Our most popular recipes in February 2026 included recipes for holidays, like our longevity noodles recipe for Lunar New Year; recipes for comforting soups, stews and rice porridges, most popular with northern hemisphere readers; recipes for spicy curries and coconut noodles from Southeast Asia, which locals love to sweat over to keep things cool in the sultry weather; and recipes for reader favourites such as Lara’s beef Stroganoff and Middle Eastern rice, and my Moroccan lamb tagine.
Terence here in Cambodia again: Lara, who has been in Australia caring for her mother, had to take time off to focus on her mum after a heartbreaking health diagnosis last week. Lara will be back at her desk later this week. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some posts Lara planned to publish earlier in the month before life got in the way.
Lara prepared some Middle Easter recipes to share during Ramadan, which just ended. As Eid al Fitr is underway, I’ll share those over coming days. As regular readers know, Lara and I lived in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and travelled, wrote on and photographed a whole swathe of the Middle East for a decade. We spent a lot of time in Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula. What’s happening there is soul-destroying and the region and its people are continually on our minds.
Now don’t forget: if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, do dig into our recipe archives, which are brimming with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And remember: when you find recipes you love, you can save them in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of every post.
And before you scroll down to our most popular recipes in February 2026, we have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buying something on Amazon, such as one of these best new cookbooks of 2025. Now let’s tell you about the most popular February recipes.
Most Popular Recipes in February 2026 – Recipes Readers Cooked Last Month
If you’re looking for cooking inspiration, these were the most popular recipes in February 2026 – the recipes readers searched for, spent most of their time on, and hopefully cooked in February.
Richly Spiced Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
Yet again Lara’s classic beef Stroganoff recipe landed at the top of our list of most popular recipes in February 2026. It was no surprise, as it was the most popular recipe of last year. This recipe will make you Lara’s version of one of her Russian-Ukrainian family recipes. It differs a little to her mum’s Strog recipe from the 1970s, in that it’s more richly spiced. It also includes an unusual ingredient that often shocks readers, but actually makes sense.
An old aristocratic Russian dish with a long history, beef Stroganoff was popularised in early Soviet canteens before travelling the world with Russian émigrés, exiles and World War 2 refugees like Lara’s Russian-Ukrainian grandparents. It’s now popular around the globe, everywhere from Brazil to Bendigo, where Lara says she has never seen so many forms of Stroganoff in a supermarket, from seasonings to pre-prepared meals.
But nothing beats homemade Stroganoff and this beef Stroganoff recipe is one of our best Stroganoff recipes. We also have recipes for mushroom, chicken, meatball, and pork Stroganoff. We love to serve beef Stroganoff with classic sides, such as crunchy shoestring fries or mashed potatoes, a crisp garden salad, dill pickles, and sour cream.
For a proper family meal of the kind that Lara’s adorable rosy-cheeked baboushka made, serve it as part of a spread of dishes, including bowls of borscht with piroshki, a pink beet potato salad and garden salad, casserole pots full of Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, cabbage rolls, and perhaps some chicken kotleti.
Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe for a Retro Classic from a Palace Kitchen
Middle Eastern Rice with Spices, Dried Fruit and Nuts
Lara loved seeing that her quick and easy Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins was another of the most popular recipes in February 2026. Like the beef Strog, it was another one of our most popular recipes of last year. Lara’s recipe will make you a fragrant rice dish infused with Middle Eastern spices and textured with nuts and raisins, and it’s one of our best Middle Eastern recipes.
But while Lara’s Middle Eastern rice recipe is authentic in taste and texture – there are few more quintessential Middle Eastern spice blends than the ‘seven spice’ mix known as ‘baharat’, and nuts such as pistachios and cashews – the technique she uses is inauthentic. Instead of the pilaf method of cooking rice, she uses the Asian stir-fry method to use up leftover rice.
This spiced rice is fantastic with smoky kofta kebab, the garlicky chicken called shish tawook, chicken shawarma, Middle Eastern vegetable sides, such as these spicy potatoes from Lebanon, and salads like fatoush and tabbouleh. We combine any leftover rice with leftover meat, which we break up into bite-sized pieces and quickly stir-fry again. The result is a wonderful rice dish that makes an easy yet comforting meal for a filling lunch or casual dinner.
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Spices, Pistachios, Cashews and Raisins
Longevity Noodles for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity
Our longevity noodles recipe makes long life noodles, a traditional Chinese noodle dish made during Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year to bring longevity, good luck and prosperity – as long as you don’t cut the noodles! Longevity noodles recipe are also served on other special occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.
It’s no surprise this was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026, seeing it was Chinese New Year, which is celebrated in our adopted home of Cambodia, in China, and in other countries with Chinese communities, such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and even Australia.
We love to get into the spirit of the holiday in Cambodia, cooking lucky dishes for Chinese New Year, as it’s called in Cambodia’s Chinese-Cambodian and Chinese communities, when we share the Chinese New Year food recipes and Lunar New Year recipes we’re cooking, beginning with this classic longevity noodles recipe.
Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity
Cambodian Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Khmer Noodles
Cambodian food has such a special place in our hearts, having lived in Siem Reap since 2013, researching and writing our epic Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. So we love seeing readers searching for our Cambodian recipes and were thrilled to see this nom banh chok recipe high on the list of our most popular recipes in February 2026.
Nom banh chok, also written as nom banhchok, is both the name of the fresh daily-made rice noodles and the noodle soup itself. Nom banh chok is thought to be an ancient Khmer dish that has influenced many other noodle soup dishes around Southeast Asia, from Thailand’s khanom jeen to a Southern Vietnam Khmer dish from the Mekong Delta called bún kèn.
There are a handful of types of nom banh chok, but our traditional nom banh chok recipe for Cambodia’s beloved ‘Khmer Noodles’ will make you nom banh chok samlor proher, a popular Siem Reap breakfast of the rice noodles served with a yellow-green coconut-based fish curry, fragrant with fresh herbs, seasonal greens, edible flowers, and foraged herbs. It’s one of our favourite noodle soups.
Authentic Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Cambodia’s Beloved Khmer Noodles
Baboushka’s Russian-Ukrainian Borscht Recipe
One of our most popular soup recipes, this borscht recipe makes the hearty home-cooked soup of Lara’s childhood that her Russian-Ukrainian grandmother used to make. I was lucky to know Lara’s baboushka and papa, and got to tuck into bowls of baba’s borscht and Lara’s take comes very close.
While borscht has its provenance in Ukraine, it was cooked all over Russia, the former Soviet states, Poland, and parts of Eastern Europe. Lara’s baboushka’s beetroot-driven vegetable soup was always served with sour cream and fresh dill and was a filling meal in itself; sometimes baba served piroshki (hand pies) alongside the soup, then reheated the broth for breakfast the next day.
Borscht would also get served as a starter before the weekend family feasts we used to enjoy, along with this beet potato salad, Olivier potato salad, a classic garden salad, Russian pelmeni, Ukrainian varenyki (mashed potato with caramelised onion filled dumplings), stuffed cabbage rolls, and chicken kotleti (pan fried meat patties). Oh my, I have such great memories of those family meals before Lara’s grandparents died.
Russian Borscht Recipe for the Hearty Home-Cooked Soup of my Childhood
How to Boil Eggs Perfectly Every Time
Not so much a recipe, but rather a guide to how to boil eggs perfectly every time, this was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026. I first shared my perfect boiled eggs guide in my just-turned 16-year-old Weekend Eggs recipes series on breakfast egg dishes from around the world, which I started way back in January 2010 when we launched Grantourismo.
Even if you’re not a breakfast eggs person and prefer to slurp a noodle soup or tuck into a plate of pancakes, it’s still handy to learn how to boil eggs perfectly. We use soft-boiled eggs in our creamy curried egg sandwiches and semi hard-boiled eggs in our ohn no khao swe recipe for the wonderful Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup.
My top tips include everything from starting with room temperature eggs and beginning boiling the eggs in boiling water to using old eggs rather than fresh eggs. I have lots more tips in the post. If you’re a lover of boiled eggs, we have more boiled eggs recipes here.
How to Boil Eggs Perfectly Every Time for Perfect Soft and Hard Boiled Eggs
Authentic Khmer Fish Amok Recipe
One of our favourite Cambodian recipes, this classic Cambodian fish amok recipe for a traditional steamed fish curry is based on the recipe of a respected family of elderly cooks whose mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers made the dish during a time when Cambodian women thought nothing of spending a full day preparing a family feast – and we did just that with the ladies when we met them soon after moving to Siem Reap way back in 2013.
Our fish amok recipe makes an authentic steamed fish curry made to a recipe from an older generation of cooks who believe that if it’s not properly steamed, it’s not amok trei, a steamed fish curry. ‘Amok’ means to steam in banana leaves in Khmer and many Cambodians believe this refined dish is a Royal Khmer specialty dating back to the Khmer Empire. Although the banana leaf packaging and firm-ish texture also made it easy for farmers to transport to the rice fields for lunch.
Our recipe doesn’t make the watery fish amok style curry or sloppy fish amok you might have eaten in Siem Reap tourist restaurants, which can be made in minutes in a wok. To make this authentic steamed fish curry from scratch, including pounding your own Khmer yellow kroeung (a herb and spice paste), you’ll need to allow at least an hour. It’s worth it!
Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe for an Authentic Steamed Fish Curry in the Old Style
Korean Coleslaw Recipe for a Classic Side
This Korean coleslaw recipe makes a zingy Korean cabbage salad that we first shared as part of a series of Korean small plate dishes we love – Korean street food, Korean sides called banchan, and Korean dishes served as drinking food called anju – which included recipes for Korean corn cheese, Korean meatballs, Korean potato salad, and Korean cucumber salad.
If you’re a lover of cabbage dishes, especially coleslaw and cabbage salads, such as our colourful coleslaw made with purple cabbage and pickled pink shallots, this Burmese raw cabbage salad, and this Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad, you’re also going to enjoy this classic Korean cabbage salad recipe for Korean coleslaw.
We love to serve this Korean slaw as a side to Korean fried chicken – or any fried chicken for that matter! – with Korean-style burgers (or this Japanese chicken katsu burger) or tucked into a Korean-inspired gourmet hotdog.
If you’re a fan of Korean food and have made and enjoyed our Korean recipes for Korean spicy udon noodles, Korean japchae (glass noodles), and bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), you will love this Korean coleslaw. It was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026.
Classic Korean Coleslaw Recipe for a Korean Cabbage Salad Side Dish
Buckwheat Kasha with Bacon, Eggs and Mushrooms
Despite the rustic appearance, this is perhaps the least traditional of Lara’s Russian-Ukrainian family recipes. Although of all the Russian breakfasts that baba used to make – French toast, blini, potato cakes, and buckwheat pancakes – Lara often said that kasha was her least favourite breakfast as a child. The nutty flavour and strong smell put her off.
It wasn’t until she was an adult that Lara says she became smitten with kasha. This comforting Russian buckwheat kasha recipe with caramelised onions, bacon lardons, pan-fried mushrooms, and soft-boiled eggs makes a heartier take on her grandmother’s traditional Russian breakfast and it was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026 on Grantourismo.
The key ingredient of this savoury porridge (kasha) is buckwheat groats (grechka). While based on Lara’s grandmother’s recipe, she’s spiced things up. Baba kept things simple and sprinkled chopped hard-boiled eggs on top, whereas Lara uses soft-boiled eggs, and garnishes it with diced gherkins, loads of fresh fragrant dill, and a dollop of sour cream. If you enjoy this, try Lara’s spiced pumpkin kasha rcipe for cossack comfort food.
Russian Buckwheat Kasha Recipe with Bacon, Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms and Eggs
Old Fashioned Russian Beef Stew Recipe for Solyanka
Another of our most popular recipes in February 2026, this traditional Russian beef stew recipe makes solyanka, a delicious hearty stew or heavy soup that’s a little sour, a little sweet, and was a whole lot saltier back in its day when it was a staple dish during the medieval period.
First mentioned in print in the 15th century, solyanka is an ancient dish made for modern times: it’s a one-pot dish that is filling and comforting. Based on Lara’s baboushka’s recipe, which she grew up eating in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s one of our best stew recipes.
Solyanka has long been thought to have been invented to use up leftovers, which explains all the bits and pieces, and why some solyanka recipes call for several kinds of meats and sausages, and ingredients such as dill pickle juice.
Traditional Russian Beef Stew Recipe for Solyanka, a Medieval Dish for Modern Times
Mexican Guacamole Recipe Like A Mexican Grandma Makes
This authentic Mexican guacamole recipe makes a genuine Mexican guacamole of the kind a Mexican abuela (grandma) makes – the kind that’s made table-side at good restaurants in Mexico. It’s all about the creamy luscious texture, bright green colour and full flavour of perfectly ripe avocados.
And it’s one of the best things to make with a mortar and pestle. Although even Mexicans can’t agree on that. Chef Martha Ortiz of Dulce Patria in Mexico City said it was essential to make guacamole with a molcajete, a Mexican mortar and pestle, while Marilau, who we did a Mexican cooking class with in San Miguel de Allende, was adamant that a molcajete wasn’t necessary. She said it’s only used for dry not wet ingredients.
Lara has been making this genuine Mexican guacamole for over 30 years, since we tasted our first proper Mexican guacamole in Mexico City on our inaugural trip to Mexico in the mid-1990s. We became so smitten with this sublime guacamole that was simpler yet far superior to the guacamole we’d been making for a decade or longer, that upon our return to Sydney, Australia, we established a weekend guacamole ritual.
This guacamole is best served with fresh tortilla chips and washed down with classic margaritas or micheladas. You can also top a nachos or big old bowl of chili con carne with a few dollops of this wonderful avocado dip. If you’re making a Mexican feast, fill your table with dishes of guacamole and our easy red tomato salsa, bowls of tortilla soup and plates of tacos al pastor, char-grilled corn on the cobs, a grilled corn salad, nachos, and quesadillas.
Authentic Mexican Guacamole Recipe Like A Mexican Abuela Would Make
Authentic Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe
One of our favourite curry recipes, this authentic Burmese chicken curry recipe makes a fragrant gently-spiced curry perfumed with turmeric, ginger, garlic, chilli, and lemongrass. A rich curry with a moreish tomato-based gravy and a layer of aromatic oil that’s soaked up by coconut rice, it’s meant to be served with zingy salads, such as this Burmese raw cabbage salad, Burmese potato salad and Shan tomato salad, and a relish or two.
This classic Burmese chicken curry recipe, and this Burmese Indian style chicken curry recipe, are recipes we adapted from our favourite Burmese cookbook, Mi Mi Khaing’s Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, dating to 1978. It’s a delightful little booklet that Lara bought in a dusty bookshop near the Strand Hotel in Yangon that is as much a historical document as it is a practical cookbook.
If you’re a lover of curries, you’re going to adore these Burmese curries. And if you do, make sure to browse some of our other Myanmar recipes, including Mi Mi Khaing’s recipe for homemade curry powder, and these recipes for Burmese street food-style fried chicken and Burmese coconut rice.
Classic Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe for an Aromatic Tomato Based Curry
Calabrian Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe
We were thrilled to see that this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe was another of the most popular recipes in February 2026, as it’s one of our best pasta recipes. We fell in love with this pasta dish many years ago, on one of our most memorable culinary adventures, a months-long road trip criss-crossing Calabria, Italy’s southernmost mainland region, researching and writing the first English-language Calabria travel guidebook.
It was on that Calabria trip that we fell in love with Calabrian cuisine, some of Italy’s spiciest food, courtesy of Peperoncino Calabrese or Calabrian chilli used in everything from bomba Calabrese, a spicy chilli relish, and Calabrian soppressata, a spicy salami, to Calabria’s fiery spreadable chilli pepper and pork sausage, ’nduja. You can read more about that in our guide to ’nduja and how to use it.
Traditionally, this recipe calls for ’nduja, although you’ll also find Southern Italian pastas made with Italian sausage at restaurants in Calabria, especially the mushroom capital of Camigliatello Silano, that don’t feature ’nduja, such as Lara’s mushroom and sausage pasta recipe.
These days it’s easy to buy ’nduja online and if you are a fan, see our recipes for Calabria’s version of eggs in purgatory; an easy nduja bruschetta with goat’s cheese and sweet red capsicum, which makes a perfect snack, brunch, lunch or finger food; our take on Australian chef Christine Manfield’s legendary eggplant ‘sandwich’ with ’nduja (instead of basil pesto); and my ’nduja pizza made in a Dutch oven.
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria in Southern Italy
Comforting Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe
One of our best breakfast rice recipes, one of our best Asian breakfast recipes, and one our favourite Cambodian recipes, this Cambodian chicken rice porridge recipe for borbor sach moan makes a Cambodian congee that we’ve been making since we first moved to Cambodia‘s Siem Reap way back in 2013. If you enjoy this, you’ll also love this borbor sor with pork meatballs.
The Cambodian take on Chinese congee or jok is a classic Cambodian food favourite that’s eaten at any time of day these days. Cambodians tuck into big bowls of borbor for breakfast, brunch, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner (particularly if someone isn’t feeling well), and a late night supper (it’s a great hangover cure).
Called borbor sach moan in Khmer, this chicken congee is thought to be a dish of Chinese origin and part of the Cambodian-Chinese culinary heritage rather than a Khmer dish. But whatever its provenance, over many centuries it’s become a comfort food staple for all Cambodians – as well as Cambodian residents, including ourselves.
Cambodians have really made the classic Chinese rice porridge their own. Here in Siem Reap you’ll find anything from chicken, pork, fish, dried fish, seafood, snails, and frog legs in borbor and you’ll also see an array of condiments, from dried fish floss and pickled vegetables to the condiments we love to use: fish sauce, chilli flakes, chilli oil, and fresh fragrant herbs.
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan, Cambodia’s Congee
Japanese Style Cabbage Cucumber Salad Recipe
Another one of the most popular recipes in February 2026, this Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad recipe calls for quintessential Japanese ingredients such as sliced roasted seaweed or nori sheets, some black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds.
The sesame seeds give it a nutty flavour as well as fantastic texture, while the dressing, made with Shichimi Togarashi Japanese Seven Spice (we recommend the S&B brand), Japanese sesame oil, Japanese soy sauce, Japanese rice vinegar, and mirin give the salad a gentle spice, nuttiness, and delightful tartness and zing.
This salad is the perfect side to my recipes for Japanese fried chicken, as well as juicy pork tonkatsu, or katsu burgers, or any Japanese comfort food dish. This Japanese potato salad recipe also makes a great side if you’re preparing a Japanese spread.
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
Aromatic Khmer Yellow Kroeung Herb and Spice Paste
This Khmer yellow kroeung recipe makes the Cambodian herb and spice paste called kroeung, which is an irreplaceable ingredient in Khmer cooking. The yellow kroeung is the foundational kroeung and the most versatile of the five main herb and spice pastes used in many classic Cambodian dishes, especially soups such as samlor machou kroeung sach ko.
The Khmer yellow kroeung paste is the basic kroeung or freshly-pounded herb and spice paste in Cambodian cooking. The other main four pastes are the green kroeung (kroeung prâhoeur), the red kroeung (kroeung samlor kari), ‘k’tis kroeung’ (kroeung samlor k’tis; k’tis is coconut cream/milk in Khmer), and the saraman kroeung (kroeung samlor saraman), used to make the Cambodian Saraman curry.
The yellow kroeung is used for many classic Khmer and Cambodian dishes, including fish amok (amok trei), a steamed fish curry, and soups such as samlor machou kroeung sach ko, sour beef soup with morning glory, which is why the paste is commonly called kroeung samlor machou.
The Khmer yellow paste is also used as a marinade for the popular street food snack, charcoal-grilled beef skewers, and in prahok k’tis, the ubiquitous Khmer dip made with prahok (fermented fish), minced pork, coconut milk, and pea eggplants that is eaten with crunchy vegetable crudites. This was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026.
Khmer Yellow Kroeung Recipe for Kroeung Samlor Machou, Cambodia’s Essential Spice Paste
Classic Cape Malay Chicken Curry Recipe
This wonderful Cape Malay chicken curry recipe makes a richly spiced tomato-based curry from South Africa, inspired by the aromatic chicken curry we learnt to make in a Cape Malay cooking class in colourful Bo-Kaap, the heart of Cape Malay culture, during what easily goes down as one of the world’s best cooking classes.
We were in Cape Town for two weeks during the yearlong global grand tour that launched Grantourismo way back in 2010, staying in a beautiful holiday house with a fabulous kitchen, just a block from breathtaking Camps Bay beach and boasting gob-smacking views of Table Mountain.
I ended up cooking a tomato bredie, a classic Cape Town stew for my series called The Dish on the quintessential dishes of places we settled into on that trip. Had there have been time to cook and publish a second recipe, it would have been the bredie’s close cousin, this Cape Malay chicken curry recipe.
This Cape Malay chicken curry recipe makes a richly spiced curry that’s typically eaten with aromatic Cape Malay yellow rice, buttery roti, and simple tomato, onion and cucumber sambals. It’s an incredibly delicious curry that you’ll be sorry to finish. Our advice: make double the amount, as it tastes even better as leftovers the next day.
Cape Malay Chicken Curry Recipe for a Richly Spiced Cape Town Curry
Traditional Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe
This classic Cambodian chicken curry recipe makes one of Southeast Asia’s most comforting chicken curries and along with a Saraman curry is one of our favourite curries. While the curry has a depth of flavour that comes from dried spices and fresh aromatic ingredients, it has a richness thanks to a liberal use of coconut cream and milk, and a gentleness due to the mild red chillies.
This chicken curry was originally adapted from Authentic Cambodian Recipes From Mother to Daughter by Sorey Long and Kanika Linden, although I’ve tweaked the recipe over the years. We highly recommend the book if you’re new to Cambodian cooking, and if you can get hold of the book the recipe is called Chicken Curry or Samlar Can Moan.
A ‘samlar’ or ‘samlor’ is a stew or soup, which often stumps foreigners unfamiliar with Cambodian food, who have been known to question the consistency of a dish served at a restaurant if they’ve sampled one or the other.
‘Cari’ is curry and ‘moan’ is chicken, which our Cambodian friends often charmingly translate to ‘kitchen’. We can’t tell you how many times Cambodian real estate agents have said “Let me show you the chicken (meaning ‘kitchen’)… ” then break out into giggles when they realise their mistake.
Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe for a Gentle Comforting Southeast Asian Curry
Hearty Irish Beef Stew Recipe for a Farmhouse Classic
This Irish stew recipe makes one of our best stew recipes and one of our best Irish recipes if you’re looking for recipes for St Patricks Day. I have Irish heritage, but Lara has had lots of Irish work colleagues and friends over the years and loves to use the Irish holiday of St Patrick’s Day as an excuse to cook Irish food.
If you’re a stew lover, you’ll love this Irish stew recipe, arguably Ireland’s national dish. It makes an incredibly rich Irish stew that’s deeply flavoured thanks to slow-cooking, half a bottle of Shiraz and an easy roux – melted butter and flour whisked with the stew juices to create a flavourful gravy that’s stirred into the stew.
We’ve got more Irish recipes. I have a recipe for crispy salmon fillet with Irish colcannon with prawns. It’s based on a dish by Irish chef Liam Tomlin, who helmed the kitchen of one of our favourite Sydney restaurants until it closed. If you have leftover colcannon, I love this breakfast colcannon with bacon and eggs.
If you’re a fellow stew lover, browse our best stew recipes for recipes for this deeply flavoured old-fashioned chicken stew, the Russian beef stew called Solyanka, a Spanish rabo de toro oxtail stew, a French cassoulet, a tomato bredie, a classic Cape Town stew, an Irish beef and Guinness stew with dumplings, my Hungarian stew porkolt (often confused goulash), a Cambodian pork stew with star anise and ginger, and Lara’s chorizo, cabbage and three bean stew.
Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew
Hummus with Spiced Beef Recipe for Hummus bil Lahme
Our hummus with spiced beef recipe for hummus bil lahme makes an addictively delicious hummus drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with cumin powder, and topped with a generous layer of richly-spiced ground beef and roasted pine nuts. It’s one of our favourite Middle Eastern dishes and one of our best hummus recipes.
You can tuck into a plate of hummus bil lahme on its own, scooping it up with crispy homemade pita chips – which are a cinch to make in the oven from rounds of pita bread (recipe on previous link) – or serve with pickles and olives and an array of Arabic mezze or starters, such as baba ghanoush and muhammara.
Hummus bil lahme also makes a fantastic side dish to beef kofta, mixed grilled meats, roasted chicken, grilled lamb chops, Arabic sausages, and salads, such as fattoush and tabbouleh, if you’re cooking up a Middle Eastern feast for a group of friends or family. And if you are, please send us an invitation!
Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe for Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup
One of our best Asian street food recipes, our ohn no khao swe recipe for Myanmar’s much-loved coconut chicken noodle soup – probably the most popular dish alongside mohinga – combines the best of the many renditions we sampled on our Myanmar travels, starting with the first ohn no khao swe we savoured at Yangon’s grand old hotel, The Strand.
Ohn no khao swe – more correctly, ohn no khao swè, but you’ll also see it written as ohn no khauk sway, on no khauk swe, ohn no khau sway, and ohn no khau swe – consists of egg noodles in an aromatic chicken curry soup with a coconut milk base, typically garnished with crunchy fried noodles, boiled eggs, shallots, fried garlic, dried chilli, lime, coriander (cilantro), and sometimes fried chickpea fritters.
In Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, published in 1978, author Mi Mi Khaing includes her ohn no khao swe recipe in a chapter titled Eating Out and One-Dish Meals. Khaing, who was of the Mon ethnic group, married a royal from the Shan States, and was one of the first scholars and authors to write in English about her culture and cuisine.
In the chapter introduction she describes how “from sleek cars drawn up at roadside counters, dainty and bejewelled women get out to eat”, and how dishes were “sold in streets by male hawkers with shoulder poles and two loads. One load holds the fire and main pot; the other, some accompaniments, dishes, and a wash basin” and “female hawkers carrying food more gracefully on their heads”.
Ohn No Khao Swe Recipe for Burmese Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup
Easy Russian Cabbage Rolls Recipe for a Petite Version of Baboushka’s Golubtsi
We all adored Lara’s baboushka’s golubtsi (голубцы) – cabbage rolls stuffed with a savoury minced pork, beef, carrot, and rice filling, and cloaked in a rich homemade tomato sauce. They were a feature of every family meal I got to go to before her grandparents died – along with baba’s traditional Russian pelmeni and vareniki, beet potato salad, Russian garden salad, borscht, and more.
But baba’s cabbage rolls were a meal in themselves. They were so filling that Lara remembers as a child only being able to eat one and then struggle to fit anything else in. She writes in the post about her eyes darting around the table at the abundance of food and all the other Russian dishes that she disappointingly couldn’t fit in. Lara says she always wished they’d been smaller, so she could fit more food in! Having eaten baba’s food, I get it.
Lara’s easy Russian cabbage rolls recipe makes a smaller version of baba’s bigger cabbage rolls. But Lara has also made another tweak with this recipe: she cooks the savoury pork, beef, carrot, and rice filling before stuffing the cabbage rolls, so that they bake faster than the larger golubtsy that are traditionally filled with a raw meat mixture. I think they’re equally delicious. Let us know what you think if you try them.
Easy Russian Cabbage Rolls Recipe for a Petite Version of Baboushka’s Golubtsi
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe
I learnt to make this traditional Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe – one of our best recipes with nuts – from the lovely Jamila, the cook at the Marrakech riad we settled into for two weeks in Marrakech way back in February 2010, when we launched Grantourismo.
Morocco was the first stop on that year-long grand tour of the world aimed at inspiring you all to travel more slowly, locally and experientially, forms of travel we’d long believed were more immersive, engaging and interactive, and therefore more meaningful and more memorable. Cooking food, and slow food, was a big part of that project.
This Moroccan tagine has been one of our most popular recipes since we published it, and one of our favourite tagine recipes, along with this classic chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives. If you’re making a full Moroccan meal, kick it off with bowls of my spiced Moroccan chickpea soup, which I also learnt to make from Jamila, or Lara’s hearty Moroccan harrira made with lentils.
For dessert, you could try Lara’s take on a sweet Moroccan orange salad with cinnamon, mint, pomegranate and pistachios. And for breakfast, try my Moroccan version of chakchouka, which I shared for my Moroccan edition of Weekend Eggs.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
Cambodian Spicy Roasted Peanuts Recipe with Chilli, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Lemongrass
When you go out to a cocktail bar in Cambodia, especially here in Siem Reap, our home since 2013, you’ll probably be served two or three small dishes of nibbles with your drinks. At a good bar, you’ll typically be served crispy purple taro and orange sweet potato chips, maybe some crunchy banana chips, or perhaps crunchy mini rice cakes.
If you’re lucky, you’ll also get a bowl of deliciously addictive Cambodian spicy roasted peanuts with chillies, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and garlic. Some bars roast their own peanuts – mainly bars within a hotel or attached to a restaurant – and everyone does their nuts a little differently; some are more intensely flavoured, others more subtle – which is our preference.
Other bars buy the spiced peanuts from the local markets, but we find those be both too salty and too sweet, which is why we prefer to make our own. This recipe makes my take on our favourite version of Cambodian roasted peanuts, which are aromatic, spicy, salty, and sweet – Cambodia in a nutshell, so to speak. It’s one of our best recipes with nuts.
Cambodian Spicy Roasted Peanuts Recipe with Chilli, Kaffir Lime and Lemongrass
Creamy Cauliflower and Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe
One of our most popular winter soup recipes, one of our best potato soup recipes, and one of our favourite cabbage recipes, Lara’s easy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe makes a creamy vegetable soup that’s incredibly rich and comforting. It was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026 on Grantourismo.
This creamy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe will make you a comforting vegetable soup textured with homemade croutons that tastes so rich and creamy you’d think there was cream in it (there isn’t!) and while you could happily tuck into a bowl on the sofa in your PJs, you could also make it a bit fancy.
You could enjoyably slurp it as it is on a chilly winter or autumn/fall evening, dunking toast into the silky broth. Or you could add texture to the soup by sprinkling on those crushed croutons, fresh fragrant dill sprigs, and cracked black pepper on top. For a dinner party you could serve small portions in shot glasses or an espresso cup and sauce with toast fingers as an amuse bouche or starter.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Pumpkin Chickpea Curry Recipe with Cashews, Coriander, Crispy Shallots
It was a surprise to see Lara’s pumpkin chickpea curry recipe land on this list: partly because she told me that she was just starting to see butternut pumpkins in the supermarket and fruit and veg shops, so Australians are just starting to use them. But then I realised that in north America it was the end of winter and the end of the pumpkin/squash season. Here in Cambodia, where pumpkins and squash are used in many dishes, the season starts with the June-July harvest.
Lara’s recipe was partly inspired by the rich Cambodian saraman curry and partly by a Cambodian curry-like spiced soup or stew that’s usually made with chicken and pumpkin with a red Khmer spice paste as a base. We love to eat it from a stall we’ve been eating at for a dozen years in Preah Dak, a village on the other side of Angkor Archaeological Park, about 20 minutes from Siem Reap.
Having said that, this dish is nothing if not versatile. Lara’s pumpkin chickpea curry with cashews and coriander calls for Thai massaman curry paste or a Thai red curry paste, with which many of you would be more familiar, and if you’re not up for making your own homemade spice paste, is easier to source. Try to use a good quality Thai store-bought curry paste. Similarly, serve with steamed jasmine rice instead of rice noodles if you like.
More of our best curry recipes here and if you also have access to beautiful butternut pumpkins – butternut squash to our American readers – we have more recipes for pumpkin dishes, including pumpkin porridges, pumpkin soups, pumpkin pastas, pumpkin puddings.
Pumpkin Chickpea Curry Recipe with Cashews, Coriander, Crispy Shallots
Roast Broccoli Recipe with Zucchini, Beans and Sesame
If you’re a lover of broccoli, you need to make Lara’s broccoli soup with cheddar, potato, crispy bacon and crunchy croutons, which we’re completely addicted to, but you should also enjoy this easy roast broccoli recipe. Broccoli, zucchini and green beans are quickly roasted on high heat in seasoned extra virgin olive oil, piled onto a creamy butter bean spread, and showered with sesame seeds. We like to sprinkle on some chilli flakes.
We love to serve this with succulent braised chicken with olives and capers and a salad, such as this radish cucumber salad with feta, rucola and fresh herbs or sides of roasted cauliflower on hummus with crispy chickpeas and pickled shallots, and either Hassleback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes.
This roast broccoli recipe is nothing if not versatile and if you’re reluctant to go East-West and prefer more European flavours, use ground paprika instead of chilli flakes, skip the sesame seeds, and sprinkle the vegetables with crispy bacon, toasted breadcrumbs or homemade croutons, and even a little grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
Roasted Broccoli Recipe with Zucchini, Green Beans and Sesame Seeds
Cambodian Sour Beef Soup with Morning Glory Recipe
This Cambodian sour beef soup with morning glory recipe makes a wonderful green vegetable-driven broth called samlor machou kroeung sach ko in Khmer. It’s super-easy to make, especially if you make the Khmer yellow kroeung first. Kroeung is a Cambodian herb and spice paste, and you can read more about it above.
In addition to the funkiness of the fish sauce and prahok (fermented fish paste), a feature of these sour soups is, naturally, their sourness. If you like tang, add the tamarind juice, the souring agent for this soup. In Cambodia, locals use the seeds of krasaing or wood apple as an alternative, but you might have a hard time tracking the fruit down if you live outside Southeast Asia.
If you don’t love sour, leave the tamarind juice out. It’s delicious either way. If you enjoy this, also try these recipes for a Cambodian pork, pineapple and coconut milk soup-cum-stew and the Khmer ‘outside the pot’ soup. This was another of our most popular recipes in February 2026.
Sour Beef Soup with Morning Glory Recipe for Samlor Machou Kroeung Sach Ko
Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe for Chinese American Crispy Omelettes
Readers have long enjoyed my recipe for the original Cantonese-style egg foo young – or egg foo yung, egg fu yung or the Cantonese fu yong dan or fuyong dan – a delightfully crispy omelette filled with flavourful pork, fresh spring onions and crunchy bean sprouts. With provenance in Southern China dating back to the 18th century Ching Dynasty, it’s one of our best Chinese egg dishes and one of our best omelette recipes.
So for my Weekend Eggs series I also shared a Chinese American egg foo young with gravy recipe, which makes a popular Chinese takeout dish that originated in Chinese American restaurants in the 19th or 20th century. There are numerous origin stories. Similar egg foo young iterations exist in Chinese diasporas around the world, each with their own tweaks, and they’re all delicious.
If you love a good omelette, do try my recipes for a luxurious Southeast Asian crab omelette, the puffy Thai omelette kai jiaw, Thai fried egg salad for yam khai dao, our herby Cambodian sa’om omelette, two classic omelettes, and Lara’s Russian sour cream omelette with broccoli and bacon.
Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe for Chinese American Crispy Omelettes
Chicken Stew Recipe for an Old Fashioned Stew
I’ve long believed that chicken stew is one of the dishes that every cook should master to become a better cook, and that’s as good an excuse as any to make Lara’s chicken stew recipe. She says she has her grandparents and parents to thank for this stew, as well as a couple of tricks – or techniques, more correctly – from two of our favourite cuisines, Indian and Italian.
Our best chicken stew recipe will make you a deeply flavoured old fashioned chicken stew with melt-in-the-mouth chicken that falls off the bone. Subtle use of spices such as turmeric and paprika add earthiness and warmth, while using two types of potatoes – waxy and starchy – ensure some potato pieces remain firm while others break down, creating a thick comforting stew.
If you’re a fellow stew lover, do browse our best stew recipes for recipes for the Russian beef stew called Solyanka, a Spanish rabo de toro oxtail stew, a French cassoulet, a tomato bredie, a classic Cape Town stew, a traditional Irish beef stew, an Irish beef and Guinness stew with dumplings, the Hungarian stew porkolt (often confused goulash), a Cambodian pork stew with star anise and ginger, and my chorizo, cabbage and three bean stew (a spicy take on kapusniak).
Chicken Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Old Fashioned Chicken Stew
Please do let us know if you make any of our most popular recipes in February 2026, as we’d love to know how they turn out for you. And don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments below if you need help or ideas. Or share your feedback, tips and tweaks.
