10 Healing Ostara Recipes Inspired by Hildegard of Bingen
10 Healing Ostara Recipes Inspired by Hildegard of Bingen
When the spring equinox arrives — Ostara, March 20th or 21st, when day and night balance perfectly — the ancient world celebrated the awakening of land. After winter's darkness, life returns. Seeds stir beneath thawing earth. The first green shoots push through cold soil. Birds return with songs. This is the tipping point, when light begins to win over darkness.
Hildegard of Bingen understood this threshold season profoundly. At her Rupertsberg monastery in late March, winter was finally loosening its grip. The first tender greens appeared — young nettle sprouts pushing through the earth, watercress brightening the streams, violets beginning to bloom in sheltered spots. Eggs grew more plentiful as daylight lengthened and hens began laying again. Fresh milk flowed abundantly. Yet the root cellars still held winter's stores — turnips, carrots, parsnips, dried herbs, nuts, and honey — bridging the gap between seasons.
In her Physica, Hildegard celebrated these early spring gifts: nettle "cleans out the stomach and gets rid of bad humors," watercress is "of a hot nature and not harmful," and eggs — more abundant now — provide nourishment after winter's scarcity.
For Hildegard, Ostara called for foods that purify winter's sluggishness and welcome spring's returning vitality.
🌱 10 Ostara Recipes from Hildegard's Spring Kitchen
These recipes use March's unique balance — first spring greens plus winter's last stores.
1. Spring Lamb Stew with Young Nettles
Historical note: Hildegard praised lamb: "good for healthy and sick people." Young March lamb, tender nettles just emerging — spring's renewal in a pot.
Ingredients
2 lbs lamb stew meat
2 cups young nettle tops (blanched, chopped)
3 tbsp butter
2 onions, chopped
3 cups broth
2 cups carrots (last of winter storage)
2 tbsp fresh parsley if available
1 tbsp dried sage
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Blanch nettles 2 minutes, drain, chop.
Brown lamb in butter.
Add onions, cook until soft.
Add broth, carrots, and sage.
Simmer covered 1 hour.
Add nettles and parsley, cook 10 more minutes.
Season and serve.
✨ Young lamb, bitter nettle — spring's power to cleanse, renew, and nourish.
2. Pike with Sorrel Sauce
Historical note: Hildegard said pike "has hard, healthy flesh...good for sick as well as healthy people." Fresh sorrel, one of March's first greens, adds spring's sharp flavor.
Ingredients
4 pike fillets (or other firm white fish)
2 cups fresh sorrel leaves (or spinach with lemon)
2 tbsp butter
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Season fish with salt and pepper.
Sauté in 1 tbsp butter, 3-4 minutes per side.
Remove fish, keep warm.
Sauté shallot in remaining butter.
Add wine, reduce by half.
Add sorrel, wilt.
Stir in cream, season.
Pour over fish.
✨ River fish, sharp sorrel — winter's fish meets spring's first bitter green.
3. Young Nettle Soup
Historical note: "Nettle cleans out the stomach," wrote Hildegard. March nettles, harvested young, are spring medicine — purging winter's heaviness.
Ingredients
4 cups young nettle tops (blanched)
3 tbsp butter
2 onions, diced
4 cups broth
1 cup cream or milk
2 tbsp fresh chervil if available
Salt and pepper to taste
Hard-boiled eggs for garnish
Instructions
Blanch nettles 2 minutes, drain.
Sauté onions in butter.
Add nettles and broth, simmer 15 minutes.
Purée until smooth.
Stir in cream, season.
Garnish with chopped eggs and chervil.
✨ Nettle's green fire — bitter medicine, spring's purge, winter expelled.
4. Watercress & Egg Tart
Historical note: Watercress "is not harmful in any way," said Hildegard. Fresh watercress from March streams, abundant eggs — spring's protein.
Ingredients
1 spelt pastry crust
3 cups fresh watercress, chopped
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheese
2 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Sauté watercress in butter until wilted.
Beat eggs, milk, cheese, and seasonings.
Stir in watercress.
Pour into crust.
Bake 35 minutes until set.
✨ Peppery watercress, rich eggs, spring cheese — balance point baked into golden custard.
5. Violet & Honey Biscuits
Historical note: Violets "grow from the mild air which after winter is beginning to warm up." If March is kind, violets bloom — edible flowers celebrating spring.
Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp fresh violet flowers, chopped (if blooming)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Instructions
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cut in butter.
Beat egg, honey, milk, and violets.
Add wet to dry, mix until just combined.
Drop spoonfuls onto sheet.
Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes.
✨ Violet biscuits — if spring is kind and flowers bloom early, bake purple into gold.
6. Roasted Chicken with Spring Herbs
Historical note: Chicken is "good for humans to eat." March chickens, beginning to forage on spring grass, with whatever fresh herbs appear.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
3 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp fresh chervil if available (or dried)
Fresh watercress for stuffing
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Mix butter, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Rub all over chicken and under skin.
Stuff cavity with watercress.
Roast 1.5 hours until golden.
✨ Chicken kissed with first fresh herbs — parsley, chervil, watercress, spring's green promise.
7. Caraway Seed Cakes
Historical note: Caraway aids digestion. Hildegard valued seeds and spices. These cakes celebrate the equinox balance.
Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Milk as needed
Instructions
Cream butter and honey.
Beat in egg.
Mix flour, caraway, baking powder, salt.
Fold dry into wet, add milk if needed.
Roll, cut into shapes.
Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes.
✨ Caraway's sharp comfort — seeds for digestion as heavy winter food yields to spring greens.
8. Dandelion & Bacon Salad
Historical note: Hildegard said dandelion "literally springs up from the earth." First bitter greens, last stored bacon — old meeting new.
Ingredients
4 cups young dandelion greens
4 strips bacon, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
3 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Fry bacon until crisp, reserve drippings.
Toss dandelion greens in bowl.
Add hot bacon and 2 tbsp drippings.
Whisk vinegar and honey, pour over.
Top with eggs.
Modern adaptation (not historically accurate): Modern salads often include tomatoes. Remember: tomatoes are New World crops from the Americas, unknown in medieval Europe. Hildegard never saw a tomato. If you add them, you're using an ingredient that arrived 300+ years after her death.
✨ Bitter dandelion, salty bacon, rich eggs — spring's sharpness balanced with winter's last fat.
9. Hazelnut & Honey Tart
Historical note: Stored hazelnuts and honey. Nuts from last autumn, honey from last summer's bees — bridging to spring.
Ingredients
1 spelt pastry crust
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Toast hazelnuts, chop coarsely.
Beat eggs, honey, cream, cinnamon, salt.
Stir in hazelnuts.
Pour into crust.
Bake 35 minutes until set.
✨ Nuts from autumn, honey from summer, eggs from spring — three seasons in one tart.
10. Equinox Balance Tea
Historical note: Dried winter herbs meet first spring greens. A tea for the perfect balance of day and night.
Ingredients
1 tbsp dried chamomile
1 tsp dried rose petals
1 tbsp fresh watercress, chopped
Fresh violet flowers if available
3 cups boiling water
Honey to taste
Instructions
Mix dried herbs with fresh greens.
Place in teapot.
Pour boiling water over.
Steep 8 minutes.
Strain, sweeten with honey.
✨ Winter stored, spring fresh, balance in a cup — old and new honoring the turning.
✨ Closing Blessing
Ostara teaches us about balance and beginnings. Day equals night. Light and dark hold perfect equilibrium for one brief moment before tipping toward summer. The first green shoots appear. Birds return. Life stirs.
Hildegard understood this threshold time. In late March, she would have carefully rationed the last of winter's stores while joyfully gathering the first spring greens. Young nettle shoots — picked with gloved hands, blanched to remove sting. Fresh watercress from cold streams. Violets blooming in sheltered spots. Eggs more plentiful. Fresh milk flowing.
Her recipes for this season bridge two worlds: stored roots and nuts and honey from winter's cellar, fresh greens and eggs and milk from spring's awakening. This is how our ancestors survived — by honoring what was ending while welcoming what was beginning.
As you cook these recipes, imagine Hildegard in her monastery garden on the spring equinox. The earth is still cold but softening. Somewhere beneath the soil, seeds are stirring. The light is returning. Winter is not yet over, but spring has undeniably begun.
This is Ostara. This is the turning. This is how we cross from darkness into light.
Note: When harvesting wild plants like nettle, watercress, and dandelion, ensure proper identification and harvest from clean, unpolluted areas. Wear gloves when gathering nettles.