Kale Caesar Salad

This kale Caesar salad features tender greens, garlic croutons, and a creamy homemade dressing. Serve it as a flavor-packed side or a meal all on its own.

If you think a traditional Caesar salad is good, wait until you try this kale Caesar salad! It features everything you love about a classic Caesar. It has crisp romaine, garlicky croutons, a creamy, savory dressing, and Parmesan cheese, but I throw leafy green kale into the mix too. The dark, curly leaves make the salad feel lush and abundant. Plus, once they’re massaged with olive oil and a little salt, they take on a tender texture that contrasts beautifully with the crunchy lettuce. This kale Caesar salad recipe would be a perfect side dish for any meal this season…

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Vegan Caesar Dressing

This 5-minute vegan Caesar dressing is just as good as the classic kind! Cashews make it creamy, and capers add delicious tangy, briny flavor.

You don’t need raw eggs, anchovies, or even Parmesan cheese to make a great Caesar dressing, and this vegan Caesar dressing recipe is here to prove it! I love this recipe because it delivers all the creamy, tangy, briny qualities you crave in a classic Caesar dressing, but it’s super simple to make at home. Grab the short list of ingredients and toss them in a blender, and this delicious dressing will be ready in under 5 minutes. Vegan Caesar Dressing Recipe Ingredients To make this vegan Caesar dressing recipe, you’ll need these simple ingredients: Raw cashews – They create…

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Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This 30-minute broccoli cheddar soup recipe is the ULTIMATE comfort food! It's rich, creamy, super cheesy, and loaded with tender veggies.

Broccoli cheddar soup is one of Jack’s favorite foods. Ask him about the version at Panera Bread, and he’ll go on and on about its creamy texture and rich, tangy, cheesy flavor. He never expected me to develop a broccoli cheddar soup recipe at home (unless you count this vegan twist), but with the holidays right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to surprise him with one. So, on a gray, chilly day last weekend, when we were both craving comfort food, I finally made him this broccoli cheddar soup recipe. As we sat down with our…

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Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut butter blossoms will make all your chocolatey, peanut-y Christmas dreams come true! These classic cookies are delicious and easy to make.

Who else loves peanut butter blossoms?! If I see these festive treats on a cookie plate around the holidays, I reach for one right away. I think they’re kind of genius. Peanut butter cookies are great on their own. So are chocolate kisses. But together, this pair is completely irresistible. I love how the rich chocolate candy melds into the soft, sugar-crusted cookie. And I mean, nothing bad ever happens when peanut butter and chocolate team up. It’s no wonder that peanut butter blossoms are a Christmas classic. If you’re planning to make a batch this holiday season, check out…

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Snickerdoodle Cookies

The BEST snickerdoodle recipe! These easy cookies are crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle, and filled with sweet cinnamon flavor.

I’m kicking off cookie season with a new snickerdoodle recipe! It yields snickerdoodles just the way I like them. These classic cookies are crisp around the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. They’re lightly sweet and warmly spiced with cinnamon, and they have a subtle tangy flavor that I find completely irresistible. Taste aside, I also love this snickerdoodle recipe because it’s so simple to make. You can mix up the dough, bake the cookies, and have them ready to eat in under 30 minutes, no chilling required! It’s a great recipe to make throughout the holiday season…

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Sautéed Green Beans

This sautéed green beans recipe is a delicious, quick, and easy veggie side dish! Lemon juice, garlic, and fresh thyme fill it with bright, zingy flavor.

If you need a last-minute side dish for the holiday, this sautéed green beans recipe would be perfect. It calls for under 10 ingredients and cooks in under 10 minutes (bonus: no oven required!), so you can whip it up right before you eat. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. This sautéed green beans recipe might be easy to make, but it’s still bursting with flavor. I sauté fresh green beans until they’re crisp-tender and vibrant green. Then, I toss them with a zingy lemon-Dijon dressing. It gives the beans a bright, garlicky bite, making them so delicious that…

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Wild Rice Pilaf

This wild rice pilaf is flecked with shaved Brussels sprouts, herbs, and roasted vegetables. It's a fresh, festive side dish for the holidays or any meal.

This wild rice pilaf is a simple combination of some of my favorite fall ingredients. It starts with chewy, nutty wild rice. Then, I add caramelized roasted sweet potatoes and umami shallots. I toss in some shaved Brussels sprouts, which wilt against the heat of the freshly cooked rice and roasted veggies, and I finish it with dried cranberries, toasted pecans, and lots of thyme and parsley. I love eating this wild rice pilaf for lunch in the fall, the wild rice and roasted sweet potatoes making it hearty enough to be a satisfying meal on its own. But this…

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How to Cook Wild Rice

Learn how to cook wild rice on the stovetop! With its chewy texture and nutty flavor, this whole grain is delicious in salads, side dishes, and more.

Wild rice is one of my favorite whole grains to cook in the fall. Its chewy texture and nutty flavor make it a perfect partner for seasonal produce like sweet roasted squash and earthy root veggies. Because I’ve found myself preparing it a lot lately, I thought I’d take today’s post to give you some background on it. I’m also sharing a foolproof stovetop cooking method and some of my favorite wild rice recipes. What is wild rice? You might think, given its name, that this whole grain is a relative of the white or brown rice you’d find alongside…

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Roasted Root Vegetables

This roasted root vegetables recipe is so delicious that you'll want seconds! Fresh herbs and a fragrant sage oil pack the veggies with rich, earthy flavor.

This oven roasted root vegetables recipe elevates humble carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, and beets into a holiday-worthy side dish. I know these unassuming vegetables might not be the first ones you reach for at the farmers market or grocery store, but there are so many reasons to cook them. They’re nutritious and affordable. They’re colorful, and–best of all–they’re delicious. In this roasted root vegetables recipe, I chop them into big chunks and toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lots of fresh herbs. Then, I roast them until they’re tender and caramelized. When they come out of the…

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Apple Pie Recipe

In this easy apple pie recipe, tender, cinnamon-spiced apples fill a flaky, buttery crust. Top it with vanilla ice cream for a mouthwatering fall dessert!

What do you look for in an apple pie recipe? A few years ago, the first time I volunteered to make a homemade apple pie for my family’s Thanksgiving, I scoured the internet in search of the perfect one. I wanted the filling to be juicy, but not so juicy that the pie wouldn’t slice. I wanted it to be warmly spiced with cinnamon and spiked with lemon for bright, tart flavor. The best apple pie recipe would yield slices thick enough to stand up to a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, and it would have a flaky, buttery, easy-to-make…

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Apple Pie Filling

Learn how to make apple pie filling from scratch! Sweet, tart, juicy, and warmly spiced, it's delicious in pies and on ice cream, pancakes, and more.

Once I started making this apple pie filling recipe, I knew I’d never fill an apple pie any other way. The apples come out with the perfect texture–tender, but not mushy–and they’re dripping with syrupy, cinnamon-spiced juices. If you’re making an apple pie this fall, I can’t recommend this filling highly enough. But even if you’re not making a pie, I still hope you’ll try this recipe. This homemade apple pie filling doesn’t need to hide inside a flaky, buttery crust to be a delicious treat. The soft, sweet-tart apples are fantastic on ice cream or yogurt, stirred into oatmeal, or…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.