Add this fresh tortellini salad recipe to your weekend menu, stat! It features cheesy spinach tortellini tossed in my all-time favorite green goddess dressing, layered with lemony fresh greens and seasoned spring or summer vegetables.

This pasta dish manages to be light yet hearty at the same time, which is a real feat. It’s quick to make, but looks impressive. It’s versatile, too—you’ll see quite a few vegetable options below. Choose raw vegetables for the simplest preparation, as I did for these photos, or incorporate some quickly blanched vegetables, like asparagus, to expand your options.

My healthy homemade green goddess dressing comes together quickly in the blender or food processor. I suggest doubling the ingredients so you can serve the extra as a veggie dip or refrigerate it for upcoming green salads. It’s really delightful to have on hand.

Choose spinach tortellini over basic cheese tortellini to incorporate even more greens. I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. This vegetarian pasta salad is a real crowd pleaser!

The post Green Goddess Tortellini Salad appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoy live music. Isn’t that terrible? I just don’t keep up with shows that come through town because I don’t have a default music buddy to go with me. Last night, Jordan texted me as I was photographing this salad with a super last-minute, free ticket to see Ok Go. Since I’m “the friend who’s up for anything!” I drove right there to meet them. And it was AWESOME.

Few sights fill me with more glee than watching others jam out in their own element, and Ok Go really jammed out. The visuals! The dancing! The brilliant, unique, goofy determination and talent behind it all! That’s self-actualization at its finest, not to mention most entertaining. I loved every minute of it.

I experience the same tizzy awe every time I crack open a book created by a friend. The newest arrival is The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen by Erin Alderson of Naturally Ella. It’s a cookbook that offers fifty base recipes, each with four seasonal variations, for a total of two hundred. Erin is a recipe-creating machine and I love having a tangible copy of her hard work.

Erin asked me to help her test out the recipes for this book last year and this salad was one of them. Now that I can share it with the world, I just couldn’t resist. This spring panzanella features fresh greens, raw peas (which are really good!) and pea shoots (found at Trader Joe’s), thinly sliced fennel and freshly baked, whole grain croutons tossed in a lemony dressing. Her final recipe calls for minced garlic scapes, which are green onion-like shoots that grow out of garlic if you let them. I used pressed garlic instead. Congrats on a job well done, Erin!

The post Erin’s Spring Panzanella with Fresh Peas and Fennel appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

I know, I know. I’m always jabbering on about my new favorite kale salad and waxing poetic about kale salads in general. This salad, though! It’s crisp, sweet (but not too sweet) and features seasonal fennel and apple, which is a new-to-me pairing that you will definitely see again. I’ll admit that licorice-flavored fennel was a bit of an acquired taste for me, but now I can’t get enough of it.

I’m not-so-secretly plotting to convert all visitors into kale salad enthusiasts, so I’m crossing my fingers you’ll give this salad a shot. It definitely went over well at girls’ night last week. I served it with a cheese plate, crackers, grapes and wine, of course.

One final selling point before I go. Kale salads keep well in the refrigerator for a couple of days, which means this salad is a great candidate for your lunchbox!

The post Autumn Kale Salad with Fennel, Honeycrisp and Goat Cheese appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Welcome to the redesigned cookieandkate.com! I’m not quite finished working on it, but I couldn’t stand to keep it in hiding for any longer. The website is finally optimized for viewing on your phone, your iPad, etc. No more pinching and zooming so you can read the recipe! Try it!

Another noteworthy feature is the menu I added underneath the header. It’s designed to help you find the kinds of recipes you’re looking for. Click on ALL RECIPES to see little pictures of every recipe on the site as usual, or narrow your selection by clicking on SALAD, DESSERT, etc. FAVORITES is a list of readers’ favorite recipes, curated by yours truly.

Over in the sidebar, you’ll find lists of special diets and ingredients. I added a gluten free and vegan option for those of you who are trying to avoid gluten and animal products. Please let me know if you’d like to see any other diet combinations and I’ll try to make it happen!

This redesign has been a long time coming. I did it all myself because I’m very particular (read: control freak). Lots of late nights, Breaking Bad and dark chocolate peanut butter cups were involved. I’m still working on the recipe index pages and the search functionality. If you have any suggestions or feature requests, please let me know! I’m all ears.

Now then, this salad. I’m pretty obsessed with it. Tangy goat cheese and lemon dressing tossed creamy avocado, sweet blood oranges, sliced almonds and greens is a winning combination indeed. I usually want fennel to speak up more (be bold, fennel!), but its faint licorice flavor and crisp texture is the perfect complement here. Enjoy!

The post Blood Orange, Fennel and Avocado Salad with Lemon Citronette appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Meet your go-to side salad recipe! Like a little black dress, this little green salad is versatile and easy to throw together at a moment’s notice. It starts with a base of leafy greens, plus hefty handfuls of freshly-toasted nuts and grated Parmesan cheese. My zippy lemon vinaigrette brings it all together.

You can easily dress up this salad to suit the seasons or better tailor it to your meal. You’ll find five variations listed below for inspiration. Every cook needs a basic green salad recipe in her repertoire. It’s a fundamental building block, and I’m happy to share mine with you today.

The post The Little Green Salad appeared first on Cookie and Kate.