Shop seasonally and you’re guaranteed an easier life in the kitchen. If you’re looking for fast, fresh flavour, stock up on this month’s green giants

Smashed Pea, Crab and Lemon Pappardelle

Sweet peas, rich crab meat and a hit of zesty lemon; sometimes you don’t need to overthink it! Spring pasta perfection.

Hands-on time 10min. Cooking time about 10min. Serves 4

400g fresh or frozen peas or petits pois

25g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed

200g fresh mixed brown and white crab meat

300g fresh pappardelle

Finely grated zest and juice 1 lemon

Small handful basil leaves

1 Cook the peas/petits pois in a large pan of boiling water for 3min, until tender.

2 Meanwhile, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add crushed garlic and fry for 1min.

3 Using a slotted spoon, remove peas from the water to the frying pan (keep pan of water on the heat). Roughly crush peas with a fork, stir in the crab and cook for 5min, stirring occasionally.

4 Add the pasta and plenty of salt to the simmering water, bring to the boil and cook according to pack instructions. Drain, reserving 150ml of the pasta water.

5 Add the drained pasta to the frying pan along with the reserved pasta water, lemon zest and juice. Toss to coat; check seasoning. Sprinkle over the basil and serve.

Per serving 405cals, 24g protein, 10g fat (4g saturates), 51g carbs (7g total sugars), 8g fibre

Spinach Risotto

Whizzing spinach with the hot stock gives this risotto a lovely intense green hue. The lardons give this a salty richness but for a meat-free version, just leave them out, swap the chicken stock for vegetable and use an Italian -style vegetarian hard cheese in place of the Parmesan.

Hands-on time 45min. Cooking time about 45min. Serves 4

150g bacon lardons

15g butter

1 onion, finely chopped

200g baby spinach

1.2 litre hot chicken stock

2 garlic cloves, crushed

400g risotto rice

200g fresh or frozen peas or petits pois

50g Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve

150g ricotta

1 Heat a large, deep frying pan over high heat and fry lardons until golden, about 5min. Remove to a plate using a slotted spoon. Reduce heat to low-medium, add butter and once melted, fry onion for 5min, until slightly softened.