Easy Peanut Sauce

Try this easy peanut sauce recipe once, and you'll want to have it on hand at all times. It's perfect for jazzing up noodles, salads, bowls, and more!

Does anyone else absolutely love peanut sauce? Creamy, spicy, savory, and a little sweet, it’s a sauce that I’m equally happy drizzling over dinner or enjoying straight off a spoon. I can’t get enough! This peanut sauce recipe the first thing I turn to whenever I want to jazz up a simple stir fry, bowl, or salad at home. It’s super easy to make, and it calls for basic pantry ingredients that you likely already have on hand (no fish sauce here!). Peanut butter gives it creamy texture, rice vinegar or lime juice makes it nice and tangy, tamari or…

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Peanut Summer Rolls

Fresh veggies, herbs, and peanut noodles pack these summer rolls with bright, refreshing flavors. They're a delicious appetizer or light lunch!

Summer rolls are my favorite thing to make when I’m craving something light and healthy, but totally fun. I love stuffing rice paper wrappers with lots of fresh produce, mixing together a flavorful dipping sauce, and digging in! In this recipe, I toss noodles with an easy, sweet and savory peanut sauce made of peanut butter, sriracha, tamari, and a drop of maple syrup. Then, I roll the noodles into wrappers with avocado, sautéed mushrooms, green onion, and fresh basil and mint. How to Make Summer Rolls If you’ve never made fresh rolls like these before, it may seem intimidating,…

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Avocado Toast

Love avocado toast? Learn how to take it to the next level with this simple recipe (+5 amazing variations!) and my best tips and tricks!

When avocado toast came onto the scene years ago, lots of people wrote it off as a trend. But as someone who still eats it for breakfast or lunch a few times a week, I have to say that I think avocado toast is here to stay! It’s super easy to make, it’s healthy and satisfying, and it’s a blank canvas for flavorful seasonal toppings. What’s not to love? Below, you’ll find my basic avocado toast recipe along with 5 fun & fancy variations. Whether you toss them together for breakfast, enjoy them for lunch, or make them for a…

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How to Make Cauliflower Rice

Learn how to make cauliflower rice with this easy recipe! It's a yummy, low-carb substitute for regular rice in bowls, stir fries, burritos, and more.

Cauliflower rice! It’s seems like it’s everywhere and in everything, so I thought I would take a few minutes to “dive deep” on this phenomenon, especially because I keep using it, and now I can just link to this post in future recipes 🙂 So what is it? It’s simply cauliflower pulsed in a food processor until it forms into granules that are about the size of rice. Is it as good as rice? Not on its own, but it’s a great starting point health-wise and texture-wise. When it’s seasoned well and used in a recipe with other great flavors…

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Creamy Potato Soup

We can't get enough of this easy potato soup recipe. Filled with good-for-you ingredients, it's ultra creamy and comforting, but it's nourishing, too!

We’re obsessed with this potato soup recipe! It’s luscious, creamy, and filled with bold, smoky, tangy flavor. If you have any leftovers, it tastes even better on the second day, but in our house, a pot of this soup never lasts long. In my book, this soup is perfect for the holiday season. The weather outside is frightful, so comfort food is what I’m craving. But in between all the cookies and holiday appetizers, I want to sneak in as many healthy meals as I can. That’s where this potato soup recipe comes in. Creamy and flavorful, it’ll satisfy any…

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Pomegranate Rice Salad

This rice salad recipe will brighten up any fall or winter meal! Studded with pomegranates, pistachios, and herbs, it's a stunning, fresh holiday side dish.

How pretty is this rice salad? If you’re looking for an easy holiday side dish that doesn’t skimp on flavor, this recipe is just the thing for you. It’s simple, you can prep it ahead of time, and it’s richly flavorful. A spiced citrus dressing coats the hearty rice, nuts add crunch, and herbs give it fresh, aromatic flavor. Last but not least, a sprinkle of pomegranate arils takes it over the top! Today, we’re partnering with POM Wonderful because Jack and I love pomegranates! He likes to snack on them and I like to use them in salads, dips,…

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How to Cook Couscous

Learn how to cook couscous! Toss this tiny pasta with herbs and lemon to make a simple side dish, or try one of the couscous recipes suggested below.

If you open up my pantry, you’ll almost always find a box of couscous inside. I love keeping this quick-cooking starch on hand, as it’s an easy side dish that pairs well with all kinds of meals. Because I’m such a big couscous fan, I thought I’d dedicate today’s post to discussing what it is and how to cook it. And of course, I’ll share some of my favorite couscous recipes! First, what is couscous? Couscous might seem like grain, but it’s actually a type of pasta. First made by the Berber people of North Africa, it’s made from rolled,…

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Vegan Stuffing

This vegan stuffing recipe is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish! Onions, celery, and sautéed mushrooms fill it with delicious savory flavor.

This vegan stuffing recipe is a plant-based version of my mom’s classic stuffing recipe. Her stuffing has been my favorite part of Thanksgiving ever since I was a kid. She never makes it from a box, but uses fresh bread, lots of butter, onions, and celery instead. It’s richly flavorful, soft in the middle, and crisp on top, and it’s always the first dish I reach for at Thanksgiving dinner. In this vegan stuffing recipe, I keep the celery, onions, and crusty bread, but I use a generous amount of olive oil instead of butter, which adds robust flavor. Then,…

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Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Made with Yukon gold potatoes and lots of roasted garlic, these garlic mashed potatoes are creamy, rich, and flavorful. An easy, delicious side dish!

The first time I made these garlic mashed potatoes, I didn’t know what my husband Jack would think of them. See, Jack grew up eating his Uncle Billy’s mashed potatoes, and he still reminisces about them. They were creamy, fluffy, and rich with (lots of) melted butter and (lots of) sour cream.  These garlic mashed potatoes aren’t exactly like Uncle Billy’s. Instead of dairy, olive oil and starchy potato cooking water give them an amazing creamy texture, and roasted garlic fills them with rich, nutty depth of flavor. When I tried them, I thought they were delicious, but Jack’s opinion would…

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Creamed Spinach

This creamed spinach recipe is a perfect easy side dish for holidays and weeknights alike. It's fresh, delicious, and ready in 15 minutes!

Creamed spinach is a classic steakhouse side dish, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t be making it at home. My recipe comes together in 15 minutes, and it delivers rich flavor with just a few basic ingredients! I used Jack’s mom’s creamed spinach as a starting point for this recipe. She made it for Thanksgiving every year when Jack was growing up, and he still raves about it. In developing this recipe, I wanted to capture the luxurious flavor and silky texture of her creamed spinach while putting the fresh greens front and center. Many creamed spinach recipes use frozen…

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How to Cook Tofu

Silken or extra-firm? To press or not to press? This easy baked tofu recipe + my best tips and tricks will teach you how to cook tofu like a pro!

Everyone has an opinion on tofu, and here’s mine: I absolutely love it…when it’s prepared the right way. If you’ve never worked with it before, cooking tofu can be daunting. But once you learn a little about it, it couldn’t be easier to prepare tofu well. Below, you’ll find my best tips and tricks for how to cook tofu like a pro, plus my go-to sriracha baked tofu recipe! What is tofu, anyway? Tofu is a soy-based food that’s made from curdling soy milk and forming it into a solid block. It’s a good source of plant-based protein that can…

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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.