon in Ohio and it’s such a great time of year. The flowers come up, garden prep is on the mind, our poultry brooders will be full of new babies, and wild edibles will start to appear. The one thing I think about all winter long is when will we harvest our first ramps. Ramps are wild leeks and are so amazingly versatile. During the Spring we harvest ramps and preserve them in various ways including pickling, and drying to use throughout the year.

An easy way to preserve ramps is to turn them into ramp butter. This “compound butter” can be spread on your favorite bagel, to add some great flavor to scrambled eggs, or to even be used when roasting a whole chicken. The uses are endless and it takes less than 20 minutes to make the recipe from start to finish.

Making Ramp Butter

The shopping list needed to make this recipe are 14-16 fresh ramps, 2 sticks unsalted butter (16 tablespoons), 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, salt to taste, pepper to taste. This recipe is super easy to make with a food processor.

First, you need to harvest and clean your ramps. You want to be sure to cut the roots off the bottom of the ramps and remove the “skin” off the bulb. Your kitchen will smell like ramps but it’s a wonderful Spring smell. This recipe calls for 14-16 medium-sized ramps.

Next you will want to roughly chop up your ramps. The bulb part of the ramp will hold the strongest flavor, where the leaves will be a bit more mild.

After the ramps are roughly chopped, you need to gather your remaining ingredients. You will need 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature. You will also need 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, and about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. You can adjust the lemon to your taste. The lemon really brightens up the ramp butter. Lastly, have your salt and pepper handy to add to your ramp butter to taste.

Cooking the Ramps and Making the Butter!

Now its time to sauté the ramps in 1 tablespoon of butter (from your 2 sticks). You are going to cook the ramps for about 5 minutes on medium heat until they cook down a bit.

Allow your sautéed ramps to cool for about 10 minutes, and gather your food processor. Into the food processor add the butter, ramp mixture, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt/pepper to taste.

Pulse the butter until everything is incorporated. Your ramp butter should look creamy when its done.

Store your ramp butter in a glass, airtight container. We like to use smaller mason jars. Ramp butter will last about a week in a fridge (if you don’t eat it all before then). You can also freeze your ramp butter for months. If you don’t want to store your ramp butter in glass jars, you can make a “roll” with your ramp butter and parchment paper. Freeze the log, and cut off what you need, and then put the log back into the freezer.

Celebrate Spring and make some ramp butter of your own. If you can’t harvest them yourself don’t worry, many farmer’s markets are starting to offer ramps for sale during Spring markets! You can even use this recipe with your favorite herbs you have on hand! Get out and explore!