41 Healthy Lunch Ideas

If you're looking for new healthy lunch ideas, you're in the right place. These easy lunch recipes are fun, filling, and good for you, too!

Good healthy lunch ideas are like gold. In the middle of a busy work day, lunch is the longest break I take. It’s a time to reset, relax, and re-energize to tackle the tasks that lie ahead. Great healthy lunch recipes are ones that I can make ahead of time and that will keep me full and focused throughout the afternoon. But the best healthy lunch ideas taste delicious, too! They add something fun and flavorful to the middle of the work day, making my midday break extra-refreshing and worth looking forward to. Below, you’ll find my top healthy lunch ideas,…

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15 Easy Eggplant Recipes

Even eggplant skeptics will fall for these 15 tasty eggplant recipes! With tacos, pasta, salads, and more, they include something for everyone.

Of all the vegetable recipes I post, eggplant recipes are the most divisive. Early on, this surprised me, because eggplant recipes have always been some of my favorite foods to eat. As a kid, I never wanted to stop playing at dinnertime, except when my mom was making eggplant Parmesan. And when I started to explore vegetarian cooking on my own, grilled eggplant was one of the first dishes I mastered. But if I’ve learned one thing through writing Love and Lemons, it’s that not everyone likes eggplant. I’ve heard it called spongy, bitter, and bland, and to that I…

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Eggplant Salad

This eggplant salad recipe is a celebration of summer produce! It's bursting with fresh flavor from grilled eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs.

This eggplant salad recipe is what you should make after a trip to the farmers market in late summer. It features some of the best produce of the season: eggplant, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and lots of herbs. I love this recipe because it has a delicious blend of raw and cooked ingredients. I grill the eggplant and peppers so that they offer a tender, smoky contrast to the super-fresh tomatoes and herbs. A zingy lemon dressing ties the salad together, while tangy feta cheese and pickled onions take it over the top. Flavorful, refreshing, and bursting with seasonal veggies, this…

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50 Fresh Tomato Recipes

Show off your peak-season tomatoes in these fresh tomato recipes! We've got salads, soups, pasta, and more—you're bound to find something you love.

Fresh tomato recipes go on repeat in our house every summer. In the dead of winter, there’s nothing I crave more than a summer tomato—sweet, juicy, and ripe. The out-of-season supermarket ones can’t compare, so when summer rolls around, I only have a few months to make every tomato salad, sandwich, pasta, and pizza I’ve imagined throughout the year. When I made my grocery list this morning, I added cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, and tomatoes on the vine. We have lots of tomato recipes on tap this week. 🙂 I hope you’re also cooking with tomatoes like crazy right now, while…

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Fattoush Salad

Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad made with fresh veggies, herbs, and crispy pita bread. Tossed in a zesty sumac dressing, it's bright and delicious.

This fattoush salad recipe is the perfect side dish for a summer meal. A Middle Eastern staple, fattoush is fresh and bright, featuring seasonal vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and lettuce, plus a hefty dose of parsley and mint. But, as tasty as tomatoes are in August, the star ingredient in fattoush isn’t a vegetable. It’s bread! That’s right—crispy pita bread adds crunch to this salad, making it pretty darn irresistible for just about anyone. (Salad skeptics, I’m looking at you.) I hope you try this recipe. I think you’ll love it! Fattoush Salad Recipe Ingredients Here’s what you’ll need…

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30 Best Zucchini Recipes

Not sure how to use all that summer squash? These easy zucchini recipes are here to help! They include tasty ideas for dinner, dessert, and more.

It’s zucchini season! Bring on the zucchini recipes! Partway through July every summer, I start to feel like I’ve cooked all the zucchini recipes out there. I’ve made zucchini bread and zucchini fritters, grilled zucchini and baked zucchini chips. This week, I looked at my market haul of summer squash and asked, “What next?”. If you’re in a similar spot right now, I have good news: zucchini is one versatile veggie. It tastes fantastic in pastas, tacos, salads, and even chocolate cake! You can grill it, bake it, sauté it, and also eat it raw. We might feel like we’ve…

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Cucumber Salad

Featuring fresh dill, onions, and a sweet, tangy dressing, this cucumber salad recipe is a refreshing summer side dish. Bonus: it couldn't be easier!

This cucumber salad recipe is one of the simplest summer side dishes, and if you ask me, it’s also one of the best. It’s versatile. Serve it with any cookout or picnic fare. It’s flavorful. Shout out to the sweet and tangy dressing! And it’s SO refreshing. Just the thing for a hot day. It’s my take on a classic cucumber salad, complete with crisp, cooling cucumbers, red onion, and a punchy vinegar dressing. My special twist? I shower it with dill and chives for a fresh, savory kick. This cucumber salad has definite dill pickle vibes, and I am 100%…

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Cabbage Salad

Move over, coleslaw! There's a new cabbage salad recipe in town. Crunchy, colorful, and tossed in a tangy dressing, it's an easy, delicious side dish.

I can’t get enough of this cabbage salad recipe! It’s vibrant and colorful, crunchy and refreshing, made with red and green cabbage, crisp bell peppers, carrots, herbs, and toasty pepitas. But the real star of this cabbage salad recipe is the dressing. It’s a tangy, nutty vinaigrette. A couple tablespoons of peanut butter give it a lightly creamy texture, and apple cider vinegar adds amazing zip. It makes this cabbage salad so lively and unexpected. Serve it as a side dish at your next summer cookout, and everyone will ask for the recipe! Cabbage Salad Recipe Ingredients Here’s what you’ll…

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51 Best Salad Recipes

A big, bountiful salad is the best way to celebrate delicious seasonal produce! Here are 51 stunning salad recipes I love to make again and again.

Salad recipes are my favorite way to showcase vibrant, in-season produce—fruits and veggies that taste so good on their own that it doesn’t take much to make them into a delicious meal. On cold winter nights, I like to brighten up our table with a colorful mix of root veggies and hearty greens. On beautiful, warm days when I’d rather be outside than in the kitchen, summer salads are the perfect lunch or dinner: they’re simple to toss together, but they’re super flavorful nonetheless. Whether you want to add more plant-based meals to your diet or are simply looking to…

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Best Potato Salad

Learn how to make potato salad with this easy recipe! The perfect BBQ side dish, it's creamy and flavorful, made with tangy pickles, celery, and mustard.

This potato salad recipe is hands down the BEST I’ve tried. It’s creamy, it’s tangy, and it’s flecked with savory herbs, crunchy celery, and (optional, but delicious) hard-boiled eggs. I’ll be bringing it to every cookout and BBQ we attend this summer. This potato salad recipe is so tasty that I can’t get enough! It’s essentially the classic potato salad that appeared at every picnic and potluck throughout my childhood, but it has a few key twists. First, I add diced dill pickles for crunch, and I also mix a splash of pickle brine into the creamy mayo and mustard…

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Mango Salad

This mango salad recipe is about to become your favorite summer side dish! It's bright and refreshing, made with fresh herbs and a zesty lime dressing.

This mango salad recipe is everything I want in a summer side dish. It has a short list of fresh ingredients, you can toss it together in 20 minutes, and it’s sooo bright and refreshing. I love the variety of textures and flavors in this dish. The mango is sweet and slippery, and when you bite into it, it’s almost creamy. I accent it with crisp bell peppers and red onion, plus jalapeños for a kick of heat. Peanuts add crunch, and a zesty lime dressing ties the whole thing together. Generous handfuls of fresh herbs (think spicy basil and…

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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.