Buckwheat, Apple, Cranberry Avocado Salad

A healthy, hearty, lemon-ey salad from the cookbook Blissful Basil. Vegan and gluten free.

Oh hi – long time no post. Last week, I was a bit sick and down for the count, to say the least. This week, I’m on a healing bender. I have my blender working overtime with crazy green smoothies made with ginger, turmeric and every herb that I’ve read about that contains immune-building qualities. I’m trying to eat lighter and brighter as well because I really do believe that plants can heal. Which brings me to this recipe from Blissful Basil, a cookbook that couldn’t have arrived at a better time. If you don’t follow Ashley’s blog of the same name, you…

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Carrot Soup + our Amazon Echo recipe skill

Check out our new Love & Lemons Amazon Echo Recipe skill where you can search and cook recipes while Alexa reads the ingredients and instructions OUT LOUD. It's really handy because it'll keep your phone screen from getting messy while you're trying to cook!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! Christmas came a little early for us – a few months ago “Santa Amazon” sent us an Amazon Echo and my techy husband Jack could not have been more excited. While he was playing around with its features, he decided that it would be neat if it could read our recipes aloud. So he got to work and here it is: a Love & Lemons skill where you can search and cook our recipes while Alexa reads the ingredients and instructions OUT LOUD. It’s really handy because it’ll keep your phone screen from getting messy while…

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Brussels Sprout Salad Avocado Toast

This smashed avocado toast is topped with a tangy Brussels Sprouts salad. Great for breakfast, a snack, or to serve to family.

There’s a shaved Brussels sprout salad in our Cookbook (page 68) that’s one of my go-to salads in the fall and/or winter. It has a tangy citrusy dressing and it’s tossed with cranberries and pine nuts. A few weeks ago while I was planning to make that salad for Thanksgiving, I saw a sprout and ricotta toast recipe on Epicurious and got the idea that my favorite little salad would make a bright festive appetizer. Instead of using ricotta cheese to hold the filling onto the toast I used smashed avocado – because I can never resist yet another seasonal avocado toast. This…

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Apple Sage Grilled Cheese

A fancy fall grilled cheese that's sweet and savory. Delicious for a quick weeknight dinner.

Of course you don’t need a recipe for grilled cheese, but I just HAVE to share this simple combo because it’s so so delicious. This is the sort of thing that I love to make when I don’t feel like spending time in the kitchen but I also don’t feel like leaving the house. Sweet, soft apples, savory sage, red onion, and a good slather of grainy mustard – all between melty cheese (or vegan cheese) and bread. I think this might be my favorite sandwich assembly to date, I just love the sweet and salty mix. Make these with a…

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Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Topped with a sweet and savory rosemary cashew cream and a lemony broccoli salad, these twice baked sweet potatoes are totally irresistible.

These twice baked sweet potatoes are a complete departure from the sweet potatoes I ate growing up. Then, I only had them once a year at Thanksgiving, where they were layered into a casserole loaded with mini marshmallows. For years, I thought I didn’t like sweet potatoes. It turns out, that casserole was just too sweet for me! I actually love sweet potatoes, but not when they’re loaded with brown sugar and marshmallows. These twice baked sweet potatoes are a perfect balance of sweet and savory. They take the potatoes’ natural sweetness and offset it with cozy, bright, and tangy flavors.…

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Red Curry Kuri Squash Soup

This creamy curried squash soup comes together in two easy steps: roast & blend! Made with coconut milk and plenty of veggies, it's totally vegan.

I had this red kuri squash sitting on my countertop for the longest time. I didn’t really know what to do with it until I picked up some lemongrass from the market and then it hit me – Red Curry Kuri soup! They say “what grows together goes together.” Well in this case, what rhymes together… also works. If you can’t find a red kuri squash, you could sub in kabocha squash or butternut squash. If you can’t find lemongrass, use a bit of lime zest here instead. The rest is pretty straight forward and simple – plus this is…

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Vegetarian Thanksgiving Sides

Thanksgiving is next week! I can hardly believe it, every year it seems to come around quicker and quicker. Here on the blog, I usually post a full menu of non-turkey day options as if I’m going to be cooking up the big holiday meal myself. In reality, Jack and I will be going to someone else’s house and I’ll likely bring the salad. So this year I thought I’d cut to the chase and post some of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. Because let’s be real, the sides are really the star of the show anyway. pictured above: Vegan Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Simple Lemon Green Beans / Kale & Shiitake…

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Quinoa Salad Stuffed Acorn Squash

Quinoa Salad Stuffed Acorn Squash is a healthy vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish.

Ok, so if you really know your vegetables, you’ll notice that those guys in front are actually Jester Squash and not Acorn Squash. Technicalities aside, they work just as well for roasting and stuffing. Something I really love about my local Farmhouse Delivery is that vegetable varieties show up that even I – the girl that literally wrote a book about vegetables – have to occasionally Google. This recipe is comfort food on the lighter side. Sometimes fall foods make me feel just so darn full, so what I did to avoid a near-food coma situation was stuff the squashes with a light & bright quinoa salad. Serve…

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Brussels Sprouts with Farro & Pomegranate

Roasted Brussels sprouts with balsamic and maple star in this delicious autumn recipe. Serve it as a side dish, or enjoy it as a light meal on its own!

This balsamic Brussels sprouts recipe is an updated spin on one of our first-ever blog posts. In that recipe, I roasted the sprouts with a combination of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup. As a result, they became sweet and caramelized, with a great tang from the balsamic vinegar. This balsamic Brussels sprouts recipe starts in the same way, except that I roast the sprouts with onions. Then, when the veggies come out of the oven, I toss them with nutty farro to make a more substantial side dish. The combination of the oven roasted Brussels sprouts with balsamic, the roasted onions,…

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White Bean Tomato Mushroom Soup

Last month, I came home from chilly, rainy Chicago with a sore throat, a cold, and a mad craving for soup. I’ve been trying all kinds of new soup recipes since then, but this one really hit the spot. It’s made with hearty cannelini beans, butternut squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, and a little kale wilted in at the end. It’s the perfect “cozy up on the sofa and start a new TV show” (we just started Stranger Things) kind of soup. Also, the leftovers are great reheated for lunch the next day. This post is in partnership with Randalls and Albertsons for their O…

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Farro Fried Rice with Brussels Sprouts

Have a leftover grain in your fridge? Then you've come to the right place. We love this easy fried "rice" made with Brussels sprouts & leeks.

If you caught Friday’s post, then you’ve already seen the shorthand version of this recipe. I love this one because it’s an easy go-to “use what you have in your fridge” sort of thing. Especially if what you have in your fridge right now is leftover farro. If you don’t have cooked farro in your fridge at this moment, I suggest making this hearty salad tonight, and this fried “rice” recipe tomorrow. You’ll be halfway there. Of course, you can just make this with brown rice or white rice or whatever you have. I thought farro was a fun alternative because I just love those…

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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.