sauces and condiments

Wet or Dry? How to Make the Best Turkey Brine

For the juiciest turkey on the block, brining the bird with salt results in a plump, moist, and flavorful turkey every time. But is a wet brine or a dry turkey brine better? I tested both, and these are my recipes and results.

I discovered the genius of turkey brining several moons ago, and now, I can’t make a Thanksgiving turkey with one.

Whether to brine my turkey or not isn’t the question. It’s which method to go with: A wet brine soak in a salt water solution or a dry brine rubbed into and under the skin?

Brine me baby! And talk turkey to me.

continue to the recipe… about Wet or Dry? How to Make the Best Turkey Brine

My Mom’s Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

This easy spaghetti recipe with meat sauce takes just a few minutes of prep and then a low simmer on the stove for a deep, meaty-flavored, homemade spaghetti for the best family favorite dinner.

This post is brought to you by Kroger

Before I even started writing this post, I was wrestling with the title.

My Sister’s Favorite Spaghetti Dinner. Because as a kid it was #1 on her request list. And to do this day, all these years later and after eating meals from all over the world, it still is.

My Mom’s Best Spaghetti Recipe Ever! Because it is. And, who doesn’t trust mom to make the best?

The Best Spaghetti and Meat Sauce You’ll Ever Make But Never Guess the Secret Ingredient. Intrigued????

The Dinner to Make When You Want to Perfume Your House With All the Glorious Smells and Then Feed an Army. Perhaps a little lengthy for a title, but still totally appropriate.

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce So Good You’ll Eat the Cold Leftovers Still in the Container Straight from the Fridge. Uh-oh, did I just give myself away????? Busted!

I asked my sister to text me a picture of her copy of my mom’s spaghetti recipe, as seen below. The splatters and drips are proof that my sister is this recipe’s number one fan—and it looks like she’s also quite the stellar recipe tester!

When I finished college and moved into my first apartment, I wrote down my mom’s recipe for our favorite family dinner and plopped it into my tattered recipe binder. Eventually I’d made it so many times I committed it to memory. But as time passed, it didn’t taste quite as good as my mom’s, a fact I didn’t actually realize until she made us all her original version when my sister was visiting. (Naturally my sister got to choose her favorite dish for dinner, because hello, she’s still the favorite :) ).

That dinner is when I realized I was missing one very crucial ingredient that makes this spaghetti better than the rest, and isn’t often found in spaghetti sauce. Have you spied it yet? I’ll reveal in a minute, but first, let’s talk basics…

Homemade Spaghetti Ingredients

This it the type of recipe you can easily have at the ready thanks to a simply stocked pantry and a few foundation refrigerator ingredients I can always find at my local Smith’s Marketplace / Kroger store.

Since working with Kroger for the past few years and because it is my main grocery store for shopping (I spend way too much time wandering the garden section!) I’ve become more and more impressed with the quality of their private label store brands like Simple Truth, HemisFares and Private Selection. And the design geek in me is happy to see the evolution of package design for their staple Kroger brand so that the label matches the goodness within. What can I say? Labels matter.

This spaghetti recipe is both Italian in its inspiration and American in its popularity and is way better than what you’ll find at restaurants like The Spaghetti Factory.

My mom’s spaghetti and meat sauce doesn’t call for anything extraordinary. In fact, it’s totally basic, and that’s what makes it all the better.

Ground Beef. I use 85% lean ground angus beef for my sauce so it still has flavor but not a lot of fat. My sister has taken to using ground turkey, also a great option.
Tomato sauce. Plain is best to create a tomato bath for the other ingredients to infuse.
Diced tomatoes. You could use canned whole tomatoes and then crush with your hands and fingers. But mom’s recipe says diced so that’s what I do.
Tomato paste. This gives the sauce it’s body, and also a little sweetness.
Beef broth. Another layer of meatiness. My sister amended her recipe to use condensed, but I used regular here.
Canned mushrooms. Typically I will always use fresh mushrooms in recipes, but this is one time I never, ever, ever do. There’s just something about the canned version that becomes my favorite part of the sauce, and the reason I typically double the amount the recipe calls for.
A splash of wine. Mom says to use the empty mushroom can as your measurement guide.
Onion, celery and fresh garlic. They’re always lollying around the refrigerator crisper waiting to be used.
Dried herbs, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of sugar for sweetness. Don’t skip out on the bay leaves, they make a huge difference.
Dried whole cloves! My mom learned this trick from her friend Virginia, and adding a few whole cloves was the secret ingredient I’d been missing lo these many years. My mom uses 5-6 cloves but my husband prefers four. The cloves give it an earthy, spiced flavor that’s not often easy to place. It’s a total surprise when I tell people they’re in there, or if they discover one on their own hidden in their spaghetti-sauced bite if I forget or can’t find them to fish them out before serving.

How to Make Spaghetti Sauce

Truly fantastic homemade spaghetti sauce is easier to make than you’d think, but it does take time. To make the best spaghetti sauce, you simply need to brown the ground beef and drain off any excess fat. Then, throw in the chopped celery, onion, and garlic and cook until the vegetables soften. So far, so good?

Dump the rest of the homemade pasta sauce ingredients into the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Once the spaghetti sauce is boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer on the stove for another 3 hours. I know 3 hours sounds like forever, but that’s how long it takes to make a rich, flavorful meat sauce.

Once the homemade spaghetti sauce has had time to simmer, all that’s left to do is boiling the spaghetti noodles according to package instructions and dish it up!

How to Reheat Spaghetti

If you wind up with leftovers from this homemade spaghetti recipe, you can easily reheat them the next day. I recommend reheating leftover spaghetti in a covered saucepan over medium-low heat. You may need to add a splash of beef broth to loosen up the pasta.

Can You Freeze Spaghetti?

The best way to freeze leftover spaghetti is to freeze the homemade spaghetti sauce separately and then make fresh spaghetti noodles when you’re about to eat it. Defrost the sauce in the refrigerator for 1 day, or, add to a large pot, cover, and heat on medium to medium-low until thawed.

To make for meal prep, freeze the sauce in gallon freezer bags. Lay them down flat so you can stack them flat or upright side by side in the freezer.

What Type of Red Wine Should I Buy?

The key to cooking with wine is to purchase one that is of the same quality you’d be willing to drink. I’d say look for a bottle that costs around $10 or so (I tend to use a blended red or Pinot noir in this spaghetti recipe).

Can I Omit the Wine?

Technically, yes, but I highly recommend adding it to the homemade spaghetti sauce since it adds so much flavor. Remember: the alcohol cooks out of the sauce and is only a flavoring.

However, if you’re out of wine or are opposed to using it, you can add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar instead to add a little acid and umami.

Tips for Making Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

While the easy homemade spaghetti sauce cooks low and slow for 3 hours, make sure to stir it occasionally. You don’t want anything sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning, as that would add a bitter flavor to the meat sauce.

We always serve this meat sauce with regular spaghetti noodles, but I imagine it would be just as good with any other twirly pasta, or over tortellini or ravioli or even as a filler for lasagna.

This homemade spaghetti recipe makes a lot so it’s great for serving to a crowd or a big family. If you’re making for two or a few, it makes excellent leftovers for lunch all week long or divide the sauce into gallon freezer and save for later.

What to Serve with Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

We always serve this with a super crunchy iceberg salad tossed with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes and dressed in my favorite red wine vinaigrette and a few slices of buttery garlic bread. If you’re looking for a little bit more, here are a few recipe ideas to make your meal.

If you try this recipe, please let me know! Bookmark this recipe and leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

4.14 from 69 votes

My Mom's Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

This easy meat sauce takes just a few minutes of prep and then a low simmer on the stove for a deep, meaty-flavored, classic spaghetti everyone will love.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword spaghetti

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 25 minutes

Servings 10 servings

Calories 365 kcal

Ingredients

1 pound 85% lean ground beef
1 yellow onion chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
4 garlic cloves minced or pressed
1 29- ounce can diced tomatoes
1 29- ounce can tomato sauce
1 6- ounce can tomato paste
2 7- ounce cans sliced mushrooms
1 cup red wine
1 15- ounce can beef broth
5-6 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or 4 teaspoons dried
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound dried spaghetti noodles
grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

In a large heavy bottomed stock pot over medium high heat, cook the ground beef until browned, about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the rendered fat and add the meat back to the pot.
Add the chopped onion, celery and garlic and cook until the vegetables soften, about 5-7 more minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients (except the spaghtti noodles and Parmesan), stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer, stir and cover with a lid, and cook for at least three hours on medium low heat, stirring occasionally.
Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions in generously salted water. Drain and mix into the spaghetti sauce.
Serve with grated or ground Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley if desired.

Recipe Notes

The meat sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or saved in a gallon ziplock bag and frozen for up to 3 months.

Nutrition Facts

My Mom's Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Amount Per Serving

Calories 365 Calories from Fat 72

% Daily Value*

Fat 8g12%

Saturated Fat 3g19%

Cholesterol 31mg10%

Sodium 1271mg55%

Potassium 999mg29%

Carbohydrates 52g17%

Fiber 5g21%

Sugar 13g14%

Protein 18g36%

Vitamin A 904IU18%

Vitamin C 21mg25%

Calcium 78mg8%

Iron 4mg22%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

More Italian Recipe Ideas

Pasta Pomodoro Sauce — the authentic sauce I learned how to make in Italy!
Linguine Con Vongole (Linguine With Clam Sauce)
Easy Homemade Pesto Pasta Recipe
Gnocchi With Pomodoro Sauce — a total time saver made with jarred sauce
Crab Spaghetti With Lemon Gremolata
How To Make Homemade Chicken Parmesan

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This post is in partnership with Kroger. As always, thank you for reading and for supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you. All opinions are always my own.

How to Make Caesar Salad Dressing

This deliciously easy and authentic Caesar salad dressing (made with or without anchovies) gets it’s signature creamy texture from good quality mayonnaise and sour cream with the tang of red wine vinegar.

Homemade salad dressings are some of the easiest recipes any home cook should master. And ironically, it’s just about as easy to whip one up as it is to stand in front of the grocery aisle trying to decide which salad dressing you’re going to like the best. Plus, with homemade dressings there’s no guessing what’s in them because you get to decide which ingredients to include.

When people see an ingredient list that calls for raw egg and anchovies, they can get a bit squeemish about traditional recipes for Caesar salad dressing.

However, this recipe that I use in my classic Caesar salad recipe with homemade garlic croutons omits the raw egg and calls for mayonnaise and sour cream to provide the creamy texture, and you can choose whether to add anchovies, or not. If you’re a garlic fan, you can always toss in another clove if you like.

The power of Caesar is in your hands, and with this salad dressing, you’ll always be the big winner.

continue to the recipe… about How to Make Caesar Salad Dressing

French Onion Dip

This homemade French Onion Dip mixes sweet caramelized onion with Greek yogurt to make a healthy dip that’s the hit of the party.

This recipe is brought to you by Stonyfield

You see it at every party as the host tries to steer guests out of the kitchen and into the actual party. But people linger, dipping into the appetizer nibbles, and always congregating around the food.

And what’s the favorite at every party? It’s always the chips and dip. Everyone loves a dip. Because what’s not to love?

And there’s pretty much no dip more lovable than an easy, savory, French onion dip. It’s the gateway drug for anyone who claims they don’t like onions. It’s caramelized and sweet, and sturdy enough to take on any veggie or chip.

The only thing better? The fact that this caramelized onion dip tastes better because it’s made healthier with organic Greek yogurt.

continue to the recipe… about French Onion Dip

Easy Yogurt Fruit Dip

This easy Greek yogurt fruit dip recipe is made with just 3 ingredients and makes eating fruit dip with apples, strawberries and more seem like a party.

Healthy Fruit Dip Recipe

After school or on weekend playdates, my daughter and her friends were always on the lookout for any opportunity to partake of a snack. As a mom, you know I wished said snack would be healthy. So instead of pulling out a box of this or a bag of that, a platter of bites to snack on became their go-to fave.

The girls called them pupu platters. I called them peace of mind. Knowing these kids were eating good for them snacks made it that much easier to whip them up on a whim. Easy is the name of this game.

This pupu platter has fruit of every color and with a centerpiece of sweet and healthy yogurt fruit dip. It’s great to serve on a platter for breakfast or brunch, or take to a potluck with fruit skewers.

With just three ingredients to whisk together, you won’t waste any time making it yourself.continue to the recipe… about Easy Yogurt Fruit Dip

Baked Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and Marinara

These heathy, easy to make baked turkey meatballs are made lighter with lean ground turkey, spinach, and fresh herbs, then baked up and served with creamy polenta and zesty marinara for a restaurant-worthy meal at home!

Bikini season is right around the corner. Make that tankini season for this girl. I’m smart enough to realize I’m no Demi Moore and my bikini days are over.

Making small changes for a little healthier eating and working toward a bit of scale tipping in the opposite direction of up is what’s on my agenda. And easy. I want easy meals whenever I can get them but not at the expense of freshness and taste.

This year I’m pleased to be working again with DeLallo Foods, whose products I purchased even before our partnership began, making it all the easier to profess my fondness for them and show how I use some of their favorite products.

This recipe for baked turkey meatballs is a mash up of store-bought and homemade, with herb-filled, from-scratch ground turkey meatballs that are finished off with DeLallo Foods’ jarred Pomodoro Fresco Marinara and their Instant Polenta. The combo makes for an incredibly easy, fresh and fast weeknight dinner.

And simply because you won’t be able to tell the difference, it’s on the healthy side too.

continue to the recipe… about Baked Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and Marinara

How to Make Easy Basil Pesto

Homemade pesto is one of the quickest ways to brighten any dish from caprese chicken to pizza and even to macaroni and cheese. This is my tried and true method to make the perfect basil pesto recipe every single time.

I’ve made homemade pesto many times and totally loved it. And just as many times I’ve totally screwed it up. Why? There are likely several reasons, but it’s mainly because I veered away from my perfected proportions and added too much garlic or not enough olive oil or didn’t season my basil pesto sauce nearly enough.continue to the recipe… about How to Make Easy Basil Pesto

Simple Roasted Tomato Sauce

This roasted tomato sauce is made with 6 simple ingredients and requires less than 10 minutes of hands-on prep work. Enjoy now or freeze it for later!

“Toast to the tomato roast!” Or in perhaps more trendy speak, “totes tomahhhto roast.” Either way, roasting tomatoes has a hold of my heart, and I’m not letting go any time soon.

I spent this past weekend rocking the nostalgic. It was my yearly girlfriend getaway with my college besties. I’m a sorority girl, and because of the amazing friends I made in it, I’m damn proud of it.

The trip is the same as it is every year. No boys. No kids. Just the girls with cocktails and Jell-o shots, trashy magazines, and corn hole, and there always seems to be some sort of water in the form of an ocean, a river, a lake, or even just a hot tub. This year it was the tropical pool that saved us from the Las Vegas heat.

We are a group of girls that know way too much about one another’s past, and know one another well enough to help navigate the present in hopes of a fulfilling future. We’re nothing if not happy to share our opinions in helping one another grow.

It’s all in the name of love.

It was an anniversary year, one of those numbers that you never in your life would think would come so soon, and yet when it does, you marvel at the fortune you’ve found in developing a level of friendship and bond that runs this deep for this long. And the reason it does is because — it’s simple. It’s easy. We all put in and we all draw from the well. We just always have and we always will, at each and every milestone.continue to the recipe… about Simple Roasted Tomato Sauce

Zesty Bread and Butter Pickles

This recipe makes a BIG batch of homemade bread and butter pickles. These can be made as refrigerator pickles, or they can be canned for later!

Creating This Homemade Pickle Recipe

Growing up, we were a house of dill. Everything I ate had to have a dill pickle on it. My lunchtime tuna sandwich wasn’t complete without long slices of kosher dills (plus one or two on the side.) My after school snack of Triscuits, liverwurst, mustard and dill hamburger chips was my favorite treat as I watched Gilligan mess up the rescue attempts of Ginger and MaryAnn every. single. episode. And I will never, ever be able to eat a cheeseburger without some sort of cucumber stick topping (can I get extra pickles please?) thanks to the memories of stacking my mom’s homemade dills high on just-off-the-grill summer cheeseburgers.

I haven’t changed much. You’ve heard of Wisconsin Cheeseheads? I know you’ve heard of Deadheads. Well call me a Picklehead, perhaps in need of a hat or maybe some pickle earrings…

continue to the recipe… about Zesty Bread and Butter Pickles

Grilled Vegetables with Chimichurri Sauce

Grilled vegetables get a serious flavor boost with a few spoonfuls of this spunky Argentinian chimichurri as a bright and zesty finishing sauce in this easy vegetarian side dish.

When it comes to grilling vegetables, most figure it takes a soak in a marinade before grilling to infuse flavor into those healthy, veggie plain-janes.

That’s hardly the case.

Times have changed and so have our ideas about how to eat our veg. Adding this easy and tangy homemade chimichurri sauce to the savory flavors of grilled vegetables perks up and adds to the delicious gusto that comes along with cooking them over the fire.

This summer, grill first, marinade after. Rejoice and eat more plants! It’s what all the cool kids are doing.continue to the recipe… about Grilled Vegetables with Chimichurri Sauce

How to Make the Best Chimichurri Sauce

This Argentinian chimichurri sauce is a fresh parsley and cilantro salsa that gives grilled steak, chicken, fish and vegetables a garlicky kick.

Firing up the grill is a summer habit I’ll never get enough of. The smokey flavor and char of any protein or veg is something I crave all year long. But I also crave the tangy ying to grilling’s savory yang, which is why I totally dig a zesty, herb-infused chimichurri sauce.

Adding flavor to foods that hit the hot grill grates is usually accomplished with marinades like this versatile Greek marinade or adding a simple spiced dry rub. But when I want to keep things super simple, my secret to the best flavor bomb is adding loads of that favorite vinegar/garlic/herb flavor AFTER simply grilling my steak, chicken, pork, fish or vegetables.

And that’s when I am very generous with spoonfuls of classic chimichurri sauce.continue to the recipe… about How to Make the Best Chimichurri Sauce

Killer Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

A healthy dose of fresh, peeled garlic cloves, a homemade pickling spice, and hot peppers give these spicy pickles a seriously delicious kick.

Homemade Spicy Pickle Recipe

Let’s be clear about one thing: I am a lot of things, but a mathematician I am not. Instead of adding up numbers or figuring out right quadrangles, I’ve always been more of a visual kind of gal.

I can tell with one sideways glance when a picture frame is slightly askew. Let’s just hop over and fix that. There. Much better. I notice when the grocery store clerk gets a haircut. “Looks great!” “Oh, why thank you.” And it’s second nature for me to pick out the subtle variations of Periwinkle from Azure. Periwinkle for the win.

Therein lies the reason I was an art major.

I suck at math.

So when figuring out exactly how many cucumbers are in a bushel to share for this crazy good spicy pickle recipe, well…you’re just going to have to join me and go with the flow on this one. Even though I did indeed get out my pencil, my calculator, and conferred deeply with Google, my calculations may not be exact science.

But, then, except for baking, when ever IS cooking a science?continue to the recipe… about Killer Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

20-Minute Berry Jam

Use up your almost over-the-hill berries for the sweetest homemade jam that cooks in just 20 minutes.

Who else finds themselves guilty of the best of healthy intentions and buys too many berries that then start to look like Yoda as they ripen faster than you can eat them? It’s okay, not to worry, there’s a remedy for that: Homemade jam.

The thing is, homemade jam is the perfect remedy for those fresh berries that are at, or have just passed the point, of being perfectly ripe for snacking. Just because they may not be picture perfect is no reason for tossing them out.

The berries may not look the same the day they went into the fridge—with a few more dimples and their skin beginning to look a bit withered—but that’s my signal that their sweetness just leveled up, making them perfectly ready for crunchy sourdough toast and this easy to make, sweet berry jam. continue to the recipe… about 20-Minute Berry Jam

Easy Coleslaw Dressing

This easy homemade coleslaw dressing gives the crunchy classic cabbage salad a tangy bite with creamy mayonnaise and cider vinegar’s zing.

Backyard barbecue and summer potlucks wouldn’t be the same without a classic coleslaw salad on the table. It’s the perfect side car to grilled chicken, the best grilled salmon, my very favorite garlic burgers and is a necessity when it comes to pulled pork sandwiches.

I make my best creamy coleslaw recipe with this same homemade dressing, but it can be used for even more than just lushing up cabbage, and that’s why it’s worthy of a recipe post of its own.

I eat coleslaw dressing on basic crunchy iceberg salads with cucumber and tomato, or drizzled on baked potatoes instead of sour cream. And it makes an awesome dip for fresh veggies on a platter or to dip in for a snack.

Some creamy coleslaw dressings use a combination of sour cream and mayonnaise with flavorings that run the gamut of grated onion to worcestershire sauce to mustard and lemon juice.

But why go through all those paces? Let’s keep this dressing simple.continue to the recipe… about Easy Coleslaw Dressing

How to Make Authentic Enchilada Sauce

A mix of dried New Mexico and guajillo chiles plus Mexican spices create an authentic but easy homemade red enchilada sauce that’s perfect for enchiladas, chilaquiles, and more.

I’m right there with you when it comes to that last minute rush to get dinner on the table. Those time when it seems it’s all you can muster to pull a can of enchilada sauce from the pantry, toss some cheese in the middle of a few tortillas, break out the can opener, pour, and bake, and a pretty okay dinner is served.

But then there are the times when you want more flavor than an aluminum can can deliver. When you want more Mexican authenticity to create a from scratch meal, and that’s when you plan ahead and are STILL able to fix a fast dinner because you were a kitchen smartie-pants and food prepped ahead with tips from my weekly meal plan.

This authentic red enchilada sauce makes all the difference in homemade enchiladas. I’ve seen quite a few recipes that use flour and oil to create a roux for the base and then add tomato paste that then ends up tasting more like a spicy tomato sauce rather than a vivid enchilada sauce.

Mine, however, calls for dried chiles that have been reconstituted and blended as the main part of the base for that real chile flavor.

Prepped ahead, this sauce is just as fast to use when you have it on hand. And it’s just as easy to prepare. And even better, it’s muy auténtico!continue to the recipe… about How to Make Authentic Enchilada Sauce

How to Make the Best Tartar Sauce

This homemade tartar sauce recipe with capers, mayonnaise, and a splashy tang of pickle juice is the perfect topper—and dipper—for fish fillets of every flavor.

A naked fish fillet is exactly that: naked. Whether it’s a healthy-ish fried fish sandwich, every kid-at-heart’s favorite fish stick, or a more adult-ish grilled salmon fillet, fish is meant to have a saucy topper, and there’s no more classic a dipping sauce for fish than a tangy tartar sauce.

I’ve shared plenty of times here on the blog that my husband and I met as servers at a seafood restaurant. You could say our fate was sealed while falling in love with each other and the best clam chowder, steamed clams, and tartar sauce we dished out daily to the hungry crowds.

This tartar sauce recipe is the same they still serve at our old stomping grounds of Market Street Grill, and it’s the one we find ourselves lavishing on fish dinners time and time again. continue to the recipe… about How to Make the Best Tartar Sauce

Creamy Avocado Salsa Verde

Avocado makes this simple, no-cook salsa verde recipe extra creamy for the perfect tortilla chip dipper or as a Mexican salsa topping for tacos, enchiladas, sandwiches, taquitos, and everything in between.

I’ve heard many a time of recipes that are deemed the magic sauce, the secret sauce, and of course, awesome sauce.

Well, this avocado salsa verde recipe is truly special, and while it is not necessarily a sauce per se, it is indeed an incredible topping and chip dipper but also makes everything it touches just that much better.

I should know. It’s made an appearance on everything from my favorite taquitos to turkey sandwiches.

And now, it’s high time you found out too.

I first had this salsa when I was on a yoga retreat in Tulum, Mexico and you can bet I made sure the recipe came home with me. Because while I’ve made plenty of salsas here on the blog, there’s always room for more.

The beauty of this no-cook salsa lies also in the fact that there’s minimal chopping involved. Simply toss all of the ingredients in the blender and whirl away.

And then, start dipping.

continue to the recipe… about Creamy Avocado Salsa Verde

Vietnamese Dressing and Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham)

Nuoc mam cham is a simple Vietnamese dipping sauce made with rice vinegar, fish sauce, and sweetened with sugar that does double duty as a tasty salad dressing.

Just as Italy is known for it’s olive oil with balsamic vinegar, and Greece for it’s tzatziki, every culture has a dipping sauce that makes it’s signature mark. Vietnam is no exception.

This easy recipe for nuoc cham Vietnamese dressing and dipping sauce turns a bowl of rice noodles with raw veggies into a spectacularly slurpable flavor bomb and it’s the last touch of zest when Vietnamese spring rolls pass your lips.

It may take a minute to figure out nuoc cham’s pronunciation when ordering at a restaurant, but once you make it at home, you’ll see this sauce is easy to master.continue to the recipe… about Vietnamese Dressing and Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham)

Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

There’s no need to buy it from the shelves, homemade buttermilk ranch dressing is one of the easiest, and tastiest, dressings to make from scratch.

I have a go-to salad dressing that I have to admit, I’m rather famous in the family for.

It’s a vinaigrette with tarragon and is made in our house on a rotation of at least once a week. Why haven’t I posted it on the blog yet? I’m asking myself that same question. I need to remedy that stat.

This homemade buttermilk ranch dressing isn’t one I make too often, but when I do, it is pretty much drizzled, dipped and guzzled down so there’s never much left over. I’m sharing it today as a preview of what’s coming your way tomorrow, where it is going to lace not a salad, but a sandwich that will leave you wishing for one more handful of potato chips, and just one more drizzle and dip of ranch dressing, because as Smudge declares, “Mom. This. Is. So. Good.”

She’s right, you know.

see more: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Creamy Ranch Sauce

Ranch Dressing Ingredients

This dressing gets its tang from the combo of mayo, sour cream and buttermilk. I used full-fat ingredients, but if you want to create your own lower calorie versions, you can simply sub low-fat mayo, sour cream or give Greek yogurt a try. Buttermilk is naturally low-fat so you’re in the clear there. I like my dressing on the thicker side (reflected in the amounts in the recipe below), so add more buttermilk to your preference.

Fresh herbs are essential here, but I do like to use dried dill in this recipe as it’s a bit more concentrated in flavor. If you simply don’t have the fresh herbs, go for dried, a much better option than skipping altogether.

You’ll find the recognizable taste of ranch comes from the nugget of garlic in the dressing. I pretty much always prefer pressing my garlic, but if you don’t have a garlic press, simply mash the garlic in 1/8 teaspoon of salt to create a paste then add to the rest of the ingredients.

continue to the recipe… about Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe

Mango Salsa Recipe

Fresh mango and strawberries mix with avocado, cilantro, red onion and jalapeño in this easy to make, zesty mango salsa that’s sweetened with lime and honey.

My chicken breasts were crying out for help. “Ka-kah! Help me! Just salt and pepper makes me b-o-r-i-n-g”

Because who craves boring chicken? Me? You? Hardly.

“Wait! I have that mango salsa recipe that would be the perfect topper. Let me go to the bloggity blog and find the recipe!”

Actually, that was me “asking” my husband to go to the blog and find it. And he couldn’t.

“But I know it’s there.” And it was. But not in plain sight. You guys may think that food bloggers have each and every recipe we’ve created formatted directly into our brains like the hard drives of our computers. That, my friends, is a fallacy.

The more likely scenario is that because we’re always dreaming of recipes akin to sugar plums dancing through our heads that we can’t remember a dad gum thing.continue to the recipe… about Mango Salsa Recipe

Easy 3-Minute Blender Hollandaise

Homemade blender hollandaise is a quick and easy classic sauce any French cook would declare très bien.

Classic hollandaise sauce is one of those lush additions to a dish that immediately elevates the stature of whatever it drizzles or lathers. I mean, an Egg Benedict is really just an Egg McMuffin until it gets the hollandaise treatment.

However, from scratch hollandaise can be a tricky recipe to master and feel like one of those recipes only a trained chef can carry off.

Not the case monsieur!

Unlike traditional hollandaise that requires whisking and tempering over a water bath and a fair amount of practice to master, this blender hollandaise is incredibly easy and fast with no cooking involved, and can literally take just about 3 minutes to whip up.continue to the recipe… about Easy 3-Minute Blender Hollandaise

Greek Salad Dressing

This easy Greek salad dressing with olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and dried herbs is one of my favorites to dress any salad and tastes so much better than store-bought.

Home cooks are too often conditioned to grabbing a bottle of store-bought dressing off the supermarket shelf. Where in reality, making a homemade salad dressing truly couldn’t be easier, takes hardly any skill, and is more economical too.

This traditional Greek salad dressing is a multi-functioning super hero. It’s amazingly good on simple greens and sliced onions for an everyday dinner salad. Or soaked into crisped veggies and tossed with feta in a Greek pasta salad. And it works wonders as a marinade for garbanzo beans, chicken, pork, or to drizzle on grilled vegetables or shrimp.

Honestly my husband’s favorite is simply drizzling it on slices of crisp cucumbers, and I’m partial to marinating blocks of feta in it. Yum.

This is the easy salad dressing that’s about to become a secret weapon to always keep on hand.continue to the recipe… about Greek Salad Dressing

Easy Chicken Piccata

This easy chicken piccata recipe with a lemon-caper sauce is a classic you’ll find on the menu of nearly every Italian restaurant, and because it can be made in just 20 minutes, it’s one of my favorite at-home recipes too.

Chicken Piccata Recipe

“I have too many easy chicken dinner recipes,” said nobody ever. And you guys agree, the more healthy the flavor, the more better. Not grammatically correct, but dang it tastes good.

When it seems there’s nothing to cook for dinner, this easy chicken piccata recipe is one I can always pull out of my magic hat and wow my family with dinner on the table in under 20 minutes.

Because nobody ever said they didn’t want more fast dinners, too.continue to the recipe… about Easy Chicken Piccata

Easy Quick Roasted Tomatoes

While there’s nothing quite like biting into a garden-fresh tomato, quick roasted tomatoes in the oven create a savory sweetness that’s delicious made into a simple roasted tomato sauce on pasta, made into soup, or served as appetizers, no matter what time of year.

You could say I’m obsessed with roasting tomatoes.

Even when they’re at their most flavorful, summertime prime, it’s highly likely that sweet cherry tomatoes, Italian plum roma tomatoes, and just about every other variety I pick up (minus the big beefsteaks) typically find their way into the oven at some point for a quick roast to pull out their most jammy-sweet flavor.

But the real appeal of roasting is when we’re eating those dead-of-winter tomatoes. You know the ones. The tomatoes who left their taste at the door.

I love long, slow-roasted tomatoes at a low temp in the oven, but sometimes there’s no time to wait. When it comes to quick and easy, no-fuss roasted tomatoes, the big return on the little time invested is totally worth it, because a roast in the oven for less than an hour is all that’s needed to release the super sweet powers of any noble tomato. continue to the recipe… about Easy Quick Roasted Tomatoes

Baked Salmon with Creme Fraiche

Salmon recipes can be cooked many ways, but in my book, there’s nothing as easy as baked salmon in white wine and lemon for a healthy dinner, or to make and use for meal prep all week long.

Whether it’s baked salmon, poached, grilled salmon, pan-seared, whole salmon, or cut into filets, the benefits of cooking and eating salmon are not only fast and easy enough for any level of cook to make, but so incredibly good for your health, too.

While visiting my mom earlier this year, my Aunt Jane cooked us this simple salmon dinner baked in wine and topped with lemon, then topped with an easy, and totally flavorful creme fraiche sauce.

Jane is one of those cooks where everything seems effortless. But she confided that while she loves to entertain, she doesn’t always feel so confident in the kitchen, especially when cooking for others. That’s why when she does, she zeroes in on a recipe that’s tried and true. It leaves less margin for error, and more time for enjoying guests rather than time in the kitchen worrying over the stove.

Being from Seattle, this baked salmon with a creamy creme fraiche sauce has pretty much become Jane’s signature dish, and now it can become yours, too.continue to the recipe… about Baked Salmon with Creme Fraiche

The Best Dry Rub for Ribs

The best seasoning to put on ribs to achieve flavorful, fall-off-the-bone tender bites isn’t a liquid sauce or a marinade. It’s all in the rub baby, a homemade dry rub made from spices and herbs you probably have sitting in your pantry right now.

When I was a novice rib cooker, I thought you cooked ribs just like a steak or a hamburger—you simply put the uncooked ribs in the oven or on the grill, then slathered them with bbq sauce to cook until they were just cooked through. What resulted from that bonehead technique was ribs that were flavorlesss, tough, and in the end were scorched to a burnt crisp thanks to the sugars in the barbecue sauce.

What I didn’t know is ribs need time…low and slow cooking time in the oven or in the smoker to break down those tough fibers and tenderize. I also learned (and as any award winning rib pit master knows) the key to great ribs is a generous rub of seasonings that soak into and permeate the meat, drawing out the moisture to tenderize and add flavor over several hours—or even days—of refrigerated marinating time.

Dry rub recipes created by those pit masters are more closely guarded than their social security numbers. My husband came up with this dry rub combination years ago and dubbed it his “magic dust”. While he’s no pit master, it is his secret to the best barbecue baby back ribs and seasoning chicken, pork chops, steaks or other cuts of beef.

He’s never been good at keeping secrets, so now his magic dust recipe is about to become your secret ingredient, too.

continue to the recipe… about The Best Dry Rub for Ribs

The Best Greek Chicken Marinade

This easy chicken marinade infuses chicken of any cut with the classic Greek flavors of lemon, garlic and oregano plus Greek yogurt for a more tender bite.

Hey, ho, whaddya know?!!! You ready for the best? Because I’m giving you the best!

It may be a bold statement to make, but unlike fake politicians, sorcerers, and that guy in Nigeria who says he’ll double your money if you’ll just wire it to him, I’m standing behind my claim that this super easy, extremely delicious Greek Chicken marinade very well could be:

the ying to your yang.

the butter to your nutter.

the pop to your lock.

Which would make this little diddy of a recipe the best lemony, best garlicky, best Greek-y oregano-ish chicken marinade you just might ever make.

continue to the recipe… about The Best Greek Chicken Marinade

Easy 3-Ingredient Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream

Homemade chocolate sauce is so much easier to make than you might think, and with just three ingredients (plus a pinch of salt) your ice cream, cheesecake, fruit fondue, or even chocolate cake will be dripping in chocolatey goodness in no time.

This recipe is brought to you by Kroger and Tillamook, which is heading East ya’ll!

My husband is an ice cream lover through and through. He’s just like my dad who nearly every night has a scoop or two while we binge watch our favorite TV shows. But when I was a kid, my dad never ate the ice cream naked on its own, and neither does my husband. These boys always have their ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce — or as my husband calls it in his best British accent that sends our daughter into a reels of laughter “a bit of CHOCK-OH-lut taaaahhh-ping.”

“Really dad? Chocolate TOPPING??,” she fights to dispute. “It’s called chocolate SAUCE, dad!”

Personally, I’d rather have chocolate sauce or hot fudge rather than a mysteriously labeled “topping” on my ice cream because what the heck is in “topping” anyway? That’s why this super easy, 3-ingredient sauce is now a standard at our house.

continue to the recipe… about Easy 3-Ingredient Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream

Asian Marinade Master Sauce

Whether it’s used as an Asian marinade for beef, chicken, pork, tofu or fish, or as a dressing for vegetables, salads, or pastas, or even as a flavoring for rice, quinoa, or any number of grains, this is the ultimate Asian master sauce and is the secret to making meal prep easier than ever before.

Healthy and delicious food doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, when your cooking method centers around meal prep and batch cooking, the most basic of ingredients can easily be transformed into craveable dishes everyone will want and come back asking for more.

The secret is in the master sauce, and it’s the whole idea behind batch cooking.

This strategy is the centerpiece of our Nourished Planner Batch Cooking Basics meal prep guide, where we share the strategy and recipes for preparing five basic master recipes as the interchangeable base to build just one meal, or even a whole week’s worth.

This Asian master sauce recipe is a multi-layer tool that isn’t limited to just being a seasoning added to a dish at the end. With a simple shake of a mason jar, this master sauce can become a marinade, a salad dressing, added to the cooking water for a more flavorful grain or sautéed or tossed with vegetables for even more infused flavor within reach of your garlic-scented fingertips.

continue to the recipe… about Asian Marinade Master Sauce

The 20 Most Popular FoodieCrush Recipes of 2017

I published many recipes on FoodieCrush this year, and while I thought they were all good, this is YOUR list of readers’ top 20 favorites.

The best recipes are the ones we come back to time and time again — the ones that are the heart of of our ever-expanding repertoire and the ones that keep them asking for seconds.

This last year I tinkered and tested, made a lot of messes, and whipped up tons of winners along with a fair share of losers that you never even got to see. Hopefully I’ve inspired you to make memories in the kitchen and to make something good, because honestly, what’s better than enjoying a stellar meal with the ones you love?

I’m happy to bring you YOUR list of the 20 most popular recipes chosen by readers as your favorites. These are the recipes that were most clicked on/bookmarked/and hopefully cooked with by FoodieCrush readers in 2017. Some are new, some are favorites you obviously keep coming back to for more, but all of them were FoodieCrush favorites.

Happy eating, friends. :)
continue to the recipe… about The 20 Most Popular FoodieCrush Recipes of 2017

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Can I Omit the Wine?

Tips for Making Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

What to Serve with Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

My Mom's Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

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Healthy Fruit Dip Recipe

Creating This Homemade Pickle Recipe

Homemade Spicy Pickle Recipe

Ranch Dressing Ingredients

Chicken Piccata Recipe

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