Cookie and Kate

Creamy Tahini Dressing

September 17, 2018 19 Comments

My friend Erin requested a tahini dressing recipe, and here it is! This tahini dressing is luxuriously creamy yet plant-based (no mayo!). It’s a fun alternative to your standard vinaigrette.

This tahini dressing is versatile and goes with a wide variety of salad ingredients. I listed a bunch of those ingredients below to help you craft your own salad. The tahini dressing will bring it all together.

I shared my go-to tahini sauce recipe a couple of months ago (have you tried it yet?). This salad dressing is similar but designed specifically for drizzling on salads, rather than using as a dipping sauce or on sandwiches.

For this salad dressing, I omitted the garlic and made up for the lost flavor by adding Dijon mustard. I also incorporated some olive oil in this dressing to make it extra luxurious. It’s easy to whisk together at a moment’s notice, and keeps well for about a week. I think you’re going to love it!

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Favorite Fried Eggs

September 13, 2018 25 Comments

Meet my favorite fried egg: the crispy olive oil fried egg. These fried eggs have golden, lacy, crispy edges, which contrast beautifully with their runny yellow yolks. Contrast is everything!

Start with a good egg, a hot skillet, and a generous drizzle of olive oil, and you’ll end up with the most flavorful fried egg you’ve ever tasted. They are infinitely better than the rubbery, sulfurous eggs that come out of non-stick skillets. In fact, these are the only kind of fried eggs I ever want to eat.

I learned this technique several years ago from Phoebe Lapine via her YouTube video on fried eggs. Thanks, Phoebe! I’ve been cooking eggs this way ever since.

You’ve seen these crispy fried eggs on my recipes over the years, but I’m highlighting the technique today and offering all the tips and tricks I’ve learned. You’ll also get a look at my favorite recipes featuring these golden beauties.

Ready?!

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Classic Pico de Gallo

September 11, 2018 24 Comments

Do you love pico de gallo like I do? It’s a classic Mexican tomato dip (or sauce) that adds a fresh, healthy, low-calorie boost of flavor to just about any Mexican meal.

When I was little, I piled pico de gallo on my tortilla chips at our nearby Mexican restaurant and called it dinner (refill, please). I didn’t fully appreciate pico de gallo’s wonder, though, until my family traveled to Mexico one summer when I was in college.

We stayed at an all-you-can-eat resort, which meant all-you-can-eat pico de gallo. Their pico de gallo was super fresh and utterly irresistible, and I piled it onto every single meal. Eggs! Tortillas! Beans! Spaghetti, even! Why not?

It’s funny that I’ve shared so many variations on pico de gallo over the years, but never my classic pico de gallo recipe. Today is the day. Let’s make pico de gallo while the tomatoes are still good.

Pico de gallo is so easy to make. You will need only five ingredients (six if you count the salt): ripe red tomatoes, white onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime and salt. That’s it!

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The Best Red Sangria

September 5, 2018 28 Comments

I got my computer fixed! Let’s celebrate with a new recipe for classic red sangria. I love a glass of wine at the end of a long day, but sangria is best shared with friends. So, this recipe has been in the works for a while.

Sangria is festive, fruity and fun. It’s a perfect party punch to pair with Spanish tapas or Mexican food. Cold sangria is undeniably great on hot summer days. The red wine base and versatile seasonal fruit options make it appropriate for cooler days, too!

Sangria hails from Spain, although funny enough, my friend Ali lives in Spain and says they don’t drink it often over there. I visited Barcelona with friends in college and we bought cheap cartons of sangria from the convenience store by the beach. I don’t recommend that stuff.

We’re going to make real sangria with good wine and fresh fruit today. Through research and trial and error, I’ve learned how to make the best red sangria. Ready?!

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Easy Fruit Compote

August 30, 2018 35 Comments

Looking for a simple dessert? It doesn’t get easier than fruit compote over vanilla ice cream. Compote is fresh, saucy and sweet, and ready in as little as 15 minutes.

You can make compote ahead of time and warm it up or throw it onto the stove after dinner. Serve it on ice cream for dessert, yogurt or toast the next morning, or anything else that could use some fruity flavor. You really can’t go wrong.

What is compote, exactly? Compote is a simple fruit sauce made with pieces of fresh (or frozen) fruit and some sugar, cooked briefly on the stove. You could call the end result a textured fruit sauce or chunky fruit syrup. I call it magic.

Instead of sugar, I use a small amount of maple syrup or honey to make naturally sweetened compote. Since it’s liquid, you can easily add more to taste after cooking if your compote isn’t quite sweet enough.

Compote is not as thick as jam or jelly, and it’s meant to be consumed relatively soon after making (it will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator). It’s not designed to be canned or preserved for the months or years ahead. Compote is so easy to make that you can throw together a batch at a moment’s notice!

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What to Cook This September

August 28, 2018 56 Comments

I know, I’m a little early on the September recipe list. My computer’s in the shop and I’m making do the best I can. I have several recipes up my sleeve and can’t wait to share them with you.

September is when summer and fall produce collide at the farmers’ market. It’s the best of both worlds, so let’s make the most of it!

Links lately:

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