Cucumbers and tomatoes with tahini miso dressing + glitter

Kerin Rose Gold’s Glittery Israeli Salad

NOTES

An easy dressing that can double as a dip for crudité, this might be might new refrigerator staple. Reduce the water by 1 teaspoon if using this as a dip.

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small bowl, whisk together ingredients until smooth. Drizzle on roasted vegetables, rice bowls, or as a finishing touch to salads, like this simple combo of diced cucumbers and tomatoes. 

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

EASY

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SERVES

1

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PREP TIME

5 MINS

Miso Tahini Dressing

  • tbs 
    tahini
  • tsp 
    white miso
  • 1/8 
    tsp 
    microplaned garlic
  • tsp 
    brown rice vinegar
  • tbs + 1 tsp 
    water

INSTRUCTIONS

In a small bowl, whisk together ingredients until smooth. Drizzle on roasted vegetables, rice bowls, or as a finishing touch to salads, like this simple combo of diced cucumbers and tomatoes. 

Have you ever looked around you and seen a world just begging to be bedazzled? If you hold the belief that life is just better when refracted in glitz and glam, then say hello to your newest muse: crystal artist Kerin Rose Gold.

I met Kerin at our mutual friend Maayan Zilberman’s baby shower, when I so rudely interjected in a very serious conversation Kerin was having with fellow costume designer to the stars, Zaldy Goco. They were bonding over a rarified topic of mutual concern — how to best encrust couture garments in jewels, in a manner strong enough to withstand the booty-shaking velocity of J.Lo’s on-stage dance moves. As someone whose day-to-day is wholly absent of blindingly sparkly apparel (and proximity to J.Lo), I had to know more.

In a world where one can invent the idea of a “salad blog” and be considered a professional, Kerin has created a career for herself around sculptural eyewear. It all began in 2008 when she was working retail at Patricia Field in downtown Manhattan, the beloved and storied boutique that has catered to drag queens, club kids, and the most irreverent celebrity stylists since the 70s. On her day off, she took adhesive and a bag of crystals to a cheap pair of sunglasses. She wore her creation to work the following shift, and the buyer for the shop demanded she, “make more of these to put up for sale immediately.” And thus, a-morir, a truly singular eyewear line was hatched from a brilliantly campy pair of hand-embellished shades. “The first person to use them on a celebrity was Mariah Carey’s stylist, and Carey was seen wearing them for all of three seconds! After that, Katy Perry was the first to really embrace my work, performing at a Paper Magazine party, and soon after, on American Idol.”

Larger than life artists swarmed, specifically the elite set of pop stars in eternal search of ways to stay in the spotlight through the expert use of glitter, chains, or even plastic fruit. (Kerin assures me all of her eyewear is practical and won’t obstruct visibility due to, “reduced angular density when in proximity to the eye.”) Established amongst the stylists-that-be, Kerin was free to invent, “the first bridal eyewear line,” featuring glasses equipped with miniature veils, frames inlaid with 126 pointed back crystals that spell out “WIFE LIFE.” She graduated to making apparel — a disco ball sweatsuit for Missy Elliott, marabou hoop earrings for Rihanna’s lingerie runway show, and crystalline lifestyle objects like eye-catching SOLO cups, crystal lipstick pens, and crystal pill bottles. Indeed, it seems there is nothing her studio can’t make better with a fist full of bling.

For her salad, Kerin, who is half Israeli, prepared a highly personalized take on the eponymous salad of her ancestral homeland — simple diced tomato and cucumber, topped with miso tahini dressing….and glitter. Yes, edible glitter. A discovery that has driven Kerin’s culinary pursuits of late, she encourages you to “use edible glitter liberally. You just poop it out.” Yes, Kerin Rose Gold literally shits glitter.

Don’t worry — this dressing is a crowd-pleaser (with or without the tinsel).