The Best Spring Recipes Of 2021

Eggs benedict is a classic brunch staple. Light and savory and creamy all at once, the dish pairs perfectly with springtime mimosas and Bloody Marys. However, eggs benedict is no easy dish to make, what with the egg poaching and the hollandaise sauce that's rumored as a hotbed for bacteria unless you prepare it with the utmost precaution. Fortunately, this eggs benedict recipe makes this dish a cinch, with tips and tricks for poaching eggs and whipping up the perfect hollandaise sauce. With just a little bit of butter, eggs, mustard, English muffins, and Canadian bacon, plus a few spices from the pantry, you're well on your way to a delightful spring brunch.

Once spring arrives, picnic-style salads are a must. Chilled and filled with veggies, pasta, or potatoes, however you like your picnic salad, it's hard to say "no" to any variety when it's served alongside a grilled hot dog or hamburger, or even a simple sandwich. But every home cook needs a go-to picnic and potluck side salad recipe, something that friends ask for time and time again. This antipasto salad recipe could become that staple for you. Packing a punch of flavor, it combines chilled pasta with cheese, banana peppers, onions, olives, artichokes, and tomatoes for a side dish that, honestly, you could probably enjoy all on its own, no entree required.

Originally introduced at a charity ball at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, the Waldorf salad has claimed a spot among history's swankier salads — though the recipe, which originally only included lettuce, apples, celery, and walnuts, has evolved over the years to include everything from mandarin oranges and grapes to miniature marshmallows and truffle oil. But just because this refreshing, delicious salad has high-brow roots, that doesn't mean it's difficult to make. You can whip up a batch at home with this easy-to-follow Waldorf salad recipe from Mashed. It contains the requisite celery, walnuts, lettuce, and apples, and it also includes red grapes and a healthy helping of Greek yogurt for a lighter alternative to mayonnaise.

If the first spring thaw leaves you dreaming of beaches and warmer locales, whip up a springtime dessert that will transport your taste buds to the southernmost point of the continental United States, Key West. If you've had key lime pie before and not cared for it, you're going to want to try our own key lime pie recipe. Tart, but not too tart, tangy, but not too tangy, it's a citrusy-sweet delight that comes together with literally just five ingredients: a graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, Cool Whip, and lime zest. That's it! It's a super-easy, yet still impressive, dessert to serve any friend, family member, or date.

Maybe it's the Easter Bunny. Maybe it's the arrival of the first fresh carrots popping up in gardens around the country. Whatever the reason, carrot cake has become a staple springtime dessert, and we're glad it has. Rich, but still on the lighter side (as far as cakes go) and slathered in cream cheese frosting, carrot cake is a unique dessert that can be somewhat intimidating to make for the first time. Use our carrot cake recipe to overcome the intimidation and add a new dessert recipe to your roster. If you have enough patience to shred three cups of carrots and to make your own cream cheese frosting from scratch, then you have all the skill it really takes to complete this surprisingly easy carrot cake recipe.

The hummingbird cake is a traditional Southern dessert (though it was originally created in Jamaica) that deserves more recognition than it gets, for one great reason: It takes the intense spices of a carrot cake and blends them with the tropical flavors of a coconut cake, without the actual coconut. Think toasty pecans, moist bananas, chunks of pineapple, and real vanilla. The cake is topped with a cream cheese frosting, just like what you'd find on a carrot cake, but unlike when baking a carrot cake, opting for a hummingbird cake allows you to avoid all the laborious carrot shredding.