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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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 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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Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

These roasted balsamic Brussels sprouts have a delicious crispy texture and sweet, tangy flavor. You'll want to eat them straight off the baking sheet!

A balsamic Brussels sprouts recipe was one of our first-ever posts on Love & Lemons (10+ years ago now!), so I’ll always have a soft spot for this classic side dish. I wanted to share a new, updated version of it this fall because it’s such a good one to have in your back pocket during the holiday season. Balsamic Brussels sprouts are no harder to make than regular roasted Brussels sprouts, but the addition of the vinegar and a little honey really gives them restaurant-quality flavor. They’re sweet, tangy, caramelized, and crisp around the edges. I love to toss…

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Roasted Rainbow Carrots

Brighten up your plate with these roasted rainbow carrots! Tender, caramelized, and topped with herbs, they're a fresh, festive side dish.

This roasted rainbow carrots recipe lives up to its name. Seriously, how often do you see white, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and green all hanging out in a single dish?! Always, but especially throughout the fall and winter, I aim to add as much color to my meals as I can. These rainbow carrots make it easy! My favorite thing about this recipe (aside from all the colors) is that it uses the carrot tops as well as the carrots themselves. While the roots roast, becoming tender and caramelized in the oven, I use the tops to make a quick…

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Mashed Sweet Potatoes

No matter who you're serving, these mashed sweet potatoes are guaranteed to be a hit! They're smooth, creamy, and full of sweet and savory flavor.

If mashed sweet potatoes have never made an appearance on your dinner table, now’s the time to change that. They’re just too delicious to not have in your side dish rotation, especially in the fall. These mashed sweet potatoes have a beautifully smooth and creamy texture, and I season them with garlic, ginger, and rosemary to create a rich, warm flavor that’s part savory, part sweet. But maybe best of all, this mashed sweet potato recipe is SO easy to make! It calls for 8 ingredients, and the oven takes care of most of the work for you. It’s a…

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Homemade Buffalo Sauce

Learn how to make buffalo sauce! Rich, spicy, and tangy, this easy homemade version rivals any store-bought wing sauce I've tried.

Let’s talk buffalo sauce! This famous wing sauce is rich, tangy, and spicy. I recently tested out a homemade version for this buffalo cauliflower recipe, and I love the bold flavor so much that I’ve been using it in other ways too. As a dip for sweet potato fries or air fryer French fries, slathered on a black bean burger… If you love punchy flavors and lots of heat, then I think you’ll go nuts for this buffalo sauce recipe. But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is buffalo sauce, anyway? I’ll start by saying that it has nothing to…

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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.