Spring at a British market is a moving target. One week you're staring at the last of the leeks and the first forced rhubarb, the next the purple sprouting broccoli has arrived in force and the wild garlic is everywhere. Knowing what to look for, and how to treat it once you get it home, is most of the battle. This guide walks through the vegetables worth buying between March and June, plus the small kitchen skills that make them taste like themselves.

Reading the Spring Stall

Seasonality in the UK is not a light switch. It's a slow stagger, region by region, and the south-west usually runs two or three weeks ahead of Scotland. A good rule is to buy what looks vigorous rather than what looks perfect. Spring vegetables are young and tender, so they bruise, wilt and yellow quickly — that's normal, not a fault.

• Look at the cut ends. A stalk that's pale and dry has been sitting out. It should look damp and green.
• Smell things. Wild garlic, watercress and herbs should hit you before you pick them up.
• Buy little and often. Two trips a week beats one big haul. Spring veg doesn't keep.
• Ask what's local. A stallholder will happily tell you which field your cabbage came from.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli: The Season's Workhorse

If you buy one thing this spring, make it purple sprouting broccoli. It arrives around late February and runs through to May, and it's far more forgiving than the imported calabrese we cook all year. Look for tight, deep purple heads with a decent length of stem — the stem is the sweet part, and too many shoppers snap it off and leave it behind.

Cook it hard and fast. Bring a wide pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil, drop the spears in, and give them three to four minutes. They should be tender at the stem and still squeaky at the head. Drain, then dress while hot with good olive oil, lemon zest, a little crushed garlic and plenty of black pepper. It also roasts beautifully at 200°C with a slick of oil and a scatter of flaked almonds, and it's excellent stirred through pasta with anchovy and chilli. The purple colour will bleed to green when cooked — that's chemistry, not failure.

Wild Garlic, Nettles and Watercress

Wild garlic is the scent of a British spring woodland. The season is short, roughly March to May, and you want the leaves before the white flowers open — once it blooms, the flavour turns bitter and soapy. The flowers themselves are lovely scattered over a salad or folded into soft cheese.

Treat wild garlic gently. It's not a substitute for bulb garlic; it's a green, so use it as you would spinach or herbs.

• Raw: shredded into sandwiches, blitzed into a bright green oil, or chopped through new potatoes with butter.
• Cooked: wilted for thirty seconds in a hot pan, or stirred into soup at the very end.
• Preserved: blanch for ten seconds, squeeze dry, and freeze in small portions for pesto later.

Young nettles are worth the gloves. Pick only the top two or three pairs of leaves from plants under knee height, before they flower, and blanch them for a minute — the sting disappears instantly and you're left with something like a deep, iron-rich spinach. Nettle soup with a swirl of cream is a proper spring lunch. Wild watercress, peppery and sharp, needs nothing more than a wash and a dressing of lemon, oil and a pinch of sugar to balance the bite.

Asparagus, New Potatoes and the First Salads

British asparagus traditionally starts on St George's Day, 23 April, and finishes around midsummer. Choose spears that are firm, with tightly closed tips and a squeak when you rub two together. Thick spears are not tougher than thin ones — they're often sweeter. Snap off the woody end where it naturally breaks, then roast at 200°C for eight to ten minutes with oil, salt and a little grated lemon zest. Boiling is fine too, but keep it to three minutes and serve with melted butter and a soft-poached egg.

New potatoes arrive around the same time. Jersey Royals and Cornish earlies are waxy and thin-skinned, so don't peel them — scrape the skin with a knife if it's flaking, or simply scrub. Boil in salted water with a sprig of mint, drain, and dress immediately with butter, chopped chives and sea salt. Cold new potatoes are a different, lesser thing, so eat them warm. Meanwhile, breakfast radishes, spring onions, little gem lettuces and the first peas and broad beans fill out the salad bowl. Broad beans under about 8cm long can be eaten pod and all; anything bigger wants double-podding.

Skills That Make Spring Produce Sing

Spring cooking is mostly about restraint. The vegetables are sweet, tender and full of water, and long cooking drives all of that away. A few habits are worth building:

• Salt the water properly. It should taste like the sea. Under-salted water is the single most common reason home-cooked greens taste flat.
• Use a wide pan, not a deep one. Crowding drops the water temperature and steams everything to a khaki mush.
• Shock in ice water. If you're cooking ahead or serving cold, plunge blanched greens into iced water to lock in colour, then drain thoroughly.
• Keep the cooking water. It's vegetable stock with backbone — use it for soup, risotto or gravy.
• Dress while warm. Warm vegetables absorb oil, lemon and seasoning; cold ones sit there politely refusing.
• Finish with acid and fat. A squeeze of lemon and a knob of butter, or a slick of good oil and a splash of vinegar, lifts almost anything on this list.

Build a spring larder around these habits and the cooking gets simpler, not more complicated. Buy what's vigorous, cook it briefly, season it confidently, and eat it the day you bring it home.