This corn salsa recipe combines two of my favorite things in life: salsa and sweet corn! It’s crisp and zesty, sweet and spicy, and I just can’t get enough of it. Luckily, it’s really versatile, so I’ve been piling it on nearly everything – salads, bowls, tacos, burgers, and more. Of course, it’s fantastic as a dip with tortilla chips too. Most often, I make this corn salsa recipe as written, but it’s also a great one to play with. Add something creamy, like diced avocado or crumbled Cotija cheese. Bulk it up with black beans, or toss in some…

Have you ever tried roasted tomatoes? If you haven’t, I’m here to tell you that you have to make this roasted tomato recipe before summer ends. While I love using juicy fresh tomatoes in recipes like pico de gallo, Caprese salad, and panzanella, roasted tomatoes transform into something totally different. As they roast, they lose moisture, and their flavor intensifies. They come out of the oven chewy & tart, with a super-concentrated, intense umami flavor. These little guys are totally irresistible! Make sure you roast a big batch – you’ll find endless ways to use them. Around here, we can’t get…

I’ve posted a few Caprese salad recipes over the years. If you look through the recipe index, you’ll find one with strawberries, one with plums, one with a drizzle of mint pesto, and even cute little Caprese skewers with peaches! What you won’t find, though, is this: a classic Caprese salad with soft, creamy fresh mozzarella, juicy seasonal tomatoes, and a generous amount of basil leaves. It’s a salad that’s been near and dear to my heart ever since we visited the island of Capri, years ago, just after Jack proposed. It was a magical trip where we ate Caprese salads…

If your fridge is stuffed with zucchini but it’s too hot to make zucchini bread, crispy baked summer squash, or stuffed zucchini boats, what should you cook? Grilled zucchini, of course! A lot of the time, I grill zucchini along with a mix of other rainbow veggies, but lately, we’ve had so much of it on hand that I’ve been grilling it up on its own. Luckily for us, it’s a delicious summer side dish. While a lot of grilled zucchini recipes call for slicing the squash into thin slabs, I like to cut it into wedges. This way, the…

Over the years, I’ve written a lot about how the best summer recipes are simple ones (see here, here, or here). Because summer fruits, veggies, and herbs are such powerhouse ingredients, it only takes a little something extra – maybe a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt – to make an insanely delicious dish. Lately, I’ve seen burrata popping up all over restaurant menus in Chicago. Because the creamy cheese is such a simple, rich accent for summer produce, I couldn’t resist making a burrata recipe of my own. The final result is one of our new favorites…

This green harissa gourmet grilled cheese recipe is what I make when nothing but a grilled cheese will do. It has all the essentials of a good grilled cheese sandwich – crunchy, toasty bread and gooey cheese – but a handful of spinach and a slather of green harissa add an extra dimension of freshness and flavor. It’s lightly spicy and totally delicious – hands down the best grilled cheese I’ve had! The green harissa is really the star of the show here. Made with charred peppers, garlic, lemon, spices, cilantro, pepitas, and olive oil, it has a similar texture…

If I had to choose one ingredient that best represents summer, it would have to be the tomato! Everyone loves perfect bright, juicy summer tomatoes, and in my opinion, there’s no better way to celebrate them than with panzanella! This recipe has been a fan favorite (and one of our favorites) for awhile, so I thought I’d share it again now that all of these ingredients are in peak season. If you look closely, you’ll see that there are more than just tomatoes in this panzanella. I call this one my “everything summer” panzanella because I took the liberty of…

Zucchini season is upon us! For me, this time of year is always a race to enjoy summer squash in as many ways as possible. I bake it into cake, blend it into soup, toss it into pasta, layer it into lasagna, and eat it right off the grill. This year, I’m adding a new recipe to my usual rotation: stuffed zucchini! I first made these a few weeks ago for my family and even my little 2-year old nephew, who is going through a no-zucchini phase, gobbled his up. These easy stuffed zucchini boats are a simple, fresh, and…

Once July rolls around, we make this grilled vegetables recipe just about every week. It’s perfect for mid-late summer, when all sorts of veggies are coming into season, and it’s too hot to turn on the oven. In my opinion, peppers, summer squash, onions, mushrooms, and corn are the best vegetables to grill. Cut into similar-sized pieces and skewered, they all cook at about the same rate. And when you slide them off the skewer, you get a mouthwatering mix of textures and flavors – the mushrooms are meaty, the corn is crisp, the squash is soft, and the peppers…

Break out the pita, it’s tzatziki time! On Monday, I posted my favorite Greek salad, and now I’m following it up with another Greek essential: this cool, refreshing cucumber tzatziki sauce. One of the best parts of summer is that dinner suddenly becomes easy. My favorite ingredients – fresh fruits and veggies – are at their peak. Tomatoes are sweeter and juicier, berries are plumper, peppers are snappier, and our backyard herbs are at their most potent.  Sometimes, when I want to put these peak-season veggies front and center, making dinner just means prepping a sauce to dress them up. This tzatziki…

I love a good green salad – mixed greens, romaine, and kale are some of my favorite starting points for fresh, healthy meals. But summer is a time when all vegetables are at their peak. Sweet, juicy tomatoes, snappy bell peppers, and crisp cucumbers abound. This Greek salad recipe showcases these veggies, without any greens to get in the way. And the best past? Because the vegetables are in their prime, this Greek salad recipe is flavorful and refreshing with just a few ingredients. You only need 7 ingredients + an easy homemade Greek salad dressing to make it! It’s been a hit…

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