Summer Recipes from Connecticut’s “Kat Can Cook” Kat Ashmore

When Kat Ashmore was a kid, her dad used to say, “You know a food is good for you if it doesn’t taste like anything.” Like many of us, he was stuck in the belief that cooking with health in mind is a joyless affair. Not so, says his daughter, who grew up to be a professional chef turned food and lifestyle influencer. Healthy eating shouldn’t be about restricting, dieting, or taking away, she says, but about adding more flavor, more veggies, more protein, more good fats, and more healthy grains.

After attending culinary school, Kat worked as a private chef and later produced and developed recipes for Martha Stewart. (Side note: Kat was working on the set of Stewart’s television show the day I appeared on it to promote my own book. Her kindness that day eased the terror of cooking with a legend.) Following years of intense work in New York, Kat moved to Connecticut with her husband and kids, but she found herself “unhappy and unfulfilled as a stay-at-home mom with a 1- and 3-year-old,” she says. “When you’re a creative person, you can only ignore it for so long before it starts very loudly telling you it’s time to do something with it again.”

In 2020 she started a blog, Kat Can Cook, and soon amassed a large social media following with her accessible and flavorful recipes (Mindy Kaling follows her, no big deal). Her work is now captured in her first cookbook, Big Bites: Wholesome, Comforting Recipes That Are Big on Flavor, Nourishment, and Fun, which was released earlier this year and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.

We asked Kat to share some summery recipes with us, from a zucchini fritter starter to grilled chicken souvlaki to a gluten-free orange ricotta cake for dessert.

Kat Ashmore’s Summer Recipes

Hasselback Caprese

Herbed Zucchini Fritters with Salted Yogurt

Crispy Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce

Greek Chicken Souvlaki

Gluten-Free Orange-Ricotta Company Cake

Amy Traverso

More by Amy Traverso