Cucumber Gazpacho

Spice up your summer with this easy cucumber gazpacho! Made with tomatillos, cucumber, jalapeño & cilantro, it's a cool, refreshing soup.

I love gazpacho. If it’s on a restaurant menu, I’m ordering it, and once summer rolls around, I make it at home as much as I can. To date, I’ve made gazpacho recipes out of watermelon, tomatoes (raw and roasted), corn, green apples, zucchini, and even carrots. I think it’s fun to experiment with different types of fruits and vegetables to find out if they can blend up into delicious cold soups. So why did it take me so long to think about tomatillos and cucumber?! I get giddy about tomatillo salsa, so the obvious next step was to throw…

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Ultimate Crudité Platter

Move over, grocery store veggie tray - here's the ultimate crudité platter for any party! Full of sweet & savory components, it's a delicious appetizer.

spring / summer

I love a good crudité platter. I feel like they get a bad rap because the grocery store versions with the sad celery, raw cauliflower, and grubby carrots are never the most exciting appetizer at a party, but this board fixes that by being bright, fun, and delicious! It’s a yummy mix of fresh things, salty/savory bites, and even a sweet element from the delectable Tart Cherry Thyme Compound Butter. Each little recipe is made up of super simple combinations of creative ingredients that, together, make a really unique crudité platter! I brought this board to my family’s Father’s Day…

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Nori Wraps

If you love sushi but don't love rolling it at home, these easy nori wraps are for you. They taste just as good, especially with spicy mayo drizzled on top!

gluten free / vegetarian

Meal #2 this week: Nori wraps! If you missed Monday’s post, I made these Mango Black Bean Ginger Rice Bowls as part of this week’s three meal series showing how ingredients from one meal can work into the next, and then again into one more. I did a similar five part plan a few months ago, and many of you wrote to tell me how helpful it was… so here we are again! At the end of the week, I’ll recap it all with a full grocery list. For this recipe, I started with these ingredients that I had on hand…

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Mango Ginger Rice Bowl

This rice bowl is one of our go-to meals when we're craving something light. It's easy to make, and mango, ginger & basil make it wonderfully refreshing.

dinner / vegan / gluten free

Welcome to another meal planning week! About a month ago, I wrote a 5-part series that was all about my basic approach to meal planning. This was the plan: I started the week with a set amount of groceries and ideas for 5 meals, each meal utilizing the ingredients from the day before. The “plan” was not set in stone, so that my dinners would be somewhat flexible if I got a new idea mid-way through the week. If you missed that series, check it out here 🙂 After getting such a wonderful response to that series, I thought, let’s…

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Chickpea Salad Sandwich

This chickpea salad sandwich recipe is my vegan spin on a pan bagnat! Crunchy veggies, herbs, and olives fill it with bright and briny flavor.

vegan / spring / summer

Jack has kindly titled this chickpea salad sandwich a Pan Bag-Not. If you ask me, it has everything that makes a classic pan bagnat so craveable: crisp veggies, briny flavors, and soft baguette. However, it doesn’t include the traditional tuna or hard-boiled eggs. It may be completely unconventional, but it’s completely delicious (and completely vegan, too!). Chickpea Salad Sandwich Recipe Components This chickpea salad sandwich starts with my favorite plant-based “tuna” salad. It’s briny and tangy from capers, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice. Instead of mayo, I add a bit of tahini to make it rich and creamy. The chickpea sandwich…

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Spinach Hummus Wrap

This bright hummus wrap is layered with crisp fresh veggies, hemp seeds, and a light spinach hummus - perfect for packing for a healthy lunch!

vegan / lunch

This month, we have a ton of airplane travel coming up. Not to complain, but travel is one of those things where I LOVE the destination(s) but don’t love the journey… especially the food that’s available during the journey, a.k.a airport food. It’s become my habit to bring my own food on the plane, and with 12+ hours to France(!) on Friday, I’m making a tasty to-go hummus wrap. These wraps would be great for school lunch boxes as well! This recipe is inspired by the hummus wraps that I picked up at Whole Foods in Union Square when we were…

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Sweet Corn Gazpacho

The summer is great for two things - sweet corn and gazpacho. This chilled soup is easy - blend corn, tomatoes, peppers, oil, vinegar, salt, and cucumber!

summer / soups / vegan

I know, I know, I’m still going with the sweet corn... The other day, Jack was driving out to the suburbs to pick up a few things at my parent’s house and I asked him to stop at The Farm on his way home. The Farm is a little farm stand in Darien, IL where, in my opinion, the best sweet corn is grown. Growing up, my mom brought home dozens of ears of corn at a time and we’d all sit on the back stoop and shuck it. It took forever and we made a silky mess, peeling back one…

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Taco Salad with Jalapeño Ranch

What do I crave in summer? This taco salad recipe that's filled with smoky quinoa, crispy tortillas, fresh veggies, and a cool, creamy vegan ranch sauce.

summer / dinner / vegan

I’ve had this taco salad recipe planned for a while now. Every few months, I’d glance at my upcoming list of potential recipes and start salivating over the idea of summer taco salad bowls. I love summer, I love tacos, and I really really love salads, so here we go! Instead of taco meat, I mix red quinoa and black beans with lime juice, chili powder, smoked paprika, and a touch of maple syrup – all of this helps create a bit of a smoky flavor. Quick tip: keep this quinoa mix on hand in the fridge to build lunchtime taco salad bowls throughout…

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Kentucky Derby Party Recipes

spring / entertaining

As you know, the Kentucky Derby® is right around the corner (did you see last week’s Sparkling Mint Juleps?). Today I’m partnering with 14 Hands Wine to share some Derby Day party tips, recipes, and a few great wine pairings. It’s time break out your fancy hats, pour some wine and get started! First up are these colorful open-faced (crust off!) tea sandwiches. These are super easy to make if you make the spread ahead of time and assemble these just before your guests arrive. Instead of a cream cheese spread I made an herbal creamy dill spread by blending sunflower…

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Vegan Poke Bowl

This vegan poke bowl recipe swaps cubed watermelon for raw fish. Its pink color mimics the fish perfectly, and it makes these bowls refreshing & fun!

summer / vegan / gluten free

There’s a new poke bowl shop in town called Poke Poke, and we’re just a little obsessed. Jack and I have eaten there at least 2x per week since it opened. In fact, we’ve just returned from eating lunch there. We might be late to jump on the poke trend, but there’s something so crave-able about these sort of deconstructed sushi bowls. Please tell me that we’re not the only ones that get hooked on the same type of food for weeks on end? What is a poke bowl? The easiest way for me to describe a poke bowl is…

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Watermelon Gazpacho

This watermelon gazpacho recipe SO refreshing on hot summer days! The watermelon's subtle sweetness perfectly balances this cool, savory soup.

summer / soups / vegan

This watermelon gazpacho recipe is the perfect dish for hot summer days. In the past few weeks, I’ve gone from hot Austin to hot New York to hot Chicago. Now that I’m visiting my parents in Chicago’s west suburbs, I’m making this recipe as much as I can. I can’t think of anything as refreshing and hydrating as watermelon, so this cold soup really hits the spot. If it’s warm where you are, try it ASAP! And just a heads up, this recipe makes a lot of watermelon gazpacho. It gets better as it chills, so I love to keep…

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