This compilation of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024 includes our most searched-for and most-read recipes in 2024, everything from my deliciously rich and creamy beef Stroganoff recipe and a gently spiced Burmese chicken curry to comforting Spanish potatoes with capsicums and a spicy pasta from Calabria to two iconic Cambodian recipes, nom banh chok and fish amok, and Middle Eastern spiced rice and chicken shawarma.
We can’t wait to look at our (near) end-of-year stats to see what were the most searched-for and most-visited recipes and stories of the previous 12 months. It’s so fascinating to see where readers, both new visitors and long loyal friends of the site, spent their time. This year the data was really interesting, both for this list and our 24 most popular eggs recipes from Terence’s Weekend Eggs series.
This compilation of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024 includes a mix of new dishes we’ve shared this year, Cambodian recipes from our many years living in Siem Reap, and Middle Eastern recipes we loved from when we lived in the UAE, my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes, and older recipes from around the world, dating back to the year we launched Grantourismo in 2010 with our year-long global grand tour dedicated to slow, local and experiential travel.
If you’re arriving here for the first time, on that trip we settled into places for two weeks at a time to attempt to live like locals, and in each place we stayed we explored the local food, connected with local cooks and chefs, learnt to cook a local specialty or three, and shared those recipes.
The tomato bredie recipe, which makes a traditional Cape Town stew, the classic cote de boeuf recipe from superstar French Chef Pierre Gagnaire from our stay in Montmartre, Paris, and the lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe from our riad kitchen in Marrakech, Morocco, Terence first learnt to make it from Jamila, our riad cook, way back in 2010, on the year-long grand tour that launched Grantourismo.
Before I tell you about our 24 most popular recipes of 2024, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks; shopping our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, designed with Terence’s images; or buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever. Now let’s tell you about our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
Most Popular Recipes of 2024 – Stroganoff, Spiced Rice, Salads, Soups, Stews, Noodles, and Curries
Our 24 most popular recipes of 2024 included an array of delicious dishes from around the world, from a Burmese curry and Cambodian noodles to a Calabrian inspired pasta and Spanish potatoes and peppers.
Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
I loved seeing my deliciously rich and creamy Russian beef Stroganoff recipe top the list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024. Better known as a retro-classic of the 1970s, beef Stroganoff is an old aristocratic Russian dish with peasant roots, and it’s one of my best Russian recipes.
Dating to the 1700s to the pink Stroganov Palace in St Petersburg, it was democratised and popularised in the cafeterias of the Soviet Union, before travelling the world with Russian émigrés, exiles and World War II refugees like my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents.
My take on this incredibly comforting dish is based on a combination of my family recipe, a beef Stroganoff I fell in love with many years ago, and the earliest documented beef Stroganoff recipes of the mid-late 1800s.
As with all my best Stroganoff recipes, I recommend traditional Russian sides such as mashed potatoes, crispy shoestring fries or buckwheat kasha. A garden salad is a must, as well as dishes of homemade dill pickles and sour cream.
When all the family used to gather for Christmas or Easter or a holiday feast, baboushka would prepare a whole spread of dishes, such as borscht, piroshki, Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, stuffed cabbage rolls, a beetroot potato salad, and chicken kotleti.
Authentic Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe for a Retro Classic from a Palace Kitchen
Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Khmer Noodles
Cambodian food has such a special place in our hearts, having spent more than a decade here researching and writing an epic Cambodian cookbook and culinary history, so I was thrilled to see nom banh chok place at #2 on this list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
One of our best Cambodian recipes, nom banh chok which is both the name of the fresh rice noodles and the dish itself. It’s an ancient Khmer specialty that has influenced so many other dishes around Southeast Asia, from Thailand’s khanom jeen to a Southern Vietnamese Khmer dish from the Mekong Delta called bún kèn.
There are a handful of types of nom banh chok but our authentic nom banh chok recipe for Cambodia’s beloved ‘Khmer Noodles’ makes nom banh chok samlor proher, a popular breakfast dish of the rice noodles doused in a yellow-green coconut-based fish curry, garnished with fragrant herbs, seasonal vegetables, edible flowers, and wild herbs.
It also makes a great introduction to the use of Cambodia’s beloved prahok and the herb and spice paste called kroeung in authentic Khmer cuisine. If you can’t source fresh rice noodles, use dried rice vermicelli.
Authentic Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Cambodia’s Beloved Khmer Noodles
Traditional Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe
As with Cambodia’s nom banh chok, above, I was so delighted to see another Cambodian dish land at #3 on this list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
Our traditional Cambodian fish amok recipe makes an authentic steamed fish curry to a classic recipe from an older generation of cooks who believe that if it’s not properly steamed, then it’s not amok trei. ‘Amok’ means to steam in banana leaves and ‘trei’ means fish in Cambodia’s Khmer language.
While the dish is eaten by all Cambodians on all kinds of occasions – the firm consistency and banana leaf wrapping made it convenient for farmers to take it out to the rice paddies for a midday meal, while the sumptuous texture and rich taste made it a wedding party favourite – it’s thought that this refined dish is a Royal Khmer specialty dating as far back as the Khmer Empire.
Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe for an Authentic Steamed Fish Curry in the Old Style
Tomato Bredie Recipe for a Classic Cape Town Stew
Next on the list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024 was this tomato bredie recipe, which makes a classic Cape Town stew, and it’s one of our best stew recipes. A bredie, which is an Afrikaans word meaning ‘stew’, is a slow-cooked mutton and tomato stew, and it’s as Cape Town as Table Mountain.
The variety of bredies and amount of spices used have an infinite variety of permeations. This is Terence’s version, cooked in our Camps Bay beach house kitchen during our two weeks in Cape Town way back in 2010, on that yearlong trip that launched Grantourismo.
After sampling the dish in Cape Town restaurants during our stay, and making it in our kitchen several times, Terence found the sweet spot with this recipe, a good mix of lamb pieces cooked for at least a couple of hours, a good rest overnight before reheating, and then add the potatoes.
Garnish with fragrant coriander and serve this tomato bredie recipe with some aromatic rice, and flaky roti if possible, and a good South African Shiraz or some ice cold beer.
Tomato Bredie Recipe for a Classic Cape Town Stew from South Africa
Russian Beef Stew Recipe for Solyanka
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. It’s one of my best Russian recipes and it’s next on the list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
First mentioned in print in the 15th century, solyanka is an ancient dish made for modern times: invented to use leftovers, it’s a one-pot dish that is filling and comforting.
It’s one of our best stew recipes, based on my baboushka’s recipe, which I grew up eating in the 1970s. Garnish with plenty of fresh fragrant dill and eat with dollops of sour cream (smetana) and dill pickles, and a Russian garden salad on the side.
Traditional Russian Beef Stew Recipe for Solyanka, a Medieval Dish for Modern Times
Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe
Our authentic Burmese chicken curry recipe makes a fragrant gently-spiced curry that is 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 quickly soaked up by coconut rice, it’s meant to be served with zingy salads and a relish or two.
This classic Burmese chicken curry recipe, and this Burmese Indian style chicken curry recipe, are recipes I’ve adapted from my favourite Burmese cookbook, Mi Mi Khaing’s Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, dating to 1978. It’s a delightful little booklet 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 recipes from Myanmar, including Mi Mi Khaing’s recipe for homemade curry powder, and these recipes for Burmese street food-style fried chicken, Burmese coconut rice, and Burmese raw cabbage salad. You’ll find more links to Burmese recipes, along with Shan recipes, on the link below.
Classic Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe for an Aromatic Tomato Based Curry
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe
This Cambodian chicken rice porridge recipe for borbor sach moan, also known as ‘Cambodian congee’, was another of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024, and it’s no surprise. It makes an incredibly comforting dish that’s super easy to make. It’s one of our best rice porridge recipes.
During our nearly ten years in Cambodia we’ve observed Cambodians tuck into big bowls of borbor for breakfast, brunch, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner (particularly if feeling unwell), and a late night supper (i.e. hangover cure).
We like to use local Cambodian fish sauces for Cambodian dishes, but you’re unlikely to find those outside Cambodia. We recommend the Thai fish sauce brand Megachef, although we know that our American readers love the American-Vietnamese brand Red Boat.
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan, Cambodia’s Congee
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
One of our best potato soup recipes and one of our best cabbage recipes, this creamy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe makes 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!
While you could happily tuck into a bowl of this warming winter soup on the sofa in your PJs (which is what I’m doing tonight), you could also make it a bit fancy. In fact, my inspiration was partly a heavenly, velvety cauliflower soup that Terence used to make for dinner parties years ago when we lived in the UAE. We frequently had friends over for multi-course tasting menus Terence prepared that rivalled any Michelin-starred European restaurant.
Terence would often begin his divine degustation menus with an amuse bouche of creamy cauliflower soup that was a hit with our guests: a shot glass of a rich creamy cauliflower soup that was topped with a dollop of cream, a spoonful of caviar, and a sprinkle of finely-sliced chives or micro-herbs. It’s a fantastic Christmas starter.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Classic Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire
Our classic cote de boeuf recipe from superstar French Chef Pierre Gagnaire became one of our most memorable souvenirs of our stay in Paris, made in our Montmartre kitchen, and it’s another of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
When we first posted the recipe for this quintessential French dish on our site way back in 2010, we could never have known it would become one of our most read stories and most popular recipes year after year. Make it and you’ll understand why.
The bone-in ribeye steak is a delicious cut of meat but it is also an expensive cut, so if you’re unsure about oven temperatures or how to judge the doneness of the meat, use a meat thermometer. You don’t want to get this wrong.
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire in Paris
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Spices, Pistachios, Cashews and Raisins
My Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins will make you a fragrant spiced rice dish infused with Middle Eastern spices and textured with nuts and raisins. It’s fantastic with smoky kofta kebab or garlicky shish tawook, and salads such as fatoush and tabbouleh. It’s one of our best Middle Eastern recipes and first landed on our monthly round-ups of our most popular recipes in April.
While my Middle Eastern rice recipe is authentic in taste – 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 I use is inauthentic. Instead of the pilaf method, I use the Asian stir-fry method to use up leftover rice.
The next day, I combine any leftover Middle Eastern spiced rice with kofta kebab meat or garlicky chicken leftovers, which I 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
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
This Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe came direct from our riad kitchen in Marrakech, Morocco. Terence first learnt to make it from Jamila, our riad cook, way back in 2010, on the year-long grand tour that launched Grantourismo.
In fact it was early 2010, as our Marrakech was our first proper 2-week stop on that 12-month trip, making it one of the oldest recipes on this site, which makes it even more special that this was another of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
A Moroccan tagine is essentially a slow-cooked stew made from meat, generally lamb or chicken, but can contain anything from duck to fish. We used lamb in the original recipe, which we’d bought from the local market, along with the vegetables and spice mix, although you can now buy the Ras el Hanout spice mix online.
Tagines are traditionally cooked in a tagine pot, a glazed clay base and a large conical lid that’s designed to guide the condensation from cooking back into the pot, but if you don’t have one you can make this in a cooking pot. If you enjoy this try our Moroccan chickpea soup, harrira soup and chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe
One of my best Russian recipes, my recipe for a Russian salmon potato salad with soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill makes one of our best recipes with potatoes. It was another one of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
The recipe makes a filling salad that you can eat year-round. In the cool season, you can serve it with warm potatoes and seared salmon straight from the pan, while it can be refrigerated for warm weather meals, such as summer barbecues and spring picnics.
If you’re eating it at home during cool weather, you’ll want to work quickly so the potatoes, seared salmon and soft-boiled eggs are still warm. In spring and summer, I suggest dressing it with little else but extra virgin olive oil, quality sea salt and good ground black pepper, but in winter, I strongly recommend creamy mayonnaise.
In that case, the runnier the eggs the better, but otherwise, soft jammy eggs are what you want. For perfect soft-boiled eggs, Terence has an excellent guide to boiling perfect eggs every time.
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
Crimean Chebureki Recipe for a Beach Holiday Treat
My chebureki recipe makes the traditional Crimean Tatar crispy fried pastries filled with spiced ground beef and sautéed onions, which went from being a beloved Black Sea beach holiday snack to becoming a popular street food in Russia, Ukraine, former Soviet countries, and Central Asia.
They’re so big you need to hold the crispy crescent-shaped savoury turnovers in two hands to bite into their crunchy exteriors. Whenever I make these, I can’t help but imagine the cheeky grin and sparkle in the eyes of the little girl who became my grandmother, as she munched into these fried treats on the seaside holidays she used to fondly recall when she was alive.
If you make these and enjoy them, try my mini chebureki recipe, which makes smaller, more manageable and spicier versions of these ground beef turnovers.
Chebureki Recipe for a Crimean Beach Holiday Treat That Became a Popular Russian Street Food Snack
Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe – How to Jazz Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun
Terence’s best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe jazzes up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, which are the best instant ramen noodles as far as he’s concerned. Terence likes the spicy soup seasoning of Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun, especially the Shin Black Noodle Soup, so all he does is add slices of pork, blanched bean sprouts and Chinese greens, a boiled egg, chilli oil, and fried shallots.
Instant ramen noodles get a bad rap as fast food for lazy people or poor students. But as I said in my post in which I shared my best instant ramen recipe and now not-so secret formula for upgrading instant ramen noodles, all you have to do is take the dried instant noodles themselves, discard those little packets of dehydrated veg and seasoning, and add your favourite ingredients to really take instant ramen to the next level.
The spicy soup base of Nongshim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup hits the spot, so he just adds melt-in-your-mouth slices of char siu pork (which we also use in this special fried rice), crisp Chinese greens, blanched bean sprouts, a boiled egg, deep-fried shallots, and his heady homemade chilli oil.
If you’re a time-poor instant ramen noodle lover, try my cheese ramen recipe. If you have more time to cook than we do right now, try my recipe for Korean spicy noodles with meatballs, inspired by spaghetti and meatballs, and if you make some char siu, make Terence’s Hokkien noodles recipe.
Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe – How to Jazz Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Terence’s chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato makes one of our best burger recipes and one of our favourite take-out dishes (the burger) to eat in. When we finally bit the bullet and made chicken schnitzel for the first time in more than 25 years in a bout of homesickness we were very pleasantly surprised.
Served with my warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves and homemade dill pickles, it was damn good. It was so good that we made it a couple of times for ‘testing purposes’ using both shallow and deep frying. Crispy on the outside and moist and flavourful to bite into, the chicken schnitzel and potato salad made a very hearty and yet simple dish.
Instead of looking to the chicken schnitzel burger recipes have been popular in Australia in recent years, Terence went to our favourite Southern fried chicken burger recipe from Belle’s Hot Chicken for inspiration. Serve with our hand-cut spicy potato wedges. We have a homemade sweet chilli sauce to go with those. If you enjoy this, try our chicken parma, which is also fantastic in a burger.
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Cape Malay Chicken Curry Recipe
This Cape Malay chicken curry recipe makes a richly spiced curry from Cape Town and it’s next on the list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024. Our recipe was inspired by the fragrant chicken curry we learnt to make in a Cape Malay cooking class in colourful Bo-Kaap, the heart of Cape Malay culture.
The gently spiced chicken curry is a cousin of the classic Cape Town tomato bredie, above. They’re dishes that locals here in Southeast Asia would describe as ‘same same but different’, sharing a lot of similar spices.
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 Curry from Cape Town, South Africa
Cambodian Fried Rice Recipe for Bai Cha
Our Cambodian fried rice recipe makes bai cha (also written as bai tcha, bai char, bai chaa, bay cha) or fried rice – ‘bai’ is rice and ‘cha’ is to stir-fry – and it’s the most popular Chinese-style fried rice in Cambodia.
It’s distinguished by two quintessential breakfast ingredients, sausage and eggs, and Siem Reap sausage in particular, the local take on lap cheong, the Cantonese name for a smoked, sweetened, red Chinese sausage.
There seems to be as many Cambodian fried rice recipes as there are versions of Chinese-style fried rice across Southeast Asia. Bai cha is the most common fried rice cooked in homes and sold at local markets, street food stalls and simple local eateries.
Cooks of Cambodian-Chinese heritage might use lap cheong in the Chinese-Cambodian bai cha, while Cambodians of Khmer heritage here tend to use Siem Reap sausage. Highly recommend doing what the locals do and sliding on a fried egg, because everything tastes better with a fried egg on top.
Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings
My Russian potato vareniki recipe makes the traditional half-moon shaped Russian and Ukrainian dumplings filled with mashed potato and caramelised onion that are eaten with sour cream and fresh dill.
My Russian-Ukrainian born grandmother used to make vareniki, along with meat-filled pelmeni, for family meals. Especially for the feasts for Orthodox Christmas and Easter, and the seemingly never-ending Sunday lunches that turned into dinners. Boiled the first time they’re cooked, they’re fantastic fried the next day,
As a child, it was my responsibility to set the dining table and carry the dishes from the kitchen to dining room – everything from baboushka’s Russian pelmeni and stuffed cabbage rolls, beetroot potato salad and classic garden salad, and Russian kotleti and piroshki – and I have to confess that I set the casserole pot filled to the brim with potato vareniki as close to my place setting as possible.
Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings
Classic Banana Flower Salad Recipe for Cambodia’s Gnoam Trayong Chek
This recipe for a banana flower salad – also called a banana blossom salad – makes the Cambodian banana flower salad called gnoam trayong chek in Khmer, and it was another of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
A fragrant and crunchy salad that is all about the texture and aromas, our banana flower salad includes poached chicken, but you could make a vegetarian version. It’s a super-easy recipe to make, just work fast so your banana flower doesn’t brown
Like our Cambodian green papaya salad recipe, this banana blossom salad also has cousins in Thailand and Vietnam, which vary slightly. This delicious banana blossom salad recipe was published as part of our series on Cambodia’s wonderful salads that we’re recipe testing for our Cambodian cookbook.
The series included recipes for a crunchy green papaya salad that is full of texture, a very moreish Cambodian minced pork larb, a fragrant grilled beef salad, and, what has now become one of our favourite Cambodian salads, this light pork and jicama salad.
Classic Banana Flower Salad Recipe for Cambodia’s Gnoam Trayong Chek
Chicken Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Old Fashioned Chicken Stew
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. Terence believes 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 my chicken stew recipe.
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 a Spanish rabo de toro oxtail stew, a French cassoulet, a traditional Irish beef stew, an Irish beef and Guinness stew with dumplings, the Hungarian stew porkolt, 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
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe
I was so chuffed to see this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe land on this list of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024. 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 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, which you can read more about in our guide to ’nduja and how to use it.
Traditionally, this classic Calabrian spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe calls for ’nduja, although you’ll also find Southern Italian pastas made with spicy Italian sausages at restaurants in Calabria that don’t feature ’nduja, such as my 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 our ’nduja pizza made in a Dutch oven.
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria in Southern Italy
Gnocchi with Asparagus and Mushrooms, Bacon and Parmesan Recipe
This asparagus and mushrooms, bacon and Parmesan gnocchi recipe makes a delicious pasta that’s quick, easy and versatile. Keep things simple and let the beautiful fresh produce shine with a light pan-fry in olive oil. Or cook it longer in plenty of cream and sprinkle on extra cheese before serving for a creamier pasta.
I concocted this pasta for my mum soon after returning to Australia to visit her earlier this year, as I prefer lighter pastas dressed in little else but a good extra virgin olive oil, while she loves pastas cloaked in loads of cream and cheese, so I had to create pastas that could please both of us. It was great to see it become one of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024.
If you’re a lover of asparagus and mushrooms and a fan of pasta dishes, you’ll adore this dish, as comes together quickly if you let the ingredients shine, only lightly frying the mushrooms so they’re glossy and still meaty and the asparagus remains bright and crunchy.
And if you are a fan of asparagus, try our recipes for fusilli with a creamy pumpkin pasta sauce, pan-fried asparagus on hummus with dukkah, my sauteed asparagus on goat’s cheese, and Terence’s classic Venetian poached eggs, asparagus, pancetta and parmesan. His contemporary take on that dish, which, while Terence shared it for Weekend Eggs, his series on breakfast eggs from around the world, makes a wonderful amuse bouche, especially for a Christmas soiree.
Gnocchi with Asparagus and Mushrooms, Bacon and Parmesan Recipe
Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma Recipe for Stovetop Shawarma if You Don’t Have a Vertical Spit at Home
You’ll love our quick and easy chicken shawarma recipe if you’ve been to the Middle East and eaten a delicious chicken shawarma made to order, or a lamb or beef shawarma for that matter. Because these traditional Arabic sandwiches, a popular Middle Eastern specialty, typically come filled with smoky, succulent, spiced chicken or juicy beef. (Pork isn’t widely eaten for obvious reasons.)
While nothing can match the experience of biting into soft warmed flatbread, heated at the base of the vertical spit, spread with garlicky toum, rolled around hot potato fries, zingy pickled cucumber slices, and fragrant, juicy, gently spiced chicken pieces just-sliced off the vertical rotisserie, our chicken shawarma recipe makes something that comes close!
Wrapped tightly in paper, a chicken shawarma is essentially a takeaway sandwich and a hugely popular Middle Eastern street food at that, typically eaten as a street food snack because they’re quite small. When we lived in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, we’d eat shawarma a couple of times a week. We’d do a sweaty stroll to one of our favourite Lebanese eateries and buy two each, eating one on the spot and taking the other home.
If we were ordering takeaway Arabic food for a proper dinner, we’d order a shawarma plate, which is essentially what you see above, and tubs of Middle Eastern mezze such as hummus and baba ganoush, salads such as fatoush, and perhaps some falafel, kebbe, shish tawook or kofta kebabs. They’d always slip plenty of complimentary warm flatbread into the paper bag. If you’ve spent time in the Middle East, hopefully this will transport you there.
Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma Recipe Pan Fried on the Stovetop
Spanish Potatoes and Peppers Recipe for Poor Man’s Potatoes or Patatas Pobres
One of our best recipes with potatoes, this recipe for patatas o lo pobre or patatas pobres makes a Spanish potatoes and peppers dish which translates to ‘poor man’s potatoes’. In Spain the rustic potato dish is cooked in the home as well as served at tavernas and bars as tapas or raciones, a slightly larger appetiser-size portion than the snack-size tapas.
Like many Spanish tapas dishes, the culinary culture of grazing on tapas, and Spanish specialties such as gazpacho, patatas o lo pobre or poor man’s potatoes has its provenance in Southern Spain, in the region of Andalusia or Andalucia, one of our favourite parts of Spain. The dish is said to have originated in the city of Granada, home to the enchanting Alhambra.
That’s not surprising, because while Granada gets scorching hot in summer, in winter it’s one of the coldest places in Andalucia. The Sierra Nevada or ‘snowy mountain range’ is close by, which is a popular winter destination – and there are few more warming dishes to tuck into fresh off the slopes than a plate of fried potatoes.
These potatoes and peppers make a brilliant Christmas vegetable side dish. Make extra and use leftovers to make this penna pasta with sausage, potatoes, peppers and onions.
Spanish Potatoes and Peppers Recipe for Poor Man’s Potatoes or Patatas Pobres
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our 24 most popular recipes of 2024, as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
