Avocado Salsa

This avocado salsa recipe is fresh, flavorful, and SO easy to make! Serve it with tortilla chips for a zesty summer appetizer, or add it to tacos and more.

This avocado salsa recipe is essentially a cross between guacamole and mango salsa. It’s super simple—you can make it in 10 minutes!—but it still packs in a ton of contrasting textures and flavors. Creamy avocado plays off sweet, juicy mango, which in turn accents spicy chiles, crisp red onion, and cilantro. A big squeeze of lime juice adds the perfect zesty pop. I love to serve it as a fun, fresh appetizer with tortilla chips, but this avocado salsa is great in other ways, too. You can stuff it into tacos or spoon it over nachos. I even like it…

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Vegan Fajita Ranch Tacos

Fire up the grill! These tacos are packed with charred tofu, fajita veggies, and a zesty vegan ranch. They're a fun, simple meal for a summer night.

dinner

This post is in partnership with JewelOsco®. In the summer, I like my meals to be as simple as possible. I don’t want to waste time going from store to store in search of a special ingredient. I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen fretting over a fussy recipe. It’s just too beautiful not to be outside. The weather is warm and sunny, and I want to soak up every minute of it. To be clear – when I say simple, I don’t mean boring. While I love recipes with easy prep, I still want them to be packed…

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Pasta Primavera

This pasta primavera recipe is light, fresh, and simple to make. Packed with colorful veggies, it's the perfect easy dinner for spring or summer night.

I love to make this pasta primavera recipe after a trip to the farmers market in early summer. I come home with bags full of produce. Some contain spring veggies like asparagus and peas that will only be available for a few more weeks. Others hold summer finds like zucchini, squash, and cherry tomatoes whose season is just starting. The moment when all these spring and summer vegetables collide is so brief that I feel like I have to celebrate it. So, I cook a pot of pasta, sauté the veggies, and toss them together to make this pasta primavera…

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Grilled Tofu

Looking for an easy plant-based main dish to throw on the grill? Try this grilled tofu recipe! It's satisfying, flavorful, and simple to make.

Have you tried grilled tofu yet? If not, you have to bookmark this recipe! I’ll give you two reasons why: It’s SUPER simple. Ever made homemade veggie burgers? They’re delicious, but they can be fairly involved to make. This grilled tofu is also very tasty (see #2 below), but the prep is way simpler. Press it, season it, and toss it on the grill. It’s the easiest plant-based main dish for a summer cookout. It’s delicious! On the outside, this grilled tofu is lightly crisp and perfectly charred, while on the inside, it stays tender and juicy. Seasonings like chili powder, curry…

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Coconut Rice Stuffed Peppers

These stuffed peppers are such a fun summer meal! Filled with coconut rice, mango, and tons of fresh herbs, they're bright, vibrant, and delicious.

This post is in partnership with Lundberg Family Farms. Here’s how I make dinner in the summer: First, I open the fridge to see what produce I have. (We also have fresh herbs growing on our back deck, and I love to use those as much as possible, too.) Next, I take stock of what I have in my pantry. Sometimes, there’s a can of coconut milk or tomatoes. Often, there are legumes like chickpeas or lentils, and always, there are grains like Lundberg Family Farms rice and quinoa. I love to use Lundberg’s products because the company has a longstanding…

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Coconut Rice

Learn how to make coconut rice with 2 simple ingredients! It's rich, fragrant, and filled with buttery coconut flavor. A delicious side dish for any meal!

side dishes

In my first cookbook, I shared a recipe for Coconut Rice with Brussels Sprouts. It was an instant hit after the book came out, and it’s remained a reader-favorite recipe to this day. As much as people love Brussels sprouts, I suspect that the recipe’s popularity isn’t really because of the veggies. It’s because of the coconut rice. I mean, how could it not be? Coconut rice is rich and fragrant, with a sweet, buttery coconut flavor. It’s fantastic in bowls and as a side dish, but it tastes so good that I could eat forkful after forkful straight from…

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Olive Tapenade

This olive tapenade recipe has a delicious mix of fresh, salty, and briny flavors. Serve it with crackers or baguette for a simple summer appetizer!

appetizers / snacks & dips

A few years back, if you’d offered me olive tapenade at a party or gathering, I would have politely declined it. I’d always thought of myself as an adventurous eater, but for some reason, olives just hadn’t been for me. But recently, I’ve finally(!) started to come around to them. I like them in Greek salad and on bruschetta, and now, I even love olives in tapenade! Who knows? If you’re an olive skeptic, this recipe might win you over too. If you’re not familiar with tapenade, it’s a salty, briny olive spread that originated in the Provençe region of…

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Strawberry Margarita

This easy strawberry margarita recipe is fruity, tart, and sweet. Served on the rocks, it's such a delicious, refreshing summer treat!

What better way to kick off summer than with a strawberry margarita?! It’s fruity, it’s refreshing, and it’s SO darn fun. And despite its impressive appearance (check out that ruby red color!), it’s easy to make. Blitz up a quick strawberry puree in a blender, and add some to a cocktail shaker with 5 simple ingredients. Then, just shake and serve! I especially love this strawberry margarita recipe because it has an extra-summery twist. Instead of making it with regular simple syrup, I use simple syrup infused with basil. It brings so much freshness and depth to this already-delicious drink.…

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Tortellini Salad

Looking for a dish to pass at a picnic? This tortellini pasta salad would be perfect! It's filled with fresh veggies, basil, and a zingy Italian dressing.

What’s more fun than regular pasta salad? Tortellini pasta salad! The tortellini are chewy and cheesy, not to mention adorable, and they make this summer salad such a blast to eat. Their nooks and crannies catch the zingy Italian dressing, and their pillowy texture contrasts beautifully with the juicy cherry tomatoes and creamy white beans. If you’re looking for a fresh dish to pass at a cookout this weekend (or a yummy idea for lunch next week), this tortellini salad recipe would be perfect. Oh, and if you’re vegan or dairy-free, you can still make this recipe! We’ve tried making…

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Three Bean Salad

This 3 bean salad recipe is a fresh, fun twist on the American classic! I toss fresh green beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas in a bold, tangy dressing.

summer / side dishes

Like macaroni salad and potato salad, three bean salad takes me right back to my childhood. It was something I ate at potlucks, picnics, and even the occasional school lunch. I remember liking the sweet and tangy dressing, but the mushy canned green beans? Not so much. So, to kick off picnic salad season this year, I’ve got a new three bean salad recipe to share with you. In many ways, it’s just like the one I ate as a kid. It features dark red kidney beans and hearty garbanzos, and it’s tossed in a punchy (though considerably less sweet)…

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33 Best BBQ Sides

These BBQ sides will be the highlight of any summer cookout! They include easy, fresh, and delicious recipes for grilled veggies, salads, slaws, and more.

These BBQ sides will steal the show at any summer cookout. They range from creamy potato salad to summery slaws to herb-flecked pasta salad and smoky grilled watermelon. Even with this variety, these BBQ side dishes all have a few things in common. They’re easy to prepare, they spotlight summer produce, and they’re fresh and delicious. Make one for your next summer gathering. I promise it’ll be a hit! Our Best BBQ Sides Easy Pasta Salad If I’m tasked with preparing a side dish for a picnic or cookout, this recipe is my go-to. Packed with pasta, chickpeas, and tangy feta…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.