If there's a bite of citrus to the dish, some color (say from diced bell peppers, cheese, or deep leafy greens), I seem to crave it in the spring.

My go-to meals are:
* Chicken tacos with lime (using this mix of herbs & spices) served on a bed of romaine salad or freshly wilted greens.
* Lemon herb haddoc with brown rice (cooked with butter in chicken broth), and steamed corn (steamed atop the brown rice in the last 5-10 min of cooking).

Although I'm still making soups, stews, and roasting chickens & root vegetables until it's too hot to contemplate having the stove on for that long.

I like roasting veggies because it's still cold enough to use my oven. Making lots of chili. I also made the braised spinach coconut thing over sweet potato, which was awesome.

I'm a winter foods person to begin with, so this is the time of year when I start scrambling to make things I love that have slipped under the radar as I suddenly realize that their ingredients/weather isn't going to be around much longer.

I love the Hainanese chicken, too, at any time of year. Lately, I've been transitioning from the winter braises to dishes like miso glazed fish, spicy Korean tofu pot, pajeon (savory pancakes), anything with lemon or acid.

I use a lot of spice and eggs. Giving everything an indian or moroccan flavour perks up sad winter veg. Served with lots of tangy yogurt, it's bright and interesting. I also eat a lot of eggs - seasonless!

Tangy apple celery salad and Green onion and potato soup. The latter is actually pretty good for you, for a creamy potato soup (you can use skim milk and neufchatel). And the former is all fruits and veg!

I also made lemon pasta with chicken, spinach, and artichokes the other day. So sunny and bright and delicious.

Hilariously, I'm making roast chicken and some kind of colcannon tonight. But it's snowing like crazy out right now, so it's easy to forget all that nice spring-like weather we've been having!

I did see rhubarb in the grocery store the other day. Rhubarb! Love that stuff. Can't wait for real asparagus and ramps.

Try fish dishes, they have lighter flavors, and you can use winter citrus as a condiment.

Winter vegetables with some early spring stuff mixed in. Thus, lots of potatoes and carrots, with spinach and sweet peas added, basically, even if that means getting frozen sweet peas and frozen spinach. Add some ham, bacon, chicken or tuna and you get pretty decents meals.

Most of the time, the result is a hearty salad meant to be eaten as a meal. An excellent example is my French salad handed down through generations in my family: diced potatoes, carrots and sweet peas cooked in water, then mixed with mayo, chopped ham and chopped pickles. All you need is a spoon! It holds up well in the fridge.

I also make lots of pasta salads with tuna, chicken or smoked salmon, varying the seasoning and adding in early spring vegetables like radishes.

Honestly, one cannot pretend to be cooking early spring stuff until the real deal shows up at the farmer's market. Getting fresh, domestic spinach and sweet peas is usually the sign I wait for to really get going with spring cooking.

I also try to make my favorite winter meals before my apartment gets too hot! (Late fall & early winter were not good times for cooking due to life upheavals, now I'm back to it.) So it's still chili and sweet potato time in my house. And even though I'm feeling pretty over it by now, wallet-wise I'm still relying on cabbage.