Pumpkin Soup

This pumpkin soup recipe is smooth, creamy, and delicious, packed with curry spices and rich pumpkin flavor. It works beautifully with fresh roasted pumpkin or canned pumpkin puree!

fall / soups

This pumpkin soup recipe is smooth, creamy, and full of rich flavor from pumpkin, coconut milk, and warming curry spices. I love to make it with fresh roasted pumpkin in the fall, which gives it an intensely sweet flavor and almost velvety texture. But when I don’t have time to roast a squash from scratch, I make this pumpkin soup with canned pumpkin instead. It works beautifully too, and the soup comes together about twice as fast. On a fall weeknight, I can’t argue with that. 🙂 Pumpkin Soup Ingredients Most of the ingredients in this pumpkin soup recipe are pantry…

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Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Creamy, cheesy, and SO delicious, this butternut squash mac and cheese is the ultimate fall comfort food. It'll be a hit with the whole family!

Butternut squash mac and cheese! If you thought the Trader Joe’s version was good, you’ll LOVE this homemade one. I adapted the recipe from my traditional macaroni and cheese. Instead of making a roux with flour and butter, I used pureed roasted squash as the base of the cheese sauce. The squash makes it insanely creamy (even creamier than classic mac!) and adds a subtle sweetness to the rich, cheesy flavor. Bonus: it sneaks in some extra nutrients too! This butternut squash mac and cheese has been a huge hit in our house. It’s comforting, delicious, and—thanks to the squash—just…

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Grilled Carrots

Carrots are one of my favorite veggies to throw on the grill! Sweet, smoky, and perfectly tender, these grilled carrots are a delicious summer side dish.

Why aren’t we all making grilled carrots more often? That’s what I asked myself after I tried this grilled carrots recipe for the first time. Because friends, it is delicious.  Carrots have a wonderful natural sweetness, which intensifies when you cook them on the grill. At the same time, they caramelize and char, creating a mouthwatering mix of sweet and smoky flavors. And texturally, they come out perfectly tender all the way through. Sorry, grilled asparagus and grilled eggplant—I’m making these grilled carrots for my next cookout. Steps to Make Grilled Carrots Like most grilled vegetables, grilled carrots are easy to…

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11 Easy Eggplant Recipes

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

summer / favorites

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 for Peak Summer

Our best tomato recipes! They include salads, pastas, gazpacho, and more delicious ways to use sweet, juicy summer tomatoes while they're in season.

summer / favorite

These fresh tomato recipes are the best way to celebrate sweet, juicy tomatoes while they’re at their peak! You’ll find classic tomato recipes like gazpacho and bruschetta, flavorful sauces and pastas, and salads so simple that they rely on little more than a fresh garden tomato and a sprinkle of salt. In the dead of winter, there’s nothing I crave more than a summer tomato—sweet, juicy, and ripe. The out-of-season grocery store 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. Right…

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Salsa Roja

Spice up your favorite Mexican dishes with this salsa roja recipe...or just eat it with tortilla chips. With its smoky flavor, it's delicious any way you try it!

Are you team salsa roja or salsa verde? I’m team…both! I adore all types of salsa made with fresh ingredients, and this salsa roja recipe is one I’ve been especially loving lately. It differs from other red salsas I’ve previously shared in two ways: I roast the fresh ingredients. Charring the tomatoes, onion, and serrano peppers adds smoky depth of flavor to this salsa recipe. I use a dried chile. It thickens the salsa, adds rich complexity, and brings out the smoky flavor even more. If you try this salsa roja, you won’t believe it’s homemade. It tastes like you could have…

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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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Elote (Grilled Mexican Street Corn)

This elote recipe is the ultimate upgrade for corn on the cob! Smothered with mayo, chile, cheese, and lime, it's creamy, tangy, smoky, and sweet.

This elote recipe is my favorite way to eat corn on the cob. I grill fresh sweet corn, then brush it with mayo and sprinkle it with cheese, chili, and lime for an easy (and absolutely delicious!) snack or side dish. Inspired by the Mexican street corn I’ve eaten at countless restaurants in Austin, it’s creamy, tangy, smoky, and sweet. Try it this summer—you won’t be able to get enough! Elote Ingredients Here’s what you’ll need to make this elote recipe: Fresh sweet corn, of course! Use the freshest corn on the cob you can find. Mayonnaise – It creates a…

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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.

summer / favorites

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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Zucchini Fritters

These easy zucchini fritters are crispy on the outside and moist and light inside. Serve them with your favorite sauce for a summer side dish or snack!

summer / appetizers

This zucchini fritters recipe is the perfect way to use up a surplus of summer squash. It turns a full pound of zucchini into beautifully light, crispy fritters that you can whip up in minutes on the stove. Scallions, garlic, and dill fill them with savory flavor, and lemon zest makes them nice and bright. We love these zucchini fritters on their own, hot off the stove, but they’re even better with a creamy sauce to jazz them up. Serve them with tartar sauce or a dollop of tzatziki for a delicious summer appetizer or side dish. Zucchini Fritters Ingredients Here’s…

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Jeanine Donofrio in her kitchen

I'm Jeanine, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and founder of Love & Lemons, a trusted recipe resource for millions of home cooks. I create fresh, easy, and delicious vegetarian recipes that celebrate seasonal ingredients and flavors.

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