Cookie And Kate How To Start A Food Blog

How did we ever manage to cook before the arrival of the internet? I suppose we had to rely on cookbooks, cooking tv shows, and knowledge handed down from our grandmothers. Of course, the more daring would experiment in the kitchen, remembering the successes, and mercifully forgetting any culinary disasters.

Nowadays we have a multitude of food blogs offering mouth-watering recipes, suggestions, and vivid photography, sending us straight to the kitchen … or the supermarket. There are hundreds of food blogs to tempt your taste buds.

17 Best Food Blogs to Sate your Hunger in 2021:

1. Love and Lemons
2. Cookie and Kate
3. Minimalist Baker
4. Smitten Kitchen
5. 101 Cookbooks
6. Budget Bytes
7. Closet Cooking
8. Damn Delicious
9. Green Kitchen Stories
10. Serious Eats
11. Sprouted Kitchen
12. Two Peas & Their Pod
13. Pinch of Yum
14. Sailu's Food
15. Chocolate Covered Katie.
16. Vegan Richa
17. Recipe Girl

1. Love and Lemons

love and lemons food blog

Website: loveandlemons.com

Love and Lemons has been created by Jeanine Donofrio and her husband, Jack Mathews ("#1 taste-tester"). The blog's name comes from the fact that Jeanine loves seasonal food, often finished off with a squeeze of lemon.

Most of the recipes on the site are vegetarian.

The blog was founded in 2011 and has been recognized by prestigious food magazines like Food & Wine, Food52, Refinery29, SELF Magazine, and Oprah Magazine. It was named Readers' Choice Best Cooking Blog by Saveur Magazine in 2014 and won a Saveur Editor's Choice award in 2016.

If you are looking for a recipe, you can filter your search by season, holiday, special diet, meal type, or ingredient. Surprisingly there are only six recipes under the ingredient, lemon.

2. Cookie and Kate

food blogger cookie and kate

Website: cookieandkate.com

Cookie and Kate is all about celebrating good food. Kate is Kathryne Taylor. Cookie is her dog – which Kate describes as a "mystery mutt," or as a DNA test found, half schipperke and half dachshund/Australian koolie mix.

Kate is a photographer and cook from Oklahoma. She created the blog in 2010 and now works on it full-time.

Like many of the other top food blogs featured here, Cookie and Kate features vegetarian and whole food recipes.

The site makes it easy to search for recipes. You can look for recipes by Course, Cuisine, Diet, Everyday, Ingredient, or Season.

3. Minimalist Baker

Website: minimalistbaker.com

Minimalist Baker is one of those sites where the name says it all. It shares plant-based recipes requiring 10 ingredients or less, 1 bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare. It publishes a new recipe every three days, with a mixture of savory and sweet dishes.

Dana Shultz is the recipe developer and blogger. She has a deep love for recipe experimentation and food photography. She has even expanded into creating a Essentials of Building a Great Food Blog Course.

Despite the use of the word "baker" in the site's name, it covers many different types of (predominantly vegan) cooking – sweets, entrees, breakfast, snacks, sides, and beverages.

4. Smitten Kitchen

Website: smittenkitchen.com

Smitten Kitchen features delectable images of meals demanding to be eaten. Therefore should be no surprise that Smitten Kitchen has found great popularity with serious food fans.

Smitten Kitchen summarizes itself as being "Fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City." It was created by Deb Perelman who obsessed with the intricacies of food and cooking. As she says on her About page, she loves being able to wake and cook whatever she feels like that day.

The recipes are the heart of this site. There is a particular emphasis on stepped-up comfort foods. The site also includes numerous tutorials on topics as diverse as how to poach an egg and how to make tart doughs that don't shrink up on you.

Deb makes a point of only using commonly available ingredients.

The Recipes page splits all of the site's recipes up by type, with additional subdivisions for Fruit, Meat, Sweets, and Vegetables.

5. 101 Cookbooks

Website: 101cookbooks.com

Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks focuses on providing healthy everyday recipes. It currently features over 700 vegetarian, whole food, vegan, and instant pot recipes.

Heidi began the blog in 2003 when she looked at her vast collection of cookbooks and decided that it was time to stop collecting and start cooking. She was sick of repeating the same recipes over and over again. She felt it was time to explore the books in her collection.

As Heidi worked her way through her cookbooks, her skills and cooking knowledge improved, and she built her own repertoire of successful recipes.

Nowadays, Heidi chooses and writes about recipes that intersect her life, travels, and everyday interests. Often these are from her cookbook collection, but sometimes not.

Posts/recipes can be organized by categories (e.g., whole grain, vegan, pasta, chocolate, etc), by ingredients, or by season.

6. Budget Bytes

Website: budgetbytes.com

Budget Bytes aims to provide delicious recipes designed for small budgets. It recognizes that we can't all afford to use expensive ingredients and cook recipes that take hours to prepare. It tries to cater to those with "Instagram taste and a peanut butter budget."

Budget Bytes is the creation of Beth Moncel. She wants to help people shop, cook, and eat smart. She provides numerous recipes on her blog, along with their cost analysis, preparation time, alternative preparations, and step-by-step photos of each recipe.

Beth has developed six principles to keep her grocery budget low and reduce waste:

Plan your meals
Use ingredients wisely
Portion control
Don't be afraid of leftovers
The freezer is your friend
Shop wisely

7. Closet Cooking

Website: closetcooking.com

Closet Cooking chronicles Kevin Lynch's efforts to cook and develop recipes in his closet-sized kitchen. Kevin found cooking became his passion and obsession in his quest never to eat a boring meal again! Kevin considers it fun coming up with creative ways to serve tasty meals from a small kitchen!

Kevin has developed 2,600 recipes since he began the site. He gives pride of place to a Top Recipes section where he highlights his 100 most popular recipes.

Some of his recent posts include:

Shawarma Seasoning
Sicilian Pizza
Strawberry Lemonade Bars
Prosciutto Wrapped Mozzarella Balls
Pan Seared Balsamic Strawberry Chicken and Brie

8. Damn Delicious

Website: damndelicious.net

Damn Delicious is the online home of Chungah Rhee (and her crazy corgi sidekick, Butters). Although Chungah grew up in a traditional Korean household, she comes from Queens and is now based in Los Angeles.

She began sharing her favorite recipes online in 2011 on a Tumblr account which in time grew into her Damn Delicious blog. The site has since attracted a team of individuals working together to create the best possible recipes.

It includes recipes, step-by-step tutorials, and videos showing visitors how they can make quick and easy meals as an everyday cook.

9. Green Kitchen Stories

green kitchen stories blog food

Website: greenkitchenstories.com

Green Kitchen Stories features healthy vegetarian recipes by the Swedish-based couple, David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl. Luise describes herself as the hippie-health-minded one, while David considers himself a vegetarian, food stylist, and photographer.

David and Luise chose the name for their blog to represent their efforts to come up with healthy vegetarian recipes using whole food and organic products. They aim for their recipes to be as simple and pure as possible.

They split their recipes into:

Breakfast & Brunch
Main Dishes
Soups
Salads
Cakes & Desserts
Cookies & Sweets
Bread
Drinks, Juices & Shakes
Side Dishes, Jams, Spreads & Appetizers

10. Serious Eats

Website: seriouseats.com

As its name suggests, Serious Eats takes a considered approach to the art of cooking. As well as the usual selection of recipes (split into Chicken, Pizza, Cocktails, Pasta, Burgers, Sandwiches, Desserts, and Salad) it includes an extensive section on Techniques. There is an entire section of the website devoted to grilling different types of food.

Serious Eats includes a fascinating Features section. This includes pages ranging from Know Your Ingredients to Food Histories to guides to both steak and eggs.

Serious Eats searches for definitive recipes, demonstrates trailblazing techniques and hard-core science and provides innovative guides to essential food and drink.

The website describes the "serious" in its name as meaning "impressive, audacious, inventive, well-made, or just seriously delicious." Despite the name, they don't believe in taking themselves too seriously – just doing things well.

Serious Eats takes pride in not posting a recipe until they are absolutely sure theirs is different from and/or better than anything you'll find elsewhere.

11. Sprouted Kitchen

Website: sproutedkitchen.com

Partners, Sara Forte & Hugh Forte, work together to create Sprouted Kitchen. The site is as much about Hugh's sumptuous food porn photography as it is about Sara's mouth-watering recipes.

They firmly believe in the benefits of eating seasonally. "A peach from a farmer's market at the end of August tastes exactly like a peach should." They aim to make healthy-ish food that fits into your everyday life, using mostly produce, whole grains, healthy fats, and natural sugar alternatives.

Sprouted Kitchen now features an extensive collection of recipes, across a wide range of food categories. There is also an interesting section focusing on the equipment you can use – both cooking equipment used to make the food and the photography equipment Hugh favors.

12. Two Peas & Their Pod

Website: twopeasandtheirpod.com

Two Peas & Their Pod is the blog of Maria Lichty and her husband, Josh. They share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. They create recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. The site includes sweet and savory recipes, indulgent and healthy recipes, and recipes for every meal and occasion.

Two Peas & Their Pod is particularly proud of their Cookie section, which currently includes over 200 cookie recipes.

You can search for a recipe by category, occasion, season, or diet.

One unique section of the website is Sweet Peas Meals. This is a paid section of the site where people receive a new meal plan every week. Each meal plan includes six dinner recipes, a shopping list including all the ingredients needed to make each recipe, a guide helping with meal prep throughout the week, and a printable cheat sheet recapping all of the meals for the week. The plans include breakfast & lunch ideas that use similar seasonal ingredients as the dinners.

13. Pinch of Yum

Website: pinchofyum.com

Pinch of Yum is almost an institution. With over 750 blog posts, it has something healthy for everyone. Founded just over a decade ago by Lindsay Ostrom and her husband Bjork, it's filled with all the goodness that comes from a genuine love for food. Lindsay and Bjork's journey, like that of many food bloggers, began with a simple idea to share their love for food.

Since launch, it's transformed into a full-time business that's replaced their income and employs a team of creatives to deliver amazing content.

Pinch of Yum also includes a page dedicated to favorite recipes. It sports everything from choc chip cookies and chili, to lentil soup, pizza, blueberry pancakes, and much, much more.

14. Sailu's Food

Website: sailusfood.com

Sailaja Gudivada created Sailu's food to share her passion for all things food. Before starting her blog, she worked for the State Government. Her site showcases a collection of simple and complex Indian cuisine recipes that Sailaja's drawn to. And the best part? These can all be made at home. Recipes are categorized so any reader can quickly find something they like.

Want to try your hand at a paneer dish, there are over 23 to choose from. Interested in something sweet? Browse Sailaja's collection of over 30 mouthwatering dishes.

If you're looking for something exotic and challenging to prepare or a dish that's easier to master, be sure to visit the popular recipes section.

15. Chocolate Covered Katie.

Website: chocolatecoveredkatie.com

Katie Higgins created Chocolate Covered Katie in college and it quickly morphed into a winning idea. The name of her blog may look at sound like one dedicated to chocolate, and everything chocolate-drizzled or drenched, but it's about more than that. Katie offers a variety of recipes, with something for everyone. Vegan and gluten-free eaters will be happy, and if you're into meat, there's enough to fulfill your appetite.

Katie's also been covered by large media outlets like Shape Magazine, The Today Show, USA Today , Time , CNN , The Food Network , Bon Appétit , Cooking Light , and People Magazine . She's also appeared on Dr. Oz .

16. Vegan Richa

Website: veganricha.com

Richa is a recipe developer and food blogger. She's the brains behind VeganRicha.com, where you'll find tons of tasty recipes. VeganRicha.com was born in 2009. And while Richa is an amazing cook, she used to be a software developer. Her story has to be one of the most fascinating. Her love for food grew after a series of health issues, including one that led to brain surgery.

In her downtime, Richa decided to start experimenting with food, and that's when she gained serious traction for her blog. Richa's work has been featured on Oprah.com , Huffington Post , Babble , Glamour , VegNews.com , TheKitchn , Rediff.com , Cosmopolitan , and BuzzFeed .

17. Recipe Girl

Website: recipegirl.com

RecipeGirl.com was founded in 2006 by Lori Lange. Lori used to be an elementary school teacher. She develops recipes that are all about easy eating. They are family-friendly but also perfect for entertaining guests. Recipegirls.com is home to over 3,000 dishes that you can prepare, and they all come with nutritional information, ratings, and what she likes to refer to as "big, beautiful photographs".

Lori's also written for brands like old Medal Flour, McCormick, Pepperidge Farm, Kraft, Betty Crocker, Smithfield, Tabasco, Nestle, King's Hawaiian, M&M'S, Eggland's Best, and Driscolls. If you're searching for easy, tasty meal ideas, be sure to check Recipegirl.com out.