Five for Friday
Vegan Potato Salad
This vegan potato salad with no mayo is a super easy summer side dish that comes together with just a few ingredients! It tastes just like salt and vinegar potato chips, has tons of fresh herbs, and can be served warm or at room temp. I love it with cast iron skillet salmon for a delicious weeknight dinner, or as a summer potluck side dish offering.
Hello, hello flavors of middle school chip dreams wrapped up in some adult ingredients.
LOOK! It's a no mayo potato salad!
Listen, I love super fatty, carby side dishes in the summer. Seriously. A lot. BUT, I'm also into dishes that can feed a variety of dishes and are light enough that we can Eat All The Things and not feel uncomfortably full.
Like this vegan potato salad! This is one of those side dishes that goes with ANYTHING all summer, and the flavor combo is riiiight in the middle of salt and vinegar and sour cream and onion potato chips, aka heaven.
...Five for Friday
Corn Risotto with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes
Super easy corn risotto recipe that is perfect for using up summer produce! This version features roasted cherry tomatoes that get a little charred, a lot sweet, and are the perfect topping. This is a vegetarian and gluten free main dish or side option. Pair it with some cast iron skillet salmon for a yummy gluten free pescatarian dinner.
Because everything should have corn and tomatoes in it right now, you know? It's true.
Where we are, produce is so perfect this time of year, zucchini and squash and herbs and corn just everywhere. This corn risotto cozy from the creamy rice and fresh with corn and tomatoes that are amazing right now.
I love this recipe for summer, but it's for sure delicious year round with frozen corn and storebought cherry tomatoes. It's also really nice for late summer when the produce is still there but the temperatures mercifully dip a little bit.
...Five for Friday
Vegan Tabouli Salad
Delicious, easy vegan tabouli salad with marinated chickpeas that is the perfect light lunch! We serve this often as a side dish for grilled chicken or baked tofu, or take it to summer potlucks for a yummy vegan side dish.
I. Love. Summer.
I love the feeling of school being out. I love the heat and humidity, even when I bitch about it. I love the longer days, the smell of gardenias, going to hear music downtown, the whole cliché shebang.
I especially LOVE summer-feeling food. Grilled meat with fresh or raw side dishes, that great mix of healthy and decadent, salads so fresh and crisp that they somehow quench your thirst, you know?
This tabouli is one of those salads for our family, and I can't get enough. My mom used to make picnics of hummus and tabouli and pita long before those things were cool, and bring them to the pool late swim practices in the summer. She made both with a heavy hand of lemon, one of my favorite flavors for dishes like this.
This version of tabouli is a teensy bit jazzed up with marinating the chick peas, but that's super hands off and can be done way in advance - the longer in advance the better, actually. The garbanzos end up creamy but still with texture and so much flavor from the lemon juice, garlic, and crushed red pepper. I honestly can't even.
...Five for Friday
What to Cook for the Fourth of July
20 perfect recipes for your 4th of July potluck! Make one, make a few, prepared to be the "omg can I have the leftovers" guest of the weekend.
It's my favorite type of week - holiday weeks including a long weekend, that is. I'm cooking so many yummy things this week, and love menu planning for days off where the "plan" is to eat, drink, and hang out with people we love.
To get ready, here's a great big list of my favorite 4th of July cookout recipes! I want them all, and here are some of our favorites for this week and all summer long.
...Spicy Grilled Firecracker Shrimp
Spicy grilled shrimp at its finest with TWO kinds of hot sauce! Just 5 ingredients and 10 minutes are all you need for this spicy, buttery take on firecracker shrimp.
Hello and welcome to our favorite 15 minute appetizer! When we're having grilling parties I'm always into a little snack right at the beginning - something delicious that can be thrown on the grill or in the oven while we wait for the main event, you know?
Fake-out focaccia is an example of this.
Now, don't confuse this Firecracker Shrimp with the dish by the same name from Panda Express. This is not that, although I'm sure that's delicious too. I've called this spicy grilled shrimp Firecracker Shrimp for YEARS, mainly because it is a very fun summery nibble to add to a grilling party at one of the American summer holidays. Hence, Firecracker Shrimp.
...Five for Friday
Vegan Pasta Salad with Roasted Veggies
Yummy vegan pasta salad is the perfect summer side dish! I make this with any seasonal veggies I have on hand, pine nuts, and lots of fresh herbs and lemon vinaigrette for brightness. Change up the veggies, pasta shape, and herbs each time for a fresh take on this yummy, healthy side dish!
I just finished the book Hello, Summer and tbh want to start all recipes like this with OH, HELLO SUMMER, but it feels kind of redundant.
Know that I'm thinking it, though.
This is, to me, the pasta salad to end all pasta salads. It's light, fresh, and full of summery flavors. I love that it's vegan because lots of different types of eaters can eat it, and almost every aspect of it can be switched up based on what you have on hand. Different nuts, veggies, fresh herbs, it all works.
...Watermelon Juice with Lime and Mint
The best homemade mocktail for summer! Homemade watermelon water (or watermelon juice) blended with lime and fresh mint is the most refreshing, hydrating, electrolyte-packed drink to sip on. It's a homemade agua fresca in 15 minutes, done and done!
For summer! A drink. A refreshing drink.
I loathe the Starbucks refreshers. I realize that's a harsh word considering I've never actually had one, but I can all but guarantee they're full of sugar and also refresh isn't a noun and shouldn't be made into one. Is my opinion.
But! This blended watermelon drink is actually refreshing. It is incredibly light, incredibly quick to throw together, and so very good for you.
I first had this years ago at the yoga studio where I worked; we called it watermelon tonic and it appeared all summer every summer. Watermelon and lime are a great combination, the ingredients are good and good for you, and fresh mint just screams summer to me.
...Five for Friday
Easy Shrimp Curry
This delicious shrimp curry features coconut milk, fish sauce, and lots of lime juice for brightness. This is a curry shrimp recipe that's done in just 30 minutes, aka the perfect weeknight seafood dinner! Pair this with plain white rice or naan for dipping and sopping up all the creamy curry sauce.
Ohhhh curry, how I love you. It's no secret that we are highly obsessed with all kinds of curry, and a yellow curry with coconut milk appears a few times per month on our dinner rotation.
I often see curry recipes with a bunch of chopping, starting with garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and green onion. I LOVE starting curries with that flavor combination, but wanted to do a quick version using dried and jarred flavors to save time and effort.
This shrimp curry recipe is super easy thanks to coconut milk and yellow curry, and the result is a 15-20 minute curry that tastes like tons of effort without any actual effort. Shrimp cooks in 3 minutes or less, and with some storebought naan this can truly be dinner in under half an hour.
...Five for Friday
Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
Hello, summer! The most delicious strawberry cream cheese pie with no Jello and no sweetened condensed milk! This version uses cornstarch to thicken the strawberry layer and has a base of sweetened cream cheese whipped with fresh cream for a decadent, creamy layer. Make this pie with your favorite pie crust; graham cracker or pastry pie crust both work deliciously!
Ok strawberry season, I see you.
We have been going through literal gallons of local strawberries since the season started, and every year we go through the "they're just so much better in season, right?!" conversations that we have every year. I mean, of course local, in season stuff is better.
Strawberry pie is one of my favorite ways to use up bunches and bunches of strawberries, and there are tons of variations on strawberry pie. This is a strawberry cream cheese pie with a fluffy cream cheese layer, lightly sweetened berries, and flaky pie crust because I just like it better than graham cracker crust.
...Five for Friday
Connecticut Lobster Rolls
The most delicious warm lobster roll recipe, Connecticut Lobster Rolls! These easy lobster rolls are served WARM and have just six ingredients including tons of melty butter. These are the perfect recipe for all summer long!
Hello and HI, welcome to our summer of all the lobster.
I think in this post-but-still-kinda pandemic era, it's gotten more meaningful to make really fun foods at home. We still maybe aren't traveling or eating out as much, but we still want our favorite restaurant-style foods, right?
RIGHT.
Enter, Connecticut lobster rolls, or the deliciously-named butter lobster roll. SERIOUSLY, friends, how does one even choose a favorite type of lobster roll? There's the New England style, cold with flavors of celery, lemon and mayo, or these warm lobster rolls that are drenched in butter, lemon juice, and served in buttery toasted buns.
Probably both types of lobster rolls is what we need to make this summer count.
...Five for Friday
13 Recipes For Memorial Day
Ohhhhhhhh long weekend, I am so excited for you.
We are in a weird busy all the time but standing still because it's kind of still a pandemic place. This time last year there was a decided air of "but are we allowed to do anything," and now it's a little....lighter.
In preparation for whatever you might be doing this weekend, hopefully with a few more folks than last year, here are my absolute favorite recipes for Memorial Day!
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