White Bean Dip

You only need 4 ingredients and 5 minutes to make this creamy white bean dip! Served with pita chips and veggies, it's a delicious snack or appetizer.

If you have cannellini beans, olive oil, and a lemon in your kitchen, you’re well on your way to making this white bean dip recipe. My advice? Go for it! It comes together in seconds in the bowl of a food processor, and it’s absolutely delicious. Lemon juice and zest fill it with bright flavor, olive oil adds richness, and the white beans blend into smooth and creamy perfection. Once you have it on hand, you’ll find yourself scooping it up with carrot sticks and pita chips, slathering it onto sandwiches, dolloping it onto bowls, or (like me) eating it…

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Charred Cherry Tomatoes

Cumin seeds add a surprising spiced note to this easy blistered cherry tomatoes recipe. Serve it as a summer appetizer with lots of crusty bread!

summer / appetizers

Over the last two years, Jack and I have found that cherry tomatoes are surprisingly easy to grow. We haven’t had success with everything we’ve tried raising (this year mint has been especially tricky), but our cherry tomato plants are going pretty well. We started them from transplants, and now they’re thriving in big pots ringed in by tomato cages. As each plant grows, it produces bright yellow, bite-sized summer treats (see our little homegrown yellow variety of cherry tomatoes in this post)! As summer winds down, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’ll miss our little back deck…

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How to Make Zucchini Noodles

Learn how to make zucchini noodles in 5 different shapes! Healthy, easy & fun, they're the best way to add extra veggies to pasta salad, lasagna & more.

summer / how-to

Nowadays, spiralized zucchini noodles are easy to find at the store, but they’re so much better when freshly cut. Curly & long, they seem like a natural pasta substitute, but let me tell you – these fresh, vibrant veggie noodles can do so much more than sub in for spaghetti! I add them to soups, salads & pasta salads, and even layer them into lasagna. They may seem intimidating to make at home, but with the right tools (spoiler alert: a spiralizer isn’t always necessary!), it’s easy. Plus, making your own zucchini noodles is cheaper than buying them at the store,…

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Corn Salsa

Made with fresh veggies, cilantro, and lime, this easy corn salsa recipe is zesty, sweet, and spicy. Enjoy it with chips or on tacos, burritos, and more!

Chipotle’s corn salsa can’t compete with this homemade version! Starring fresh corn and other crisp veggies, it’s tangy, sweet, and spicy. I can’t get enough of it! I pile it on salads, burrito bowls, tacos, and more and serve it as a summer appetizer with tortilla chips. Luckily, this corn salsa recipe is easy to make. You don’t have to do any real cooking. Simply dice up the veggies, chop the corn kernels off the cob, and stir everything together. If you’re doing the math, that means that I use raw corn in this salsa. Readers often ask me about why…

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Roasted Tomatoes

Want to punch up the flavor in your next pizza or pasta? Try adding roasted tomatoes! They're deliciously chewy & tart with an irresistible umami flavor.

summer / vegetarian

Have you ever tried roasted tomatoes? If you haven’t, I’m here to tell you that you have to make this roasted tomato recipe before summer ends. While I love using juicy fresh tomatoes in recipes like pico de gallo, Caprese salad, and panzanella, roasted tomatoes transform into something totally different. As they roast, they lose moisture, and their flavor intensifies. They come out of the oven chewy & tart, with a super-concentrated, intense umami flavor. These little guys are totally irresistible! Make sure you roast a big batch – you’ll find endless ways to use them. Around here, we can’t get…

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Grilled Zucchini with Lemon Yogurt, Feta & Mint

This simple grilled zucchini recipe is an essential summer side dish! I serve the veggies over a bright, lemony yogurt with a shower of feta & mint on top.

vegetarian / side dishes

If your fridge is stuffed with zucchini but it’s too hot to make zucchini bread, crispy baked summer squash, or stuffed zucchini boats, what should you cook? Grilled zucchini, of course! A lot of the time, I grill zucchini along with a mix of other rainbow veggies, but lately, we’ve had so much of it on hand that I’ve been grilling it up on its own. Luckily for us, it’s a delicious summer side dish. While a lot of grilled zucchini recipes call for slicing the squash into thin slabs, I like to cut it into wedges. This way, the…

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Burrata with Heirloom Tomatoes

If you've never had burrata, you have to try this easy recipe! The rich cheese pairs perfectly with fresh tomatoes, peaches & a vibrant lemon-thyme oil.

summer / appetizers

Over the years, I’ve written a lot about how the best summer recipes are simple ones (see here, here, or here). Because summer fruits, veggies, and herbs are such powerhouse ingredients, it only takes a little something extra – maybe a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt – to make an insanely delicious dish. Lately, I’ve seen burrata popping up all over restaurant menus in Chicago. Because the creamy cheese is such a simple, rich accent for summer produce, I couldn’t resist making a burrata recipe of my own. The final result is one of our new favorites…

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Panzanella Salad with Peaches and Corn

This panzanella salad recipe is the ultimate showcase for late summer bounty. A tangy dressing perfectly accents fresh tomatoes, peaches & corn.

summer / salads / vegan

If I had to choose one ingredient that best represents summer, it would have to be the tomato! Everyone loves perfect bright, juicy summer tomatoes, and in my opinion, there’s no better way to celebrate them than with panzanella! This recipe has been a fan favorite (and one of our favorites) for awhile, so I thought I’d share it again now that all of these ingredients are in peak season. If you look closely, you’ll see that there are more than just tomatoes in this panzanella. I call this one my “everything summer” panzanella because I took the liberty of…

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Grilled Vegetables

Learn how to make the best grilled vegetables! Serve them as a side dish at your next cookout, or top them with a yummy sauce and call them dinner.

summer / vegetarian

Once July rolls around, we make this grilled vegetables recipe just about every week. It’s perfect for mid-late summer, when all sorts of veggies are coming into season, and it’s too hot to turn on the oven. In my opinion, peppers, summer squash, onions, mushrooms, and corn are the best vegetables to grill. Cut into similar-sized pieces and skewered, they all cook at about the same rate. And when you slide them off the skewer, you get a mouthwatering mix of textures and flavors – the mushrooms are meaty, the corn is crisp, the squash is soft, and the peppers…

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Tzatziki

This fresh tzatziki recipe will liven up any summer meal! Rich, creamy & full of fresh herbs, it's delicious on pita, grilled veggies, sandwiches, and more!

Break out the pita, it’s tzatziki time! On Monday, I posted my favorite Greek salad, and now I’m following it up with another Greek essential: this cool, refreshing cucumber tzatziki sauce. One of the best parts of summer is that dinner suddenly becomes easy. My favorite ingredients – fresh fruits and veggies – are at their peak. Tomatoes are sweeter and juicier, berries are plumper, peppers are snappier, and our backyard herbs are at their most potent. Sometimes, when I want to put these peak-season veggies front and center, making dinner just means prepping a sauce to dress them up. This tzatziki…

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Greek Salad

This easy Greek salad recipe is our new favorite summer side dish! Just 7 ingredients + a simple Greek salad dressing make it refreshing & delicious.

I love a good green salad – mixed greens, romaine, and kale are some of my favorite starting points for fresh, healthy meals. But summer is a time when all vegetables are at their peak. Sweet, juicy tomatoes, snappy bell peppers, and crisp cucumbers abound. This Greek salad recipe showcases these veggies, without any greens to get in the way. And the best past? Because the vegetables are in their prime, this Greek salad recipe is flavorful and refreshing with just a few ingredients. You only need 7 ingredients + an easy homemade Greek salad dressing to make it! It’s been a hit…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.