At first glance, David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl seem too good to be true. He's Swedish, she's Danish and their life, as documented by the expert design and photography of their blog of vegetarian recipes, Green Kitchen Stories, seems like yet more evidence that everything is a bit better in Scandinavia.

But despite its polish, Green Kitchen Stories began more by accident than design. The couple met in Rome four years ago, with David then an "unhealthy vegetarian" keen on pasta and pizza, and Luise a meat eater. Their first date was dinner by the banks of the Tiber: he had rigatoni, she ate salmon. But as their relationship became serious, so did their eating habits, and together they developed a diet that, initially, simply worked just for them once they began living together in Stockholm (David's an art director, Luise is studying nutritional therapy).

The blog was initially their way of recording their progress in the kitchen, where, as David says in the foreword to The Green Kitchen cookbook, they worked towards "dinner that put the vegetables in focus and was nourishing after a long day".

Both are quick to emphasise that flexibility is key to the way they cook, Luise even occasionally lapsing and eating fish and organic chicken. But that's OK. "We've never been absolute," says David. "If we get a craving for ice cream, we go for it – but those cravings happen pretty rarely now." This absence of didacticism paired with clever, delicious recipes – think courgette noodles, Swedish saffron buns made with almond butter – is key to the appeal of The Green Kitchen, extracted here. Careful, though, you might get hooked. "We get a lot of emails," says Luise. "One woman had converted her whole family to vegetarianism."