My 9 Favorite Homemade Toppings And How To Use Them
Sauces, dressings, dips, dollops, drizzles, crumbles, and butters
Hello, everyone. One of my side projects this summer is a cookbook I am making for my son Nick. He’s a really good cook but he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. He needs ultra-easy recipes with short ingredient lists for putting together brain-healthy dinners. Don’t we all? Plus, he prefers recipes with big flavors (i.e not boring) that provide a good dose of protein.
As I was scanning through my recipe files for things Nick likes to eat, I found a treasure trove I could not wait to share with all of you! Buried within my hundreds and hundreds of recipes, there are literally dozens of “sub-recipes.” These are sauces, dressings, dollops, drizzles, compound butters, and crumbly gremolata-like toppings that make simple foods taste good. Some of the super simple ones (like the 2-ingredient Miso Butter) would be great additions for Nick’s book. But I can see all of these wearing many hats in your kitchen as we head into fall.
Case in point: I rediscovered my Roasted Strawberry-Sumac Vinaigrette the last time I bought too many strawberries. I am loving it dolloped on grilled asparagus or as a dip for sugar snap peas. I’ve been repurposing my Harissa Yogurt Sauce as a dipping sauce for things I throw in the air-fryer—cauliflower florets, tofu cubes, and quartered artichoke hearts. And I was really happy to reconnect with my Maple Tahini Sauce, just as delicious now as it was back in 2015 when I started drizzling on roasted broccoli.
So for today’s newsletter, in keeping with Nick’s cookbook theme of easy, big-flavor, meal prep pantry heroes, I am sharing my 9 favorite homemade sauces, dressings, and drizzles. Dip into these to streamline your cooking as summer transitions to fall, and create exciting new dishes with your farmers market finds.
My 9 Favorite Toppings and How To Use Them
The beauty of these “sub-recipes” is that they are stand-alone flavor bombs that can be made in bulk ahead of time. Invest a few minutes with a blender, a bowl, or a Mason jar, stash them at eye level in the fridge, and they’ll be ready for you to give simple foods zing and zip. And, like all my recipes, these are engineered to add a boost of brain health nutrients, too.