Homemade Tortillas

Learn how to make homemade tortillas! With this easy 5-ingredient recipe, they're soft, pliable, and flavorful - perfect for tacos and enchiladas!

When we lived in Austin, I fell in love with the homemade tortillas at Central Market. They were so fresh that when you bought them, the heat from the just-cooked tortillas would fog up the bag. It took everything I had to resist opening it up and eating one on the spot! I loved every kind of tortillas Central Market sold – flour, corn, and even multigrain – but their mitad & mitad were my favorite by far. Made with corn and wheat flour, they were the best of both worlds, with all the flexibility of flour tortillas and a…

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Homemade Pasta

Learn how to make pasta at home! This 4-ingredient homemade pasta recipe is easy to make, and it yields chewy, delicious noodles every time.

This homemade pasta recipe is our new favorite cooking project! Lately, Jack and I have been spending even more time than usual in the kitchen, experimenting with bread, baked goods, and even okonomiyaki. But we keep coming back to homemade pasta. It’s super fun to make together, and it only requires a handful of basic ingredients. Of course, the fact that it’s absolutely delicious doesn’t hurt either. 🙂 My homemade pasta recipe refers to the pasta maker attachment for the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which is how we roll out our fresh pasta at home. If you don’t have a KitchenAid,…

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How to Cook Asparagus

Learn how to cook asparagus with this 3-part guide! Blanched, grilled, raw, or roasted, it's a delicious spring side dish or fresh ingredient.

What’s your favorite method for how to cook asparagus? For me, choosing just one is impossible, because asparagus totally transforms depending on how you prepare it. When you roast it in the oven, its tips turn perfectly crisp and golden brown. When you blanch it, it comes out vibrant green and fresh, and when you grill it, it becomes wonderfully charred and juicy. Can I pick all three? Below, you’ll find my best tips on these techniques for how to cook asparagus. If you already love asparagus, I hope you also love this handy guide. If you don’t love it,…

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Broccoli Rice

Don't toss that broccoli stalk! Instead, pulse it into broccoli rice to add to burritos, bowls, stir-fries, and more. It's easy, healthy, and delicious!

Everyone’s crazy for cauliflower rice, but if you ask me, broccoli rice deserves just as much love. It’s a great way to take an entire head of broccoli – stalk and all – and turn it into something delicious. Lightly sauté it with cilantro and lime to make a grain-free base for a homemade burrito bowl, mix it with brown rice to make a zesty side dish, toss it into a stir fry, or roll it into a wrap. Really, your options are endless. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that I love to find…

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25 Easy Rice Recipes

These rice recipes include quick weeknight dinners, flavorful side dishes, and more! Easy and delicious, they show off this pantry staple at its best.

Say goodbye to boring, bland, or mushy rice! These easy rice recipes will help you make the most of this delicious grain. They include quick weeknight dinners, flavorful rice side dishes, and more. Something you might not know about me is that I really, really love rice. I always keep at least one kind in my pantry, which means that I have rice recipes on heavy rotation. Below, I’m sharing 25 of my favorites, like a 15-minute fried rice, zesty cilantro lime rice (my go-to side dish!), and a couple of comforting risottos. If you have a bag of rice…

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How to Cook Beans

Once you know how to cook dried beans, you'll always have them on hand. They're cheap, nutritious, easy to make, and - most importantly - delicious!

Canned beans are convenient, but in terms of affordability, taste, and texture, dried beans have them beat. If you’ve never cooked dried beans before, don’t let it intimidate you! My method for how to cook beans is an easy, hands-off process with a huge payoff. They come out soft and creamy, with a rich, aromatic broth surrounding them. Hot from the stove with a ladle of cooking liquid, they’re good enough to enjoy as a meal on their own! Of course, you can also use dried beans anytime you’d use canned – in bowls, soups, tacos, and more. Cook a…

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Vegan Mac and Cheese

The BEST vegan mac and cheese recipe! With a creamy, cheesy sauce made from sweet potatoes and nutritional yeast, it's just as good as the real thing.

When I’m craving comfort food, this vegan mac and cheese recipe is the first thing I make. It calls for a handful of ingredients that I almost always have on hand, it’s quick and easy, and it’s absolutely delicious. The creamy sauce is rich, luscious, and filled with nutty, tangy cheddar cheese flavor. Even Jack, who LOVES classic mac and cheese, will happily devour a bowl (or two) of this plant-based pasta any day. In the past, I’ve made dairy-free mac and cheese with coconut milk, cauliflower, or a big scoop of cashews, but this recipe is my favorite by…

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Citrus Salad with Fennel & Avocado

This citrus salad will brighten up any winter day! It's refreshing, light, and filled with flavor from fennel, fresh mint, avocado, and more.

If a tomato salad is the best part of summer, a citrus salad is surely its winter counterpart. When tender greens and bursty berries are still months away, citrus season is at its peak. Good tomatoes may be scarce, but satsumas, grapefruit, oranges, and mandarins are sweet and acidic, juicy, and vibrant. So if I’m in the mood for something fresh, light, and bright in the winter months, a citrus salad is the first thing I turn to. This recipe is my favorite citrus salad yet! It uses a mix of fruit to show off the season’s best, and it’s…

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What is Fennel? (And How to Cook It)

Welcome to fennel 101! This underrated veggie deserves a place on everyone's table. Read on to learn how to cut it, how to cook it, and more!

Everyone goes crazy for kale, but if I had my way, fennel would be all the rage too. It’s one of the most underrated vegetables, and if you’re not already cooking with it, you absolutely should be. It has a fresh, aromatic anise flavor, and it can be eaten raw, sautéed, roasted, or even added to soups and sauces. If you’ve never worked with it before, this funky-looking veggie might be intimidating from the outside, but don’t let it scare you. Once you know how to approach it, it’s easy to work with. What is fennel? Fennel is a member…

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No-Knead Bread

This no-knead bread recipe will make any novice baker look like a pro! 5 minutes of work yield a crusty, golden loaf with a perfect soft interior.

If you’re curious about bread-making, no-knead bread is a fantastic place to start. This method was made famous by Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York. It’s wildly popular, and for good reason. Unlike many bread recipes, it requires no special equipment (aside from a Dutch oven) or finicky ingredients, and it takes just a few minutes of hands-on prep. Still, thanks to a long, slow rise, the bread comes out perfect every time, with a gorgeous golden brown crust and chewy interior. I make a few tweaks to Jim’s recipe, swapping bread flour for all-purpose and…

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Steamed Bao Buns

These steamed bao buns are one of our favorite recipes to make on a date night in. I prep the filling while Jack mixes up the dough. Then, we eat!

Making these steamed bao buns is our idea of the perfect Valentine’s date. See, Jack and I enjoy going out to eat, but never on Valentine’s Day. The restaurants are more crowded, the food is more expensive, and we always end up having more fun at home. So we skip the crowds and celebrate simply, spending time together making something we both love. In years past, we’ve learned to make pasta (I make a delicious sauce while he cranks the pasta maker), homemade pizza (Jack makes the pizza dough while I prep the the toppings), or sushi (I make the…

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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.