Add this fresh tortellini salad recipe to your weekend menu, stat! It features cheesy spinach tortellini tossed in my all-time favorite green goddess dressing, layered with lemony fresh greens and seasoned spring or summer vegetables.

This pasta dish manages to be light yet hearty at the same time, which is a real feat. It’s quick to make, but looks impressive. It’s versatile, too—you’ll see quite a few vegetable options below. Choose raw vegetables for the simplest preparation, as I did for these photos, or incorporate some quickly blanched vegetables, like asparagus, to expand your options.

My healthy homemade green goddess dressing comes together quickly in the blender or food processor. I suggest doubling the ingredients so you can serve the extra as a veggie dip or refrigerate it for upcoming green salads. It’s really delightful to have on hand.

Choose spinach tortellini over basic cheese tortellini to incorporate even more greens. I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. This vegetarian pasta salad is a real crowd pleaser!

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It’s ratatouille season! Ratatouille is a classic end-of-summer French stew that’s fun to say (rat-tuh-TOO-ee) and fun to make. It’s packed with fresh produce: tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, and bell pepper.

This summer, we sampled authentic French ratatouille in Provence. I liked some ratatouille more than others, so I vowed to come up with my own favorite ratatouille recipe when I came home. Today is the day!

In Provence, ratatouille is typically cooked on the stove. Each vegetable is cooked in olive oil until it’s properly tender. In the end, all of the ingredients are combined and simmered to meld the flavors.

The French know how to cook, and this concept is definitely one to follow. Ratatouille combines a large volume of late-summer vegetables that have different cook times. If you tried to throw them all into a pot at once, none of the veggies would have a chance to caramelize, the eggplant would fall apart by the time the zucchini is tender, and your ratatouille would probably never meet its full potential.

This recipe is a little different. We’re going to roast the vegetables until they’re deliciously caramelized on the edges and a little dehydrated (no squeaky or mushy zucchini here). Then, we’ll add those perfectly roasted veggies to a simmering fresh tomato sauce.

This method yields amazing ratatouille. My husband says it’s the best he’s ever had. It’s also easier to make than proper stovetop ratatouille, since it requires less time standing over the stove. Hooray!

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Meet my favorite couscous salad, featuring Israeli couscous and colorful summertime produce. This Mediterranean-style salad is light, refreshing, and overflowing with colorful rounds of thinly sliced raw zucchini and yellow squash. That’s right, raw squash! It’s so good.

This salad is a simple, light summer dish full of vegetables, whole grains, chickpeas and feta. I came up with this recipe six years ago for Free People’s blog, and it’s become one of my mom’s go-to potluck dishes. So, I thought I’d update it to meet my current standards.

This salad is just the kind of meal I’m craving during this hot summer weather, and it would be perfect for your Fourth of July parties. If you’re looking for more Independence Day recipes, I’ve got you covered. I’ve listed a few of my other favorite salads below, too!

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We’ve been living in a winter wonderland lately. We’ve gotten so much snow that my dog, Cookie, can barely keep her head above it when we go outside (she’s smaller than you think). I’m thankful to have electricity and gearing up for more winter weather this weekend.

This hearty soup is exactly what I need. It’s brimming with fresh veggies and warms me right up. Soup to the rescue!

This homemade vegetable soup with quinoa is light but filling and packs great for lunch. Like most soups, it tastes even better the next day. Bonus? It freezes well, too. I love keeping my freezer stocked with hearty soups and defrosting one whenever I need a quick but nutritious meal.

This soup is vegan unless you want to top it with Parmesan cheese, which isn’t a bad idea if you ask me. The ingredients list, while a little on the long side, includes mostly pantry items. Every single one of them is nutritious!

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Finally! It’s about time this blog offered a traditional minestrone soup recipe. Minestrone is a hearty Italian vegetable soup made with tomato-y broth and pasta or rice. I’ve been working hard on this recipe and I’m so excited to share it with you.

Minestrone was traditionally made to use up leftover vegetables, so feel free to use any seasonal vegetables and greens you have on hand. I used potatoes and spinach for the soup you see here, and it was absolutely delicious.

I listed some alternatives in the recipe, including yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans or peas. That means that you can make seasonal minestrone on cool days from fall through spring!

I used canned beans here instead of cooking my own, which cuts the cooking time down to a reasonable weeknight level. The remaining ingredients are basic pantry items, including canned tomatoes, pasta, basic spices and onions.

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Are you struggling this morning? Me, too. I caught up with family and friends in Oklahoma this weekend, over campfires and Mexican food and deep-dish pizza. It’s been glorious and I’m struggling to get back into work mode. Only have three and a half more days until next weekend!

I made this light but creamy pasta dish before I left town, and I might just make it again when I get back. It’s simple to make, plus it’s loaded with veggies and tastes much more indulgent than it really is. Burst cherry tomato juices, a little bit of butter and goat cheese, and reserved pasta cooking water form the most delicious of sauces.

That pasta cooking water is magical, so don’t forget to save some before you drain the pasta. It’s full of starch, which lends a fat-free creaminess to the pasta sauce, and helps the sauce stick to the pasta instead of just running off into your bowl.

We cooked the pasta in a relatively small pot, which meant that we got super concentrated cooking water, which I actually recommend. If Serious Eats says it’s ok, then I can, too, right?! (If you really want to geek out with me, check out “Does Adding Pasta Water Really Make a Difference?,” too. Let’s discuss!)

Watch How to Make Creamy Cherry Tomato & Summer Squash Pasta

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Anna Watson Carl did it all when she self-published her lovely cookbook, The Yellow Table: A Celebration of Everyday Gatherings, which is the source of this salad recipe. She documented the process on her blog, which is also called The Yellow Table.

Today, I’m tipping my hat to Anna and sharing this incredible quinoa salad from her book. It’s simple and fresh and just perfect for late summer. She combined ratatouille vegetables with quinoa and Mediterranean flavors. Leftovers are so good, I just ate them for breakfast!

When I was young, my mom published a few travel books about Oklahoma. This was back before you could even Google, “How to self-publish a book,” and find answers. She made those books happen, though, and I got to sit shotgun on our way to book signings. Back then, all I wanted to do was read, so I’d get lost in the children’s section while she sold and signed books.

I know how much goes into self publishing—writing a book is a feat in itself, so to take on the printing, distribution and marketing as well is a major accomplishment. Huge, really. Congrats, Anna, and thank you for this delicious recipe.

Watch How to Make Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Roasted Summer Vegetables

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Shortly after arriving at college, I decided to study abroad. It was one of those rare and beautiful decisions that seem to make themselves. I had studied French for several years in high school, so I would go to France, of course.

Just a couple of weeks after turning twenty-one, I boarded a plane to Paris with two other girls, wide-eyed and ready for adventure. I hardly remember packing for the trip, but I clearly recall the combined thrill of confusion, exhaustion and embarrassment that followed upon landing on a foreign continent.

Somehow, we found our way from Paris to Bordeaux, first via train, then tram. Along the way, we heaved our luggage up long flights of stairs and squeezed them into our travel compartments. Our final test was pulling our belongings behind us across an endless gravel parking lot to our dilapidated dorm buildings. Given the option to either laugh or cry, I found myself giggling like a maniac as my wrists went numb from the vibrations and my arms threatened to fall clean off.

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Not long ago, while Cookie and I were out walking, I watched an older lady cross paths with another woman and her dog. I realized that the women were strangers. Dogs have a way of bringing people together, you know? As we walked up, my gray-haired neighbor was asking permission to pet the big, slobbery mastiff. Then came the usual, “What kind of dog is that?” question.

Three single women, two dogs, one neighborhood intersection on a warm summer evening. We all started swapping laughs and sighs about our pups’ peculiarities as Cookie wiggle-waggled over to the older lady. She fawned over Cookie and admitted that she recently lost her 15-year-old collie. We expressed our condolences. The other woman mentioned her current mastiff’s beloved predecessor and suggested, “Why don’t you get another?” The older lady confessed that it was too much, too hard to lose an ever-present companion, that it’s just the worst. My heart broke for her. I get it. Maybe you get it, too. It is terrifying to love another being so much.

Cookie hopped the fence on Wednesday afternoon. I let her come outside with me while I was talking to my friend on the phone. I watched in horror as she made one impressive, graceful, vertical leap over the chain-link fence to pursue a bunny.

Ten, fifteen, I don’t know how many minutes passed while I was frantically shrieking her name out the car windows and flagging down neighbors. Finally, my phone rang. Cookie was safe at the bank, of all places. Whether for safety or cash for the road, Cookie had run inside the bank. Her new friends were feeding her treats in the conference room when I got there.

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Pizza is a highly personal affair, isn’t it? Seems like everyone has strong opinions about the subject. New York style vs. Chicago, veggies vs. meat, thick vs. thin crust, classic mozzarella vs. the fancier stuff… We could debate over pizza all night, especially if there’s an ample supply of wine to fuel the discussion.

Most pizza is pretty good, if you ask me. While my friend from New York vehemently argues that New York-style pizza is tops, I have a more ambiguous, middle-of-the-country view of pizza. My favorite is a tie between brick oven and well done, classic American pizza. The only kind that I vehemently dislike is St. Louis’ mushy Provel cheese pizzas. Real cheese or bust!

I haven’t quite perfected my at-home pizza technique, but I’m getting there. I enjoy my super simple 100% whole wheat pizza dough, but it’s still not the same as those brick oven-baked, stretchy sourdough crusts. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to manage sourdough starters… then again, there’s always take-out.

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