4 Surprising Kitchen Secrets We Learned from Meghan Markle's New Cookbook
Have you heard? Meghan Markle wrote her first cookbook. But it’s not just a bunch of cake recipes. It’s a cookbook with a heartwarming cause that reminds us the Duchess of Sussex is truly a lady boss.
Called Together: Our Community Cookbook, the new release features diverse recipes and stories from the women of Hubb Community Kitchen at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre. The group came together after the tragic Grenfell Tower Fire, which shattered the town around Kensington Palace. Proceeds from the book go directly to the kitchen so it can stay open seven days a week instead of two.
The book is enticing because—aside from the fact that it’s Meghan Markle’s pet project—it’s filled with carefully curated heirloom recipes. Reading the headnotes and footnotes on each page feels a little bit like getting a hand-annotated formula from your great grandmother.
Here, some surprising kitchen secrets we learned (other than the revelation that Meghan Markle’s favorite childhood meal is collard greens, black-eyed peas and corn bread: badass).
RELATED: 20 Recipes Meghan Markle Swears By (She’s a Huge Foodie)
For the Creamiest Avocado Dip…
Add some plain yogurt and mayonnaise. For every avocado you mash up, blend in 3 tablespoons of yogurt and 4 tablespoons of mayo. Markle confesses that this is her new favorite guac recipe…she even makes it at home.
We've Been Cooking Couscous All Wrong
According to a passed-down recipe for Algerian couscous, here's the best way to cook it: soak the grain in a bowl of salted water for five minutes, then break it up with your fingers and steam it over a pot of boiling water in a fine-mesh sieve covered with foil. Sound like a lot of work? It’s worth it: The results are twice as fluffy.
Coleslaw Doesn't Have to Be Lame
Add a pinch of crushed red-pepper flakes and, bam, that creamy-sweet flavor that normally takes the backseat instantly becomes brighter.
Baking With Kefir = Brilliant
We’ve all heard that kefir is a great source of probiotics and calcium, yadda, yadda, yadda. But does anyone actually want to chug the viscous stuff? A recipe for Russian semolina cake teaches us that you can swap it in for milk or buttermilk in cake, quick bread and muffin recipes.
