Heirloom Tomato & Mango Pico

I love pico and I love mango salsa, so I’m not sure why it took so long to come up with the delicious idea to combine the two. This is probably the prettiest salsa I’ve ever made, but I also love the flavor and texture variety that each tomato brings to the table bowl. Cherry tomatoes are sweet, green tomatoes are more tart and firm. I always find myself adding a pinch of sugar to my tomato salsa for balance, but that’s not necessary this time because of the sweet juicy mango. Make a big batch, it’ll keep in your fridge for 3-4 days…

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Portobello Mushroom Tacos

Make these portobello mushroom tacos for an easy, flavorful dinner! Creamy vegan jalapeño sauce spices up the tangy, meaty mushroom filling.

These may be portobello mushroom tacos, but secretly, they’re all about the sauce. It’s a vegan riff on ranch dressing made with cashews, roasted jalapeños, and cucumber, and it’s so good that I have a hard time not eating it all with a spoon! However, resisting it long enough to top it onto these mushroom tacos is totally worth the wait. Cool, creamy, spicy, and bright, it perfectly accents the tangy, meaty grilled mushrooms and fresh garnishes in this recipe. The combination is really terrific – if you try these mushroom tacos once, they’ll have a permanent place in your…

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Eggplant and Roasted Tomato Salad

A trip to Italy inspired this delicious, 10-ingredient salad recipe. Packed with roasted tomatoes, eggplant, and basil, it's a perfect summer dish.

I keep a food journal when we travel. It’s nothing fancy, just a little book that isn’t my iPhone. There are no pictures or charming doodles… there aren’t really even sentences, just scribbles of ingredients and descriptions of what we ate and where. Some dishes, I’ll try to recreate at home, but not all of them. The chosen few that make it into my kitchen come down to a few criteria: how badly I crave something, the ability to decipher my chicken-scratch handwriting, and the availability of similar ingredients. This eggplant and tomato salad (a take-away lunch I ate one day at Roscioli) easily checked all…

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Curried Chickpea Salad Sliders

Three things I am obsessed with: chickpeas, avocado, and all things MINI… mini pizzas, mini tacos, mini pies, mini skillets. I had these cute little pretzel buns last week so that’s how this recipe started. (Although you could use any kind of bun or sliced bread for this recipe). I first thought of making little veggie burgers, but since it’s a whopping 103 degrees(!) outside, I’ve been trying to use my oven as little as possible. Plus this chickpea salad is fast, easy, and cold, which is everything I want in a summer recipe. These would be perfect for a summer picnic except, well, it’s…

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Smoky Sweet Corn Tostadas

Make this easy vegan tostada recipe for a smoky, fun & fresh summer lunch. If you have leftover hummus, store it in the fridge for a quick, healthy snack!

Happy August! I hope corn is in season where you are, because I have a pretty corny tostada recipe today. Let’s just say that I decided to go for the corn trifecta. I started by making some sweet and smoky corn hummus that is a great snack on its own. Then I slathered it onto crispy (baked) corn tortillas. Finally, I topped these with avocado and MORE grilled corn because, well, I was up to my ears in fresh summer corn, and I had to use it somehow. After spending the month of July eating pasta, I feel like a I needed a Texas re-tox.…

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Summer Squash Vegetable Pizza

Our vacation is coming to a close and while we’ve eaten well in Italy, we’ve eaten just a little too well. I’m feeling pretty ready to go home and get back to my many-vegetable way of eating. But before we go to salad town, I thought I’d share this pile-of-vegetable pizza recipe that I made before we left. Usually my opinion about pizza is “less is more,” but I had a fridge to clean out. The crust here is made with part white whole wheat flour, but if you can use all whole wheat or all all-purpose flour if you prefer. Or skip the…

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Erin’s Adobo Eggplant Quesadillas

Ciao from Italia! At the moment, our life is all about pizza, pasta and tomatoes. It’s amazing but every time I travel, the things I miss most are tacos and mexican-ish food. We made these quesadillas a few weeks ago but I could totally go for one right now! I often get questions about how to cook eggplant. My favorite and most foolproof method for non-spongy eggplant is to grill it. (If you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can use a grill pan on your stove). I grill mine simply with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon or drizzle…

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Mix & Match Mini Pizzas

If you’ve been following for long, you know that I have a slight obsession for all things that are mini. Mini skillets, mini pies, mini tacos – but my absolute favorite small food has to be mini pizzas. They’re quick and easy to make and a fun way to try lots of different toppings. These would be great for a summer party – you could even toss these little guys on the grill if you don’t want to heat up your house. The first step to your mini pizza party is mini naan – I buy Stonefire Mini Naan all the time –…

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Oyster Mushroom Po’ Boys

Breaded & baked oyster mushrooms take the place of meat in this veggie riff on a po' boy sandwich! They're fun, healthy, and downright delicious.

This blog may be mostly healthy, but I have to admit that I enjoy my share of fried foods from time to time. Fried oysters, fried shrimp – I love it all, even if it’s “sometimes food.” That is until now, because these baked oyster mushrooms are every bit as crispy, meaty, and delectable as anything fried. They’re easy to make, they’re healthy, and there’s no messy fry oil involved. I’ll just go ahead and say it – if you make one recipe this summer, make this one. These mushrooms are so delicious stuffed into a soft baguette with a slather…

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Zucchini Noodles & Lemon “Ricotta”

In a few weeks, Jack and I are headed to Rome where we will unapologetically eat gelato and pasta every day. We’ll tell ourselves we’re “walking it off,” and that “walk” will most definitely be on our way to the next meal. Until then, I’m making an effort to lighten things up. Conveniently, zucchini is in season so “zoodles” make for a fun vegetable-focused spin on regular pasta… First off – you don’t need to go out and buy a spiralizer to make these. If you’re going to invest in a gadget, I highly recommend the julienne peeler because it’s inexpensive, works great, and is small enough…

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Green Bean & Purple Potato Salad

If you’re at a picnic, do you go for the potato salad or the cole slaw? I’m a cole slaw person always – the really sweet mayonnaise-y kind. But potatoes smothered in mayo? No thanks. Why is cabbage in mayo better than potatoes in mayo? No clue. But while I don’t go for “potato salad,” I do like a potato salad. Of course, what I mean is that this is a salad… with potatoes (and green beans and yellow wax beans and some other things). Instead of mayo, it’s dressed with everything that I think goes best with potatoes: olive oil, good dijon…

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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.