It feels like spring has finally entered the room, and with it, its first seasonal ingredients. This is one of the most joyful times to eat in the country – when restraint gives way to abundance, and everyone, from chefs to market sellers to home cooks, tends to what has just been plucked from the ground, the forest and the water, with an almost reverent attention.
Eating with the seasons is second nature in Austria. Produce is bought at its peak, cooked simply and genuinely looked forward to – the arrival of asparagus or the first strawberries of May carries real anticipation. Food in season simply tastes better and Austrians know it. Use the table below to navigate what is fresh and when, and jump straight to any ingredient.
Seasonal Fare |
📅 Time of Year |
| March - April | |
| April - June | |
| April - June | |
| May - July | |
| May to July | |
| April - June | |
| April - November | |
| April - May | |
| May - September |
Spring in Austria begins with forests and riverbanks erupting with Bärlauch, or wild garlic – broad, glossy leaves with a sharp, pungent scent somewhere between garlic and spring onion.
Wild garlic likes damp ground in shaded deciduous forests and near riverbanks, growing abundantly in the woodlands of the Salzkammergut, the Wienerwald and the valleys of Styria. For a few weeks in March and April it is everywhere: bundled at farm stalls, on display at markets and folded into restaurant menus with barely disguised enthusiasm.
Used with a similar freedom to basil in summer, you'll find wild garlic in Knödel ( bread or potato dumplings), stirred through scrambled eggs, pressed into butter, made into pesto-like spreads, added to salads or transformed into one of my favourite spring dishes, Bärlauchcremesuppe (wild garlic soup). Some restaurants offer a Bärlauch cream sauce alongside fish – particularly trout or char – and it appears as a garnish on everything from risotto-style grain dishes to cured meats.
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⚠️ Caution If foraging, be aware that wild garlic leaves look similar to lily of the valley, autumn crocus, spotted arum, multiflora (Solomon's seal) and wild tulips, which are all highly poisonous. The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety offers helpful advice on wild garlic identification. The reliable way to tell them apart is smell: wild garlic has an unmistakable, sharp garlicky scent when a leaf is crushed. If you're unsure, buy from a market instead. |
Spargelzeit! One of the defining ingredients in Austrian spring cooking is white asparagus (Spargel), also known as "Weißes Gold" (White Gold). This is not the familiar green variety: Austrian white asparagus is thick, ivory-pale and earthy-sweet, grown under mounds of soil to prevent sunlight from turning it green.
The season runs roughly from late April to June, and its arrival is treated with genuine excitement. The Marchfeld region, the agricultural plain east of Vienna stretching towards the Slovakian border, is the country's most celebrated growing area, producing asparagus with a delicate flavour.
In restaurants, white asparagus often comes poached, steamed or roasted and served with melted butter, a sprinkle of breadcrumbs and a soft-boiled or poached egg, or draped in hollandaise sauce and paired with Wiener Schnitzel or smoked trout or cured ham. At the more rustic end of the spectrum, a simple plate of Spargel with new potatoes and brown butter is considered just perfect.
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💡 Pro tip: White asparagus requires more prep than its green counterpart – it must be thoroughly peeled from just below the tip to the base, as the outer skin is fibrous and bitter. |
While in season, its availability and versatility will see it featured on many a local restaurant's menu. It works well as both the main event or in a supporting role on the plate – a delight dressed in decadent hollandaise sauce, a culinary treat in risottos and a welcome addition to salads and soups.
End of Asparagus Season – 24th JuneFor both white and green asparagus, the season ends on 24th June (St John's Day), and while not a mandatory date, it is traditionally observed by farmers for the health of the plant to preserve the crop for the following year. |
These fragrant, creamy-white blossoms are a staple of Austrian life. Elderflower season in Austria typically runs from mid-May to early-July (so just manages to sneak into our 'Spring' season post!), with peak blooming occurring in June. Gathered in late spring, the best foraging time is usually limited to a few weeks for maximum aroma.
A social plant, it tends to grow near people. Elder trees (Holunder) grow prolifically across Austria, in gardens and forests, around vineyards and along roadsides, on field edges and by riverbanks. Elderflower is deeply rooted in Austrian culture, traditions and culinary habits. It has long been regarded as having healing and medicinal properties and used to treat illnesses.
One of its popular uses is Holunderblütensirup – a cordial made by steeping the blossoms with sugar, lemon, and citric acid – made by home cooks every May. Blossoms are dried to make elderflower tea. Restaurants use the flowers to flavour pannacotta, sorbets, salad dressings and sparkling drinks. The blossoms are also delicious fried in a light batter (Gebackene Holunderblüten or Hollerküchle) – a classic Austrian preparation, particularly in rural areas, and served dusted with icing sugar.
Foraging elderflower is common, legal and culturally normal in Austria.
| ⚠️ Caution: Be sure to distinguish the black elder (Sambucus nigra) from toxic doppelgängers, as only the former is used for culinary purposes. |
In restaurants, strawberries are treated simply: with cream, with vanilla sugar or sliced over Kaiserschmarrn (Austria's famous shredded pancake). An iconic strawberry dessert is Erdbeerknödel (strawberry Topfen dumplings) made from curd cheese dough, boiled and rolled in buttery cinnamon breadcrumbs. The most traditional, and arguably the best way, is a bowl of berries with a jug of cold cream – nothing else.
Regions renowned for their strawberries are Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria which produce the majority of Austria's strawberries. Wiesen, a town in Burgenland, is famed for its high-quality strawberries, locally known as Wiesener Ananaserdbeeren (Wiesen pineapple strawberries) for their intense flavour.
Pick-your-own strawberries is a favourite Austrian springtime activity. In season, you will find strawberry farms and Selbstpflückfelder (self-pick fields) in every state.
Austria has a well-established rhubarb tradition in baking and preserving. You'll find rhubarb Strudel, rhubarb Kompott (stewed with vanilla and sugar, served with cream or semolina), rhubarb jam, rhubarb tart and, increasingly, rhubarb in more creative restaurant preparations – sorbets, cured fish accompaniments and cocktail syrups. It appears at virtually every farmers' market from late April and is one of Austria's beloved spring ingredients.
Rhubarb season finishes at the end of June to ensure regeneration for the following year.
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💡 Pro tip: Rhubarb doesn't always need peeling! If the stalks are young and red, the skin is tender and provides that signature pink colour. Only peel thick, green or very fibrous stalks. Also avoid using aluminium or unlined iron pans (the acid in the rhubarb reacts with the metal, which can turn the fruit a dull grey and give it a metallic taste). ⚠️ Caution: Only the stalks are edible. The leaves are toxic and must be removed and discarded, and kept away from pets. |
The long white Radi (white radish, similar to the Japanese daikon) is an iconic Viennese and Bavarian-influenced snack, served thinly spiral-sliced, salted, and eaten with beer – a preparation so associated with Viennese Heurigen (wine taverns) culture that it has its own identity.
Spring also brings the round red Radieschen, which appear at markets from April and are eaten with butter and salt on dark bread or sliced into salads. The radish is a modest, yet fundamental, component of Austrian cuisine.
Butterhead lettuce is the salad leaf of choice in traditional Austrian cuisine. When Austrians think of a green salad, this is what they picture: the Grüner Salat dressed simply with pumpkin seed oil (particularly in Styria), apple cider vinegar and salt is a staple that comes alive when the leaves are young and fresh.
Known as "spring spinach", its leaves are typically smaller, more tender and sweeter, making them ideal for fresh salads or light sautés, though equally as delicious in the traditional Spinatknödel (spinach dumplings).
In traditional Austrian restaurants, trout is most commonly served blau – poached whole in a court-bouillon with vinegar, which turns the skin a distinctive blue-grey – or pan-fried in butter (Müllerin-Art). You will find these dishes in alpine Gasthäuser particularly in Tyrol, Salzburg and Styria, often served with boiled potatoes and a wedge of lemon.
Char tends to be handled with slightly more finesse – it has a more delicate flavour and appears on the menus of high-end restaurants – sometimes cured, sometimes served as a tartare, sometimes simply pan-roasted with spring herbs.
Foraging RulesForaging is a popular and culturally normal activity in Austria. There are legal rules and good practices worth knowing before you head out.
Never eat any wild plant unless you are completely certain of its identity. When in doubt, buy from a market vendor instead. |
Austrian spring is worth experiencing at table as much as anywhere else. The ingredients are unpretentious, the preparations are simple, and the quality – when you're eating what's local and in season – is genuinely hard to match. If you find yourself in Austria between March and May, let the market be your guide. What's piled highest on the vendor's table is almost always what's worth eating that week.
Illustrations by Teresa Rock. © 2026 Teresa Rock