Ramp Butter

One way to preserve the flavor of ramps after they're gone is to make ramp butter. It's creamy with bright green flecks and infused with the sharp, earthy flavor or ramps. What's not to love?
Compound butters are a pretty simple thing to make. It's basically just creaming butter with whatever flavoring you'd like to add--herbs, fruit jams, spices, roasted garlic, cinnamon-sugar...I've even seen a recipe for avocado compound butter. The hardest part is rolling the butter into a little log for storage. And even that is a bit messy if you're not very good at it or don't have a lot of practice, but it's not hard.

I've been having this butter spread on homemade sourdough (seen above--just started using the bake-in-a-Dutch-oven-method--Amazing!), but compound butters are also great for adding to cooked veggies or stirring into hot, cooked grains.

Ramp Butter
adapted from Mark Bittman's Compound Butter recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian


1/2 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 T minced ramp leaves with a bit of stem/stalk (reserve the rest of the stems for pickled ramps or another use)
salt
lemon zest (I used about 1/2 t, I think)

Add the softened butter, ramps, a bit of salt, and some lemon zest to a small bowl. Cream together with a fork until all of the ramps have been fully  incorporated.

Now the fun part...Plop the butter in the center of a piece of parchment or wax paper:

Now roll, pressing the butter into a log, then twist the end of the paper:

Store in the fridge for a week or two or in the freezer for 1-2 months.

Makes 1/2 cup