12 fern recipes

How to prepare fiddlehead ferns: clean, simmer until tender, and serve with butter and lemon. Works for bracken, ostrich, and cinnamon fern varieties.

Fiddlehead fern salad with a warm butter vinaigrette, mustard, paprika, and chopped hard-boiled eggs. A classic spring side dish for foraged fiddleheads.

Creamy fiddlehead fern soup with chicken stock, milk, and lemon zest. A seasonal spring soup that showcases foraged fiddleheads in a simple, brothy bowl ready in 35 minutes.

Tender whitefish fillets baked in white wine and Dijon mustard, topped with earthy fiddlehead ferns and finished with a swirl of butter. Spring on a plate in just 25 minutes.

Santa Fe red pork chili with coarsely ground pork shoulder, beer, stewed tomatoes, and layers of cumin and chili powder. No beans, no shortcuts. A thick, meaty Tex-Mex red chili simmered low and slow.

Hot and sour soup with shredded pork, chicken, tofu, cloud ears, and golden needles in a rice vinegar broth thickened with cornstarch and finished with egg ribbons.

Traditional German butter cookies (Buttergebaeck) with lemon zest and an egg wash glaze. A simple five-ingredient dough that bakes golden in ten minutes.

Fiddleheads on toast turn early-spring foraged fern shoots into a brunch dish with white sauce three ways: with hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, or rolled in ham and broiled.

Pan-fried whole trout in a crispy flour-cornmeal coating served alongside buttered fiddlehead ferns. A classic springtime catch-and-cook meal that celebrates wild ingredients at their seasonal peak.

Fiddlehead fern and ham casserole layered with herb white sauce and topped with buttered bread crumbs. A New England springtime comfort dish using foraged fiddleheads.

Fiddlehead and ham casserole layered with a parsley-chive white sauce and topped with buttered bread crumbs. A classic springtime casserole showcasing foraged fiddlehead ferns.

Forest fettucine with morels and breast of pheasant: handmade morel-powder pasta tossed in a morel cream sauce, topped with seared pheasant breast and buttered fiddlehead ferns. Spring foraging season on a plate, fine-dining style.