24 Healthy Farmers Market Recipes That Highlight Seasonal Produce (2024)

Orange-Simmered Pork Chops with Mango Relish

Blushing mangoes—packed with vitamins—join pineapple and banana peppers in one flirty summer relish. If you can find some of these fresh fruits at your local farmers market, take advantage and use them to put a tropical twist on traditional pork chops. Enjoy this protein-packed healthy farmers market recipe for just 360 calories per serving.

Beef Kabobs with Corn and Orzo Salad

Grilled steak and an ear of sweet corn are the epitome of a summer dinner, if you ask us. In this healthy farmers market recipe, we take those ingredients and lighten things up with a skewer-fitting portion size. Extra garden goodies—including bell peppers, grape tomatoes, fresh cilantro, and lime—make this one low-cal supper you'll want to make again and again all season long.

Buy It: OXO Grilling Skewer Set ($15, OXO)

Citrus-Marinated Fish Tacos

Prepare yourself: You're about to look forward to eating a healthy farmers market recipe. These spicy-cool citrus fish tacos get their street cred from several fresh ingredients: Oranges, jalapeños, honey, and cucumbers. Add it to your list of summer recipes to try after a trip to your local farmers market.

Succotash Salad with Buttermilk-Avocado Dressing

This hearty salad is a celebration of succotash, a corn-and-bean Southern side dish. Find the fresh corn, beans, greens, and avocado for this satisfying salad at your local farmers market. Once you get them home, add a few other ingredients like bacon and grilled chicken to make this fresh produce recipe a healthy yet filling meal.

Triple-Melon Salad

If you're under the impression that fruit salads are ho-hum, this recipe will convince you otherwise. Ready in just 25 minutes but jam-packed with complexity, this melon mix gets a boost from zingy red onion and citrus, peppery arugula, salty and creamy feta cheese, and sweet honey. Fresh herbs add a final welcome pop of seasonal goodness.

Heirloom Tomato and Green Bean Salad

You'll tell by just one glance that this fresh salad recipe is brimming with farmers market favorites—just look at all those colorful veggies. As the name suggests, heirloom tomatoes and green beans share the starring role, but we also mixed in jicama, fresh mint, and parsley. Once you add Israeli couscous to the mix, this fresh produce recipe is ready to claim the title of best summer salad ever.

Carrot and Zucchini Bars

Good-for-you carrots, zucchini, raisins, and walnuts hide underneath a mouthwatering layer of citrus cream cheese frosting in these carrot cake bars. The secret to moist and fluffy bars is to make sure the carrots are finely grated by hand. Tastewise, you'll hardly notice the role they play in this healthy farmers market recipe for dessert.

Tomato and Prosciutto Tartines

Transform arugula, walnuts, Parmesan, and heart-healthy olive oil into a sandwich spread with a speedy assist from a food processor. All that's left to do to complete this healthy farmers market recipe? Toast some bread, slather on the arugula blend, stack on fresh tomato slices, fresh mozzarella, and prosciutto, then broil until the cheese is bubbly and golden.

Zucchini-Noodle Lasagna

Lighten this family favorite by swapping starchy noodles with vitamin-filled slices of green zucchini. You'll get the full-bodied flavor of the classic Italian dish with fewer carbs and calories. Plus, you'll be able to highlight some of the garden-fresh zucchini in this healthy farmers market recipe!

Green Beans and Olives

Indulge in a bowl of green bliss—and for only 67 calories per serving. With crisp beans, crunchy shallots, and savory olives, this healthy salad will make you fall in love with eating your veggies. Once you're hooked, you can make it year-round with ingredients from the grocery store, but nothing quite compares to using farmers market vegetables.

Roasted Radishes with Chive Vinaigrette

Roasting fresh-from-the-garden radishes brings a mellow sweetness to the usually peppery veggies. This easy farmers market side dish will entice even the radish-adverse to try their veggies. Just don't forget the homemade chive vinaigrette for a tantalizing tang to complement this fresh produce recipe.

Strawberry and Arugula Salad with Manchego Fricos

Fricos, meaning "little trifles" in Italian, are lacy wafers made from cheese that's cooked until crisp. Toss the easy-to-make wafers with fresh strawberries and arugula for a delicious, bright, and easy dinner salad. If you want to serve this dish as a main meal, add some grilled chicken or steak on top for a boost of protein.

French Garden Soup with Cheese Croutons

This light and lovely dish is our take on soupe au pistou—a French broth-base soup recipe that's loaded with fresh vegetables. Our version replaces a topping of basil pesto with breaded feta cheese croutons. Either way you make it, this fresh produce recipe will deliver bright and bold flavors.

Ginger-Peach Margaritas

Take advantage of fresh peaches while you can. Enjoy the juicy fruit in a refreshing co*cktail for under 200 calories. Ginger syrup provides a mild kick to the sweetness of ripe peaches in this fiesta-worthy recipe.

Spice- and Honey-Roasted Carrots

Add a punch of flavor to your next fresh produce recipe with an enticing mix of spices. An aromatic blend of coriander, cumin, and sesame alongside hazelnuts transforms roasted carrots into an irresistible side dish. You'll make it on repeat.

Hearty Vegetable Cacciatore

Don't stress about picking up all the veggies you need for this recipe at the market. The beauty of this vegetarian healthy farmers market recipe is that you can use any combo of veggies you have on hand. Pick up your favorites at the farmers market, then turn them into a delicious veggie soup with just a few additions like white wine and frozen beans.

Pan-Seared Pork and Fried Green Tomato Salad

We paired fried green tomatoes with seared pork and fresh greens to create a tasty summer salad. A drizzle of sweet-and-sour sauce and a crumbling of blue cheese finish the easy recipe. This healthy salad is a far cry from limp lettuce and bottled salad dressing!

White Cucumber Sangria

The refreshing flavor and crisp texture of cucumbers make a summery addition to sangria. Mixing white wine with carbonated water keeps calories low while adding a bit of bubbly sparkle to this naturally sweet co*cktail. When it's all mixed up, this pitcher co*cktail tastes a little bit like a mix between bubbly cucumber water and light sangria.

Buy It: Threshold Round Pitcher with Handle ($13, Target)

Charred Corn with Poblanos and Feta

Charring fresh corn on the grill is already a guaranteed-delicious summer recipe. You can take it a step further by cutting it off the cob and stirring the grilled kernels in with juicy cherry tomatoes, tangy red onion, and spicy jalapeño chile peppers. Bring this summer side dish to a potluck, and the healthy farmers market recipe will likely be the first to disappear.

Mediterranean Grilled Chicken with Lemon-Cucumber Relish

Let fresh cucumbers and tomatoes shine in a lemony relish that tops our easy seasoned chicken breasts. Pull it all together with a simple, slightly sweet Greek yogurt sauce to complete the healthy farmers market recipe for dinner. If you want to bring even more freshness to your table, try serving with berries or a fresh fruit salad on the side.

Quinoa-Nectarine Gazpacho with Crispy Spiced Tortilla Strips

Ginger beer and pineapple juice mingle with fresh fruits and veggies in this quinoa-filled soup. It offers an amazing blend of textures and flavors—sweet from the nectarines, spicy from the jalapeño, creamy from the avocado, and crunchy from the cucumbers—for a light summer soup. The quinoa has enough protein to make this fresh produce recipe a satisfying dinner, but it's not too heavy to enjoy in hot weather.

Grilled Turkey Gyros

Lighten up traditional gyros with whole wheat pita rounds, grilled turkey, bright tomatoes, and a homemade cucumber-yogurt sauce. You'll get the great taste of this classic wrap in a lighter way, and you'll be able to feature your favorite seasonal picks in this summery recipe.

Mediterranean Three-Bean Salad

Put a Mediterranean spin on summer faves in this healthy farmers market recipe. Pick up fresh shelling and wax beans, red onion, parsley, and mint at the market, then stir them together with a simple Mediterranean-inspired vinaigrette. Adding a few crumbles of feta cheese on top gives this herb-filled dish just enough salty kick.

Shrimp and Tomato Piccata

Fresh string beans and tomatoes easily amp up a simple shrimp pasta dish. Olive oil, lemon, and capers make the bright, savory sauce that pulls the dish together. This healthy farmers market recipe pasta dinner is flavorful enough to skip the cheese (although we wouldn't blame you if you added a sprinkling!).