This compilation of 31 most popular recipes of December 2025 once again featured a real mix of recipes, from long-time reader favourites like my Russian beef Stroganoff, spiced Middle Eastern style rice with dried fruit and nuts, and aromatic Cambodian nom banh chok, which last year landed at the top of the list month after month, to recipes of recent years such as our spicy Calabrian sausage pasta and crispy Korean coleslaw, and newer recipes, like my broccoli bacon salad recipe and Russian crab salad.
This round-up of the 31 most popular recipes of December 2025 includes a real mix of recipes once again, but while our Christmas recipe collections and New Year’s Eve food ideas were some of the most popular recipes on the site in December, as they are every year, they weren’t able to knock these off the top of the list.
While readers spent a lot of time on our posts on Christmas menu ideas, Christmas day breakfast, Christmas day brunch, our best dip recipes, Christmas cocktails, best Christmas starters, best Christmas salads, best Christmas seafood recipes, vegetable sides, best desserts, ideas for Christmas leftovers ideas, only one Christmas round-up post made the top 31 most popular recipes of December 2025.
And that recipe post was my collection of traditional Russian-Ukrainian Christmas food, which was surprising, as the Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on 7 January, so that compilation doesn’t usually start to get a lot of visitors until around about now. I’ll be cooking up a storm for that holiday for my elderly mum, so look out for new recipes over coming days, along with our 31 recipes to cook in January 2026, which I’ll be publishing next.
Now before you scroll down to our most popular recipes of December 2025, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo: you could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or a meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks.
Looking for more cooking inspiration? Our archives are brimming with many hundreds of recipes from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And you can save your favourite recipes in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of any post. Now let me tell you more about the recipes readers loved in December.
Most Popular Recipes of December 2025 – Recipes Readers Cooked Last Month
These were our most popular recipes of December 2025 – the recipes that readers searched for, spent time on, and hopefully cooked in December.
Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
Once again, my classic beef Stroganoff recipe, one of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes, topped our list of most popular recipes of December 2025, and looks set to become the most popular recipe of the year. My recipe differs a little to my mother’s, in that it’s more richly spiced and includes an unusual ingredient that actually makes sense.
One of our most searched-for recipes on the site, it’s one of my best Stroganoff recipes. I also have recipes for chicken Stroganoff, mushroom Stroganoff, meatball Stroganoff and pork Stroganoff. An old aristocratic Russian dish with a long history, beef Stroganoff was popularised in Soviet-era canteens before travelling the world with Russian émigrés, exiles and World War 2 refugees like my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents.
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 my grandmother made, serve it as part of a spread of dishes, including bowls of borscht and piroshki, a pink beet potato salad, casserole pots full of Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, a tray of cabbage rolls, and perhaps some chicken kotleti.
Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe for a Retro Classic from a Palace Kitchen
Traditional Russian Christmas Food Recipes
I was really surprised to see so many visitors to the site in December arriving for this collection of my traditional Russian food recipes for Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch. Usually people don’t this collection until late December or even early January. These recipes make the dishes my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka spent days in the kitchen preparing for our family feasts: borscht, piroshki, Russian pelmeni, Ukrainian vareniki etc.
If you’ll be celebrating Orthodox Christmas on 7 January 2026, do browse the traditional Russian food recipes, below, and, for even more options, the full archive of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes. Although traditionally the Orthodox Christmas begins on Christmas Eve (6 January) when many Russians and Orthodox Christians from neighbouring Slavic countries sit down for a Christmas Eve dinner, feet aching from a long late church service. I’m speaking from experience!
Many families will also enjoy an Orthodox Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner the next day, which was the tradition in my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents home when I was growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world, getting to celebrate two Christmases and two Easters.
Traditional Russian Christmas Food Recipes for Orthodox Christmas Feasts
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Dried Fruit and Nuts
I was chuffed to see my quick and easy Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins was another of the most popular recipes in December. Like the beef Strog, it might also be one of the most popular recipes of 2025. My recipe will make you a fragrant rice dish infused with Middle Eastern spices and textured with nuts and raisins.
It’s one of our best Middle Eastern recipes, but 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.
It’s 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. The next day, I combine any leftover rice with leftover meat, 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
Cambodian Nom Banh Chok Recipe
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 I love seeing readers searching for our Cambodian recipes and am thrilled to see this nom banh chok recipe high on the list of our most popular recipes of December 2025.
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.
Authentic Nom Banh Chok Recipe for Cambodia’s Beloved Khmer Noodles
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 for December 2025. Terence shared this guide in his 15 year old Weekend Eggs recipes series on breakfast egg dishes from around the world, which we started way back in 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.
Terence’s 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. And he has 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
Buckwheat Kasha with Bacon, Eggs and Mushrooms
Despite the rustic appearance, this is perhaps the least traditional of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes. Although I have to confess that of all the Russian breakfasts my baboushka used to make – French toast, blini, potato cakes, and buckwheat pancakes – kasha was my least favourite breakfast as a child. The nutty flavour and strong smell put me off. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I finally became smitten with kasha.
This comforting Russian buckwheat kasha recipe with caramelised onions, bacon lardons, pan-fried mushrooms, and soft-boiled eggs makes my heartier take on my grandmother’s traditional Russian breakfast and it was another of our most popular recipes of December 2025 on Grantourismo.
The key ingredient of this savoury porridge (kasha) is buckwheat groats (grechka). While based on my Russian grandmother’s recipe, I’ve spiced things up. My baba kept things simple and sprinkled chopped hard-boiled eggs on top, whereas I use soft-boiled eggs, and garnish it with diced gherkins, loads of fresh fragrant dill, and a dollop of sour cream. If you enjoy this, try our spiced pumpkin kasha rcipe for cossack comfort food.
Russian Buckwheat Kasha Recipe with Bacon, Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms and Eggs
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 was one of our most popular recipes of December 2025.
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 my baboushka’s recipe, which I grew up eating in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s one of my favourite beef 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
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe
One of our best breakfast rice recipes, best Asian breakfast recipes, and one my favourite Cambodian recipes, this Cambodian chicken rice porridge recipe for borbor sach moan makes a Cambodian congee that I’ve been making since we first moved to Cambodia‘s Siem Reap back. 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 comfort food favourite eaten at any time 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 (and 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
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, our easy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe makes a creamy vegetable soup that’s incredibly rich and comforting and it was another of our most popular recipes of December 2025 on Grantourismo.
You could enjoyably slurp it as is on a chilly autumn or fall evening, dunking toast into the silky broth, or add texture and make it a bit fancy by sprinkling crushed croutons, fresh fragrant dill sprigs, and cracked black pepper on top.
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.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Borscht Recipe for the Soup of my Childhood
This Russian borscht recipe makes the hearty home-cooked soup of my childhood that my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka used to make, which has its provenance in Ukraine, but is cooked all over Russia, the former Soviet states, and parts of Eastern Europe.
My family’s beetroot-driven vegetable soup is served with sour cream and dill and is a filling meal in itself. We’d eat it for lunch or dinner the first night, typically with piroshki (hand pies), then for breakfast the next day.
It would also get served as a starter before a weekend family feast, along this beet potato salad, Olivier potato salad, a classic garden salad, Russian pelmeni, varenyki (mashed potato with caramelised onion filled dumplings), stuffed cabbage rolls, and chicken kotleti (pan fried meat patties).
Russian Borscht Recipe for the Hearty Home-Cooked Soup of my Childhood
Russian Devilled Eggs Recipe
My Russian devilled eggs recipe will make you a Russian retro-classic which, like chicken Kiev and beef Stroganoff, spread like wildfire around the world, featuring on formica trays of hors d’oeuvres at every swinging soirée from Sydney to San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s also one of our most popular Christmas brunch recipes.
Devilled eggs were a feature of Russian imperial cuisine, laid out on the elaborate spreads of zakuski or hors d’oeuvres on buffet tables overflowing with trays of snacks and small plates. See Terence’s guide to boiling eggs if you need help in that area.
You could pipe the mix into the egg white using a piping bag, but unless you dice your gherkins and purple shallots super-finely, which you should anyway, the mix will get stuck in the bag.
Russian Devilled Eggs Recipe for a Zakuski Table Fit for a Russian Emperor
Traditional Burmese Chicken Curry Recipe
Our 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 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 I 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
Korean Coleslaw Recipe for a Classic Side Salad
This Korean coleslaw recipe makes a zingy Korean cabbage salad that’s next in my 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 I’ve been sharing and has 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 my 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! – as one of an array of banchan, Korean sides or starters for Korean barbecue dishes, with Korean-style burgers like 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’s another easy, speedy recipe.
Classic Korean Coleslaw Recipe for a Korean Cabbage Salad Side Dish
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire
This cote de boeuf recipe was almost a couscous recipe. Back in the spring of 2010 in Paris, about a quarter of the way through our 12 month global grand tour aimed at inspiring you all to live like locals and travel more slowly, sustainably, and more experientially, we asked the legendary French chef Pierre Gagnaire his opinion as to what the quintessentially Parisian dish was that Terence should learn to cook in Paris for his series The Dish.
Pierre suggested couscous! While it wasn’t the suggestion we were hoping for, the chef had a point. While some Parisians were struggling with the French capital’s increasing cosmopolitanism, as I’d learnt on a guided walk on Paris’ multiculturalism, Parisians had firmly embraced the food of the Maghreb and couscous was a common dish found in many bistros across the city.
However, as we’d just come from Morocco, where we’d settled into Marrakech and Essaouira for two weeks, where we’d been eating couscous daily and Terence cooked lamb tajine for The Dish, we asked the chef for a more classic French dish. Without hesitation Pierre declared “Côte de bœuf!”
This is that recipe and for many years it was one of the most popular recipes on the site. We recommend a cast iron Dutch Oven for cooking your cote de boeuf and you’ll also need a meat thermometer. You don’t want to get this one wrong! Bon appétit!
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire in Paris
Russian Crab Salad Recipe
If, like my mum, you love crab sticks and often have a pack in the freezer or the cost of living crisis has had you reaching for canned crab meat, try this versatile Russian crab salad recipe for a nostalgic dish from the Soviet Union, when canned food was promoted due to food shortages, and crab sticks exploded in popularity in the USSR and around the world in the 1970s after they were invented in Japan.
Crab sticks are popular again due to their sustainability and affordability. But if you’re not a fan and don’t share my enthusiasm for recreating historical dishes, you can use fresh crab, lobster or crayfish in this salad, as the elites did during the Russian Empire, before the Russian Revolution democratised food and canned crab was used. Indulge as the tsars did and spoon generous dollops of caviar on the salad.
This quick and easy Russian crab salad recipe is one of the most popular Russian salads over Christmas-New Year and it was another of our most recipes in December 2025, and no doubt will be in January 2026 when the Orthodox Christmas falls, on 7 January.
Russian Crab Salad Recipe for a Nostalgic Soviet Era Crab Stick Salad
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe
One of my 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
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria
I was thrilled to see that this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe was another one of the most popular recipes in December 2025, 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, which you can read more about 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 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
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 so 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), 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.
Khmer Yellow Kroeung Recipe for Kroeung Samlor Machou, Cambodia’s Essential Spice Paste
Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe
This Cambodian chicken curry recipe makes one of Southeast Asia’s most comforting chicken curries and (along with a Saraman curry) is one of my favourite curries. While it 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 Terence has tweaked the recipe over the years. We highly recommend the book if you’re new to Cambodian cooking. If you can get hold of the book the recipe is called Chicken Curry or Samlar Can Moan.
A ‘samlar’ or ‘samlor’ can refer to a stew or soup, which often stumps foreign visitors unfamiliar with Cambodian food, who have been known to question to the consistency of a dish served at a restaurant having sampled one or the other. ‘Cari’ is also used to describe a curry and ‘moan’ is chicken, which my Cambodian friends often charmingly translate to ‘kitchen’ :)
Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe for a Gentle Comforting Southeast Asian Curry
Rustic Seafood Pie with Creamy Spring Vegetable Sauce
This easy seafood pie recipe makes rustic seafood pies in a creamy spring vegetable sauce with flaky puff pastry lids. The rustic look belies the velvety sauce within, made with fresh spring vegetables such as asparagus, zucchini and peas, fragrant herbs such as dill and flat leaf parsley, and chunky pieces of salmon, sweet prawns and plump mussels.
If you’re a seafood pie lover and you enjoyed my salmon tray bake recipe, which made crispy skinned salmon fillets baked so that the skin crackles but flesh remains moist, served with roasted spring vegetables that are just-done so that they’re still taste fresh and crunchy, you should enjoy this easy seafood pie recipe.
If you’re a seafood lover, particularly a salmon lover, do try my fish pot pie recipe – no pastry needed, it has a crispy cheese lid. You’ll find more of our best salmon recipes here, including smoked salmon blini, a salmon ceviche-style appetiser, salmon soup, salmon potato salad, salmon pasta, clay-pot salmon, and Terence’s crispy skin salmon fillet with colcannon with prawns – or creamy mashed potatoes if you prefer.
Seafood Pie Recipe for Rustic Seafood Pies with Creamy Spring Vegetable Sauce
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe
Terence 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 Terence’s spiced Moroccan chickpea soup, which he also learnt to make from Jamila, or my hearty Moroccan harrira made with lentils.
For dessert, you could try my take on a sweet Moroccan orange salad with cinnamon, mint, pomegranate and pistachios. And for breakfast, try Terence’s Moroccan version of chakchouka, which he shared for the Moroccan edition of Weekend Eggs.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings
This traditional potato vareniki recipe makes half-moon dumplings filled with mashed potato and caramelised onion that are eaten with sour cream and fresh dill. Boiled the first time they’re cooked, and tossed in plenty of butter, vareniki are fantastic fried the next day.
My Odessa-born Russian-Ukrainian baboushka made a big batch of these, along with meat-filled pelmeni for our shared family meals. Especially for the feasts for Orthodox Christmas and Easter, and the seemingly never-ending Sunday lunches that turned into dinners.
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 dumplings to 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 the potato vareniki as close to my place setting as possible.
Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings
Roast Broccoli Recipe with Zucchini, Beans and Sesame
If you’re a lover of broccoli, you need to make my broccoli soup with cheddar, potato, crispy bacon and crunchy croutons, which I’m 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. I also 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
Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
This dumpling soup recipe for Siberian pelmeni soup with fresh dill and sour cream makes the delicious Russian dumplings called pelmeni in the Siberian style. Petite pelmeni stuffed with a savoury ground beef, minced pork and soft fried onion filling are served in a buttery broth with cracked pepper, dollops of sour cream, and plenty of fresh fragrant dill.
As a child, I only knew three things about Siberia – it was one of the coldest places on earth, it was home to horrific gulags where people were forced into back-breaking work until it killed them, and that Siberia was the reason my Russian great-grandmother never smiled. My great-grandfather had been sent to the gulags and she never saw him again.
My grandmother on the other hand, always had a twinkle in her eye and dimples when she smiled. Baboushka didn’t serve pelmeni in soup. So I had no idea this bone-chillingly cold place called Siberia, long associated with brutal labour camps, produced such warming bowls of dumpling goodness, known outside those frozen lands as Siberian pelmeni – until I tried them at a Siberian restaurant in Moscow.
Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
Cambodian Fried Spring Rolls Recipe for Crispy Egg Rolls
Our Cambodian fried spring rolls recipe makes a traditional crispy deep-fried spring roll – or egg roll, as our American readers call them – of the kind you’ll find sold in markets and street food stalls as a snack and served in restaurants as an appetiser here in Cambodia. We also have a tangy Cambodian fried spring roll dipping sauce recipe that you can make to serve with them.
Easy to make, once you get the hang of the rolling technique, these Cambodian fried spring rolls are a classic, but by all means can be adapted to your taste. While the origin of the spring roll is Chinese, and in Cambodia specifically its provenance is the Chinese-Cambodian community, these fried spring rolls are eaten by everyone these days. When you taste them you’ll realise why!
I use a simple crinkle-blade hand grater, which will give you a texture that’s somewhere in between a standard grater and julienning. They are hugely popular here in Southeast Asia and cost about a dollar at local markets. You could also use a mandolin with a crinkle-ripple blade.
Cambodian Fried Spring Rolls Recipe for Crispy Deep-Fried Egg Rolls
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.
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.
Sour Beef Soup with Morning Glory Recipe for Samlor Machou Kroeung Sach Ko
Longevity Noodles Recipe for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity
This 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.
Perhaps that’s why our recipe was so popular in December because Chinese New Year, which is celebrated here in Cambodia, in China, and in other countries with Chinese communities, such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, isn’t until February.
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 usually 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 Fried Rice Recipe for Bai Cha
Another of the most popular recipes in December 2025, this Cambodian fried rice recipe makes the best Cambodian bai cha (fried rice), a lighter version of the popular Chinese stir-fry rice dish. Thanks to many centuries of Chinese trade and migration, Chinese fried rice is found across Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, there are many variations, bai char being the most ubiquitous.
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 – is 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 local homes and sold at street food stalls and simple local eateries. Try it and you’ll know why!
Chicken Stew Recipe for an Old Fashioned Stew
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 best chicken stew recipe. I have my grandparents and parents to thank for this stew, as well as a couple of tricks – or techniques, more correctly – from two of my 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
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 my 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!
Spanish Chorizo and Potato Croquettes Recipe
Our traditional Spanish chorizo and potato croquettes recipe will make you the tasty croquetas de patata y chorizo, which you’ll spot on small plates in Spanish tapas bars in Spain and abroad. Bite into the light crispy shell and you’ll find creamy mashed potatoes flecked with spicy pieces of chorizo.
Another one of the most popular recipes in December 2025, it’s one of our best Spanish tapas recipes, so make a big batch as they’re addictive. They’re also a great use of Christmas leftovers if you still have any ham and potatoes in the fridge.
This recipe for croquetas de patata y chorizo is one of our favourite recipes with chorizo and we shared it as part of a series of Spanish tapas bar recipes. We kicked off the series with this Spanish meatballs recipe for albondigas and next up we’ll share recipes for Spanish chorizo in red wine for chorizo al vino tinto, Spanish style garlic shrimp for gambas al ajillo, calamari al plancha for smoky squid cooked on a griddle, and more.
Spanish Chorizo and Potato Croquettes Recipe for Croquetas de Patata y Chorizo
Broccoli Bacon Salad Recipe with Cranberries, Pine Nuts and Pangrattato
If you’re a fan of the American broccoli salad — or broccoli crunch salad, as it’s traditionally made with crunchy raw broccoli — then try our broccoli bacon salad recipe. It was another of the most popular recipes in December 2025. Full of flavour and texture, it’s also one of our best broccoli recipes. It’s fantastic eaten on its own, but it’s also a brilliant side to juicy meatballs, roast chicken, barbecue sausages, or a great hunk of steak.
Whether in soup, pasta or omelettes, broccoli and bacon is one of those great ingredient couplings, especially in Italy — like tomato and mozzarella and prosciutto and melon, two more great Italian pairings. Try this broccoli rabe with pancetta and sausage and tell me I’m wrong.
Broccoli originated in Italy, in Calabria, so Italians ought to know what to do with it, and broccoli seeds were brought to Australia with Italian immigrants. So I’ve given the classic American broccoli salad more Italian flavour. I include the essential ingredient, cranberries, rehydrated in Earl Grey tea for a hint of bergamot, which also hails from Southern Italy.
But instead of the traditional creamy dressings of American broccoli salads, I use a basic vinaigrette of extra virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar. I skip the usual sunflower seeds for quintessentially Italian pine nuts. And I shower the salad with two beloved Italian condiments, pangrattato for crunch, and gremolata for zest.
Broccoli Bacon Salad Recipe with Cranberries, Pine Nuts and Pangrattato
Please let us know in the comments below if you make any of the recipes in this collection of our most popular recipes of December 2025 on Grantourismo, as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
