Welcome to Let’s Go Tomato, the place for satisfying plant-based recipes. Whether you are just getting into cooking, looking for new recipe inspirations, or are curious about how to make a plant-based diet delicious, there is something here for everybody! So, thanks for swinging by, and enjoy!
Who is behind Let’s Go Tomato?
Petr, Ivo and Tanja with some freshly grown mint, woodruff and basil.
Since I (Ivo) started this blog a couple of years ago, it turned into a family project. My parents were my first cooking inspirations and taught me the importance of good food. My mum always used to cook for me. We turned vegan at the same time, and my dad is a professional photographer, so there is a lot of creativity in the house! My grandparents grow a lot of fruit and herbs in their graden so they are indirectly involved in this blog as well! 😊
A little Backstory to this Blog:
We are from Germany, and this journey began a couple of years ago when I moved out from home to study in a different country. Soon, I started missing the good food my parents used to cook and that I needed to help myself if I wanted to maintain my standard of living. So, I got into cooking, which quickly became a hobby, and soon a meditation to end the busy day. I have been eating plant-based for over seven years now.
This dietary choice led me to experiment with new dishes and ingredients, figuring out ways to make my delicious creations or spins on traditional recipes in a vegan fashion. Aside from cooking and eating, I am big into sports, fitness, and health. And a good diet plays a crucial role in all of that. I got to appreciate knowing how to supply my body with what it needs, which is way harder when eating highly processed, sugar and fat-loaded convenience food, or even out all the time. Also, it saves so much money! Once you develop some skills, it’s more fun and tastes better, too. So, lots of upsides here!
My biggest strength is exploring new recipes and not minding to mess up a lot. Even though that led to numerous frustrations at the start of my cooking journey, it also gave me a steep learning curve. So, don’t be shy when getting started! Nobody is born a cook, and you only learn through practice.
As many friends of mine seemed to enjoy my dishes, I wanted to share them through Let’s Go Tomato. After getting good feedback and noticing how much fun it is to run this blog, I thought it would be cool to include my parents in this project. My mum is a better baker and a very creative cook, so this brings a delicious new angle to this blog. We also turned vegan at the same time, so she knows as much about the plant-based diet as I do. My dad takes better pictures and videos than I ever could. The blog grew a lot in quality by having them on board! And as they were my first cooking inspiration and taught me about good food, this is full circle and super cool to work on this project together!
My Inspiration to start Let’s Go Tomato:
As a student, I realized how many people don’t cook any fresh food, which was kind of shocking to me. Knowing how much quality of life I get through cooking and eating well, I want to make cooking and a healthy diet more accessible with easy-to-follow recipes on this blog.
I am not a trained cook and have no professional experience in the kitchen. I’m just a guy who loves eating quality food, cooking for others, sharing and experiencing food together, and discovering new recipes. And the same goes for my parents. This blog is about home-cooked food.
This blog is a way for us to keep searching for new dishes and to continue learning. And once we manage to make something tasty, we’ll share the recipe with you.
What you will find on this Blog:
- Everything here is plant-based, with a good selection of gluten-free recipes as well.
- A lot of delicious healthy recipes with a good selection of high-protein and refined sugar-free dishes.
- A tasty selection of nutritious quickly-made recipes if time is of the essence! We have some fantastic recipes for an effortless dinner after a long day that are quick to make.
- Unintimidating but still delicious simple recipes: perfect for if you are trying to get more into cooking or just not feeling like making a huge effort.
- Budget recipes which don’t compromise on flavor and nutrition.
… and much more. Every recipe is iterated, cooked and most importantly tasted by us before ending up on this blog. So the one thing in common for all recipes: They are freaking tasty.
A few Goals we have with this Blog:
- Show how much fun cooking and eating well can be:
We make recipes woth different levels of complexity, effort and sophistication. There should be something for everybody on this blog. But all recipes have one thing in common: They are fun to make or draw inspiration from, and most importantly, criminally tasty to eat! - Promote healthy dietary habits:
This blog should show that eating healthy is possible, even when being on a tight budget, and without necessarily spending an extensive amount of time in the kitchen. - Introduce you to new dishes: we’ll try to represent a multitude of different cuisines on this blog by drawing inspiration from all over the world. Sometimes we might try to be as authentic as possible to honour a recipe, but other times we won’t shy away from mixing things up. There are so many great foods to eat on this planet. This should be a place to discover and get inspired.
- Inspire to cook with local and foraged ingredients every now and then: There is something beautiful about cooking with ingredients you picked, grew, or collected yourself, or at least know where they come from. It’s something I lost touch with for a while, but I think this is an important part of the relationship with food.
Enough taking, let’s get cooking! We’ll be sharing new recipes every week. Don’t forget to follow on Instagram and or the other socials to stay in the loop. Here you can find all the tasty recipes written so far: Recipes