Our most popular recipes of July 2025 included a combo of your all-time favourites – from my rich, saucy Russian beef Stroganoff and spiced Middle Eastern rice with fruit and nuts to Terence’s decadent Southeast Asian crab omelette and slow-cooked Cape Town mutton stew – to new-ish recipes of recent years, such as my Med-style fig salad with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and chicken with balsamic glaze dressing and a side of smoky charred eggplant piled onto creamy hummus, sprinkled with sesame and pomegranate seeds.
I’d love to be able to say it’s that time of the month when we look at our site stats to see which recipes you’ve all been searching for, spending time on, and hopefully cooking, then we compile this round-up of our most popular recipes of July 2025 for you. But it’s a week later than I’d planned to publish this recipe collection due to personal reasons (I’ve been moving my elderly mother to a new home after an 18-month search), so, sincere apologies.
As usual, our most popular July recipes included a real mix of recipes. There were long-time reader favourites that top these lists month after month, and were on our compilations of most popular June recipes and most popular May recipes, including my authentic beef Stroganoff, aromatic Middle Eastern rice, fragrant Cambodian curried rice noodles, Terence’s tomato-based mutton stew from Cape Town, and his decadent Southeast Asian crab omelette.
The list also featured recipes for Terence’s chicken schnitzel burger (fantastic with spicy potato wedges), my Korean crunchy coleslaw, Middle Eastern side dish of smoky charred eggplant piled onto creamy hummus, sprinkled with pomegranate arils and sesame seeds, and Mediterranean-style fig salad with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and chicken with balsamic glaze dressing.
Now before you browse our most popular recipes of July 2025, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. There are myriad ways, but you could support our epic, original Cambodian cookbook and culinary history project on Patreon; 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 inspo? Our archives are brimming with hundreds of recipes from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled and loved. And you can save your favourite recipes in your own private account by clicking on the heart on the right of any post. Now let me tell you more about our most popular recipes of July.
Most Popular Recipes of July 2025 – Recipes Our Readers Loved Last Month
These were our most popular recipes of July 2025 – the recipes that you all searched for, spent time on, and hopefully cooked in July.
Saucy Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
One of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes, which my mother used to cook regularly, this classic beef Stroganoff recipe topped the list of most popular recipes of July 2025 on Grantourismo. Once again, it’s no surprise, as it’s long been one of our most searched for recipes, and is 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 rich history, beef Stroganoff was democratised and popularised in canteens during the Soviet era, and travelled the world with Russian exiles, émigrés and World War 2 refugees like my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents, becoming popular everywhere from Australia to the Americas.
Serve it with classic Stroganoff sides: crunchy shoestring fries or mashed potatoes and a crisp garden salad, plus homemade dill pickles and sour cream. For a proper Sunday meal of the kind my baboushka prepared, serve it at the centre of a spread of dishes, with plates of piroshki, borscht, Russian pelmeni, Ukrainian vareniki, cabbage rolls, a beet potato salad, and chicken kotleti.
Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe for a Retro Classic from a Palace Kitchen
Spiced Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Dried Fruit and Nuts
This quick and easy Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins will make you an aromatic rice dish infused with Middle Eastern spices and textured with nuts and raisins. It’s fantastic with smoky kofta kebab or the garlicky chicken called shish tawook, Middle Eastern vegetable sides, such as these spicy potatoes from Lebanon, and salads such as fatoush and tabbouleh. It’s one of our best Middle Eastern recipes.
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, such as chicken shawarma, 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
Fragrant Cambodian Rice Noodles with Curried Coconut Broth
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 topped the list of our most popular recipes of June 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
Comforting 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 July 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 baboushka kept things simple and sprinkled chopped-up hard-boiled eggs on top, whereas I use soft-boiled eggs, and also garnish it with diced gherkins, plenty of fresh fragrant dill, and a generous dollop of sour cream. If you enjoy this, try our spiced pumpkin kasha rcipe for cossack comfort food.
Comforting Russian Buckwheat Kasha Recipe with Bacon, Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms and Eggs
Guide to 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 July 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.
It was a response to one of the questions most often asked from home cooks, including our egg-loving readers. Our readers wanted to know exactly how long to boil eggs for perfect soft boiled eggs and how long to boil eggs for hard boiled eggs.
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
Spicy Southern Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria
I was so chuffed to see that this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe was another one of the most popular recipes in July 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
Mouthwatering Tomato Based Cape Town Mutton Stew Recipe
This tomato bredie recipe, which makes a classic Cape Town stew was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025 on Grantourismo. 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 during our two weeks in Cape Town way back in 2010. After sampling the dish in a number of Cape Town restaurants during our stay, and testing the recipe several times in our Cape Town kitchen, just a stones throw from beautiful Camps Bay, Terence found the sweet spot with this recipe. He’s been making it ever since.
It’s a good mix of lamb pieces cooked for at least a couple of hours. It gets a good rest overnight before reheating, and then you add the potatoes. Garnish with fragrant coriander and serve this tomato bredie recipe with some aromatic rice, and 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
Sublime Cambodian Amok Trei Recipe for a Steamed Fish Curry
One of our best Cambodian recipes, our authentic traditional fish amok recipe makes a 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 deal, 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.
Our traditional Cambodian fish amok recipe was one of our most popular recipes of July 2025 on Grantourismo, which thrills me no end, after spending so many years researching Cambodian cuisine and working on our epic Cambodian cookbook.
Cambodian Fish Amok Recipe for an Authentic Steamed Fish Curry in the Old Style
Quick Gnocchi in Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce in 10 Minutes
My creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi recipe makes a quick and easy pasta dish in ten minutes – a perfect mid-week meal. Tender, pillowy Italian potato dumplings coated in a rose sauce, a combination of canned tomatoes and cooking cream, is rich and reassuringly comforting. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread to mop up the moreish sauce.
If you’re looking for a more luscious tomato sauce for pasta, make this rich Italian-style tomato sauce, which is similar to a classic Italian sugo al pomodoro – the same tomato pasta sauce that long-time readers might remember the lovely Maria, the caretaker of the trullo we settled into in Alberobello, Puglia, teaching Terence after his lesson on making orecchiette.
I use that richer tomato sauce in my juicy Italian meatballs recipe, this spaghetti with meatballs recipe and our recipe for Italian-Australian chicken parmigiana or chicken parma, as we Aussies call the breaded chicken cutlets topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella. But when I’m time-poor, I make this creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi, which takes just ten minutes.
The recipe is nothing if not versatile. While I add cream to create a rose sauce that’s rich and comforting, you could skip the cream and you’ve still got a tasty tomato sauce. You could add fresh sweet cherry tomatoes, or sun-dried tomatoes, which are loaded with umami; olives and mushrooms or sausage for texture; or simply spice the sauce up with ground paprika, fresh chillies, chilli powder or chilli flakes.
Comforting Gnocchi in Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce in 10 Minutes
Sweet and Sour 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.
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
Gently Spiced Traditional 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 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 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, where we stayed 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
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 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
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
This chicken schnitzel burger recipe will make you our crunchy chicken schnitzel with panko breadcrumbs, parmesan and lemon zest, spread with creamy pickle mayo and topped with bacon, cabbage and tomato between soft burger buns. Served with spicy potato wedges, it is home-cooked fast food at its finest.
Terence’s chicken schnitzel burger recipe with creamy pickle mayo, bacon, cabbage and tomato has come straight from our Siem Reap test kitchen to you and it makes one of our best chicken cutlet recipes and one of our favourite take-out dishes (the burger) to eat in. When we finally bit the bullet some years ago and made chicken schnitzel for the first time in years in a bout of homesickness we were very pleasantly surprised.
Served with my amazing warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves, we thought it was damn good. It was so good that Terence made it a couple more 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. We were so thrilled to see it was another of our most popular July recipes.
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Classic Burmese Egg Curry Recipe for a Myanmar Breakfast Favourite
This traditional Burmese egg curry recipe makes a Myanmar curry shop staple that’s typically eaten for breakfast. Served with a spicy tomato and onion-based curry, the boiled eggs are peeled and deep fried in turmeric until golden, which is why you’ll also see this called a Burmese golden egg curry recipe in Burmese cookbooks.
This classic Burmese egg curry recipe is from the modestly printed Burmese cookbook Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way (1978) by Mi Mi Khaing, which was one of the first Burmese cookbooks – indeed, one of the first books – that we bought on our first trip to Myanmar many years ago. It’s a delight to read and is full of insights into the culinary culture of Myanmar as much as the cuisine.
It’s one of our favourite dishes from Myanmar – another is ohn no khao swe, a Burmese chicken coconut noodle soup, for which we do have a recipe – it’s a real favourite of ours. It’s a cousin to Thai son-in-law eggs and the many versions of Chinese tiger skin eggs. For a great explanation of Chinese tiger skin eggs see this clip on Chinese Cooking Demystified, one of the best YouTube cooking channels.
Traditional Burmese Egg Curry Recipe for a Myanmar Breakfast Favourite
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 July 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
Chebureki Recipe for a Popular Crimean Tatar Street Food Snack
My traditional chebureki recipe makes deliciously-crunchy fried pastries filled with savoury minced beef and sautéed onions that were long a beloved Black Sea beach holiday snack of Crimean Tatar cuisine. Chebureki (чебуреки) are now a popular street food all over Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Crimean Tartar diaspora.
These are 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 rare seaside holidays she used to fondly recall when she was still alive.
If you make these classic Crimean chebureki and enjoy them, please try my mini chebureki recipe, which makes smaller, more manageable and spicier versions of these ground beef turnovers. And if you’re a fan of Slavic food and Eastern European food, do browse my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes.
Chebureki Recipe for a Crimean Beach Holiday Treat and Popular Street Food Snack
Chinese American Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe
This egg foo young with gravy recipe makes the Chinese American restaurant specialty of crispy omelettes doused in gravy and sprinkled with scallions, sesame seeds and bean sprouts. Served with steamed rice, the fantastic and filling omelette can be eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner and is just as delicious as the Cantonese original.
The original Cantonese-style egg foo young, also called Cantonese fu yong dan or fuyong dan, is a delightfully crispy omelette filled with pork, spring onions and bean sprouts, with provenance in Southern China dating back to the 18th century Ching Dynasty. It was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025.
Now if you love a good omelette, try our recipes for two classic omelettes, ourThai omelette recipe, my Russian sour cream omelette with broccoli and bacon, Terence’s luxurious Southeast Asian crab omelette, or our herby Cambodian sa’om omelette, or just browse our collection of best omelette recipes.
Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe for the Chinese American Crispy Omelettes
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan
One of our best breakfast rice 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 in 2013. If you enjoy this, you’ll also love this borbor sor with pork meatballs.
Once a breakfast dish, the Cambodian take on Chinese congee 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
Russian Dill Pickles Recipe for Homemade Gherkins Like My Grandmother Made
One of our best pickles recipes, our Russian dill pickles recipe makes my take on the homemade pickled cucumbers or gherkins my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents used to make. They used the water bath canning process but I use the quick and easy refrigerator pickles method, which must be kept in the fridge and don’t last as long, but they taste very similar, are still incredibly delicious, and are still super healthy and brilliant for your gut health.
Baboushka would serve dishes of dill pickles with every meal, and for Sunday family feasts whole jars of the things would go on the dining table, alongside baba’s pink beetroot potato salad; casserole pots full of hot boiled Russian dumplings, pelmeni and vareniki, coated in melted butter; the savoury mince filled hand-pies called piroshki, kept warm under tea-towels; baked stuffed cabbage rolls, swimming in a rich tomato sauce; and juicy Russian kotleti.
I do the same. I also include finely-diced dill pickles in Russian devilled eggs and potato salad, also known as the Olivier salad or ensalada Rusa. I sprinkle them on top of blini with smoked salmon, sour cream and dill and buckwheat kasha with soft-boiled eggs, bacon and mushrooms. There’s a layer of pickled cucumbers in my mini mimosa salads, and they also feature in this traditional Russian beef stew and Russian barley and pickle soup called rassolnik.
Russian Dill Pickles Recipe for Homemade Gherkins Like My Grandmother Made
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
We’ve long adored Japanese food, especially Japanese comfort food, and the Japanese comfort food we enjoyed on our first trip to Tokyo, the first place we ever travelled overseas. When we lived in Sydney, we’d go out regularly for Japanese, but at home in Siem Reap, where we’ll go out for sushi or izakaya-style food, we tend to cook Japanese food at home.
I love making this Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad with sesame seeds as much as I love eating it, as it’s such a breeze to make and can be made within ten minutes. Although let it sit longer and it tastes even better as the cabbage softens and the flavours meld together. It’s one of our best cucumber salad recipes. Serve this cucumber and cabbage salad with Terence’s Japanese fried chicken and this Japanese potato salad and you’ll have a very satisfying meal.
But note that you’ll have to have a pantry full of Japanese ingredients before you start. You’ll need Shichimi Togarashi Japanese Seven Spice (we recommend the S&B brand), Japanese sesame oil, Japanese soy sauce, Japanese rice vinegar, and mirin, as well as roasted seaweed or nori sheets, and black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds.
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
Easy Crunchy Korean Coleslaw recipe for a Classic Salad Side
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
Mouthwatering Pork and Rice Recipe for Bai Sach Chrouk, Cambodia’s Most Popular Breakfast
This Cambodian pork and rice recipe for bai sach chrouk makes one of Cambodia’s most popular breakfasts, along with the noodle soup kuy teav and nom banh chok, aromatic rice noodles with a curried coconut broth, and the rice porridge borbor. It’s one of the easiest Cambodian recipes to make and was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025.
Rise early with the locals and you’ll spot a pork and rice stall on almost every block of nearly every town and city in Cambodia. In fact you’ll spot the plumes of smoke, hear the pork fat sizzling, and smell the sweet aromas first. If you don’t, head to the nearest local market to try this smoky, mouthwatering pork and rice dish.
We first shared this recipe as part of our series on the best Cambodian barbecue recipes, along with recipes for smoky grilled pork ribs, marinated beef skewers, grilled eggplant with stir-fried minced pork and fermented soya beans, and pork spare ribs with star anise.
Cambodian Pork and Rice Recipe for Bai Sach Chrouk, Cambodia’s Popular Breakfast Dish
Russian Borscht Recipe for the Hearty Home-Cooked Soup of my Childhood
This Russian borscht recipe makes the hearty home-cooked soup of my childhood that my baboushka used to make. With its provenance in Ukraine, but cooked all over Russia, the former Soviet states, and parts of Eastern Europe, my Russian-Ukrainian 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 then breakfast the next day.
My traditional Russian borscht recipe makes a comforting vegetable soup that I like to think of as the Russian-Ukrainian soup for the soul. Borscht has a special place in the hearts, minds and stomachs of anyone of Russian or Ukrainian heritage who grew up dunking weighty slices of black rye bread into their grandma’s nourishing broth.
One of our best beetroot recipes, this is the Russian-Ukrainian borscht of my childhood growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney, which is partly why it’s a deep amber to dark orange colour rather than the deep ruby or purple-tinted borscht you’re probably more familiar with seeing in cookbooks, magazines and food blogs. There are reasons for that, which I explain in the post.
We’d slurp a bowl of borscht for lunch, often with piroshki (hand pies), or as part of a family feast that might include a beetroot potato salad and Olivier potato salad, dumplings such as Russian pelmeni (filled with savoury minced meat) and Ukrainian varenyki (stuffed with mashed potato and caramelised onion), cabbage rolls, a classic garden salad, and maybe some chicken kotleti (pan fried meat patties).
Russian Borscht Recipe for the Hearty Home-Cooked Soup of my Childhood
Southeast Asian Crab Omelette Recipe for a Decadent Weekend Eggs Dish
Terence’s crab omelette recipe makes for a decadent weekend eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from an early morning shop at the fish markets, armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. This crab omelette is a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish, and it’s one of our best breakfast eggs dishes from around the world.
Another of our most popular recipes of July 2025, we first shared this recipe for Terence’s Asian edition of his long-running Weekend Eggs series, which we launched when we launched Grantourismo way back in 2010. Terence kicked off the Asian series with kai yat say, a filled omelette from Bangkok, which we used to eat when we lived in the Thai capital.
Terence adapted this crab omelette recipe from Charmaine Solomon’s The Complete Asian Cookbook which used to be on our bookshelves in Sydney for many years and saw a lot of use — it’s a classic in the Australian-Asian kitchen. While the book is light on Laotian and Cambodian recipes, it’s a great reference book to have for comparing different recipes across Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysian specialties and Indonesian dishes, and Vietnamese favourites and Thai recipes.
There are many different Asian crab omelette recipes and this crab omelette recipe of Solomon’s, which Terence tweaked quite a bit, is a Vietnamese inspired crab omelette, and in his opinion it’s the best method for making a crab omelette, and one of our best Asian omelette recipes.
Cambodian Grilled Corn with a Tangy Coconut Milk Sauce
This Cambodian grilled corn recipe makes poat dot, a Cambodian street food snack of smoky barbecued corn on the cob brushed with a delightfully sweet and salty sauce made from coconut milk, fish sauce and spring onions. While I love eating this on the street I prefer making it at home. It’s super easy.
This Cambodian street food treat is hugely popular during corn season. Corn on the cob is continually brushed with the creamy salty-sweet coconut sauce as it’s being barbecued. It drips with umami and is deliciously addictive and it’s one of our best summer corn recipes and one of our best coconut milk recipes.
When you make this street food favourite yourself, you can not only cook the corn to your liking – we prefer our corn cobs more charred than it’s sold on the street – but you can also make sure you get the sauce balanced to your taste (it’s often too sweet for me when done on the street) and you can serve extra sauce on the side.
Cambodian Grilled Corn Recipe for Poat Dot with a Delicious Coconut Milk Sauce
Cold Russian Beetroot Soup Recipe for Holodnik for a Hot Summer’s Day
This Russian cold beetroot soup recipe makes holodnik (Холодник), ‘cold soup’, a chilled summer soup that is brilliant on a hot summer day. Sometimes called ‘summer borscht’ – that would actually be svekolnik (Свекольник) – it shares a key ingredient with borscht in beetroot and is a breeze to make. Serve with sour cream and fresh dill.
One of several notable Russian summer soups – another one of my favourites is called okroshka – it’s one of my favourite chilled summer soup recipes if you’re feeling the heat, one of our best beetroot recipes, and it was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025.
While it’s no surprise that hearty warming soups such as borscht and shchi are Russian favourites, I often wonder how these chilled soups were adopted in a country that never gets terribly hot, not even on a Black Sea beach in the height of summer, where my baboushka had fond memories of spending the rare childhood summer holiday.
Chilled soups are the best in summer, especially teamed with a summer salad. I could slurp them every day. In fact, I currently have two cold summer soups in the fridge, even though it’s ‘winter’ here in Cambodia. Cold soups are generally easy to make, too, as they’re not based on a meat stock, which are never pleasant cold.
Russian Cold Beetroot Soup Recipe for Holodnik, A Chilled Soup for a Hot Summer’s Day
Christine Manfield’s Tamarind Eggplant Recipe from Rajasthan from Indian Cooking Class
This tamarind eggplant recipe from Rajasthan is from the cookbook Indian Cooking Class by Australian chef Christine Manfield, who has a deep love of India, Indian cuisines and spices, having travelled to India 40 times and published four books on Indian food. This tamarind eggplant dish is sweet and sour, savoury and saucy, and it comes together quickly.
If you’ve made and enjoyed Christine’s chole bhatura recipe for a Punjabi chole or chickpea curry from the Punjab region of Northern India, which straddles India and Pakistan, you’re also going to love this tamarind eggplant recipe from the neighbouring region of Rajasthan.
Christine Manfield has been travelling to and leading culinary tours in India for over two decades, and Northern India is one of her favourite parts of the country, and Rajasthan one of her favourite places. The chef and prolific cookbook author wrote about her passion for Rajasthan in a previous cookbook cum travelogue, the award-winning Tasting India, which is a fantastic companion to Indian Cooking Class.
If you fall in love with Christine’s writing and recipes, here are more of her many fabulous cookbooks and guides: Paramount Cooking (2000), Christine Manfield’s Desserts (2004), Spice: Recipes to Delight the Senses (2007), Fire: A World of Flavour (2009), Tasting India (2011), and A Personal Guide To India And Bhutan (2015).
Tamarind Eggplant Recipe from Rajasthan from Christine Manfield’s Indian Cooking Class
Easy Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra, the Soviet Union’s Poor Man’s Caviar
My easy Russian eggplant caviar recipe for ikra – which was known as ‘poor man’s caviar’ in the USSR – was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025. It makes a deliciously-rich version of this traditional Russian dish that’s somewhere in between the ikra my baboushka made that was sumptuous and velvety and the ikra popularised during the Soviet era that more closely resembled a diced salad.
Ikra makes a rich vegetable side dish, dip, spread, or warm salad of diced eggplant, red capsicum, carrot, onion, and tomato paste that is considered by some to be Russia’s ratatouille. Yet ikra is far more delicious as far as I’m concerned. Whether you serve ikra as a vegetable side, a warm salad or a dip, ikra is incredibly addictive and easy to make.
Please don’t let the ikra recipes you may have seen before that say ikra is a complex dish to make deter you. When prepping your ingredients, there’s a lot of dicing involved. When frying the ingredients, there’s a bit of stirring required, so that nothing sticks and everything is cooking evenly. But there are no complex skills required.
Baba would serve a big bowl of ikra alongside an array of dishes that filled their big oak table that typically included a Russian garden salad, beetroot potato salad, savoury pirozhki (hand pies), stuffed cabbage rolls, potato vareniki and meat pelmeni, and kotleti or chicken meat patties. There’d also be dishes of dill pickles, sour cream, and crunchy cucumbers from papa’s backyard veggie garden.
Easy Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra, the Soviet Union’s Poor Man’s Caviar
Hearty Penne Pasta with Sausage, Potatoes and Peppers Recipe
If you made my recipe for ‘poor man’s potatoes’ – a traditional dish from Southern Spain of fried potatoes, capsicums and onions cooked in olive oil and garlic, seasoned with little else but good quality sea salt and cracked black pepper, and showered with fresh flat-leaf parsley, and one of those dishes that make great leftovers – and you enjoyed that, you’re going to love this soul-nourishing pasta dish.
This penne pasta with sausage, potatoes and peppers recipe makes a hearty pasta that’s inspired by Spanish ‘poor man’s potatoes’, a rustic home-style dish of sausage, potatoes, bell peppers (capsicums), and onions fried in extra virgin olive oil and garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sprinkled with fresh flat-leaf parsley and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. You could also make this dish with leftover ‘poor man’s potatoes’.
One of our best recipes with potatoes, we shared this dish as one of our best quick and easy pasta recipes, which included recipes for canned tuna pasta with scallions, capers and fresh herbs, asparagus, mushrooms and bacon gnocchi, a creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi, my cherry tomato feta pasta recipe, a canned sardine pasta with gremolata and pangrattato, mac and cheese with caramelised shallots and crispy bacon, and bacon and mushroom pasta.
Hearty Penne Pasta with Sausage, Potatoes and Peppers Recipe
Cambodian Pork Larb Recipe for Laab Sach Chrouk Aromatic Pork Mince Salad
Another of our most popular recipes of July 2025, this pork larb recipe for Cambodian laab sach chrouk minced pork salad makes a lightly spiced dish eaten with fragrant herbs, crispy vegetables and steamed rice. While it has more famous spicier cousins in Thailand and Laos, Cambodia’s larb is a delicious dish that will appeal to those who prefer more gentle levels of spice.
Our Cambodian laab sach chrouk recipe makes a lightly spiced minced pork salad combined with fresh fragrant herbs, infused with the delightfully funky flavour of fish sauce, dusted with toasted rice powder, and served with crunchy vegetables and steamed rice. It’s one of our quick weeknight dinner ideas from our Southeast Asian kitchen.
We’ve been cooking and eating Thai larb since the 1980s when we first began cooking and eating Thai food in Australia, but it wasn’t until we moved to Siem Reap from Hoi An in Vietnam in 2013 that we first tasted Cambodia’s wonderful pork laab – also spelt as larb and lab here in Cambodia.
A tip: to stop the mince from clumping, over the years we used all kinds of kitchen utensils, from wooden spatulas to potato mashers to de-clump the mince. The secret we discovered after moving to Cambodia is to use a stainless steel whisk of the like you would probably use to whip a hollandaise sauce. Well, it’s also perfect to keep your mince from clumping.
Cambodian Pork Larb Recipe for Laab Sach Chrouk Fragrant Pork Mince Salad
Fig Salad Recipe with Prosciutto, Buffalo Mozzarella, Chicken and Balsamic Glaze
Fresh seasonal figs are the star of this fig salad recipe with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and chicken with a balsamic glaze dressing. While you’ll see this Mediterranean salad made with spiced stewed figs, if you’ve got juicy fresh figs the last thing you want to do is cook them. Serve this versatile fig salad on its own as a light meal or as an appetiser or side salad as part of a Mediterranean feast.
The best figs I’ve ever tasted were plucked from a tree in the front yard of our hospitable driver in Southern Lebanon’s beautiful, ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. I’ll never forget biting into the plump, warm, sun-kissed fig he handed to me, the sticky juices of the sweet, luscious fruit dripping down my chin and wrist. It was a revelation.
It’s hard to beat a plate of fresh sweet figs served with a soft white cheese and slices of salty cured ham, and this easy fig salad with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and chicken, dressed with a balsamic glaze, is essentially a more elaborate and more filling version of that fantastic snack that screams summer in the Mediterranean.
I shared this fig salad recipe as part of a series of recipes for the salads I had on rotation over the Australian summer, including this Italian melon, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto salad (a fancier version of prosciutto e melone, the classic aperitivo snack and appetiser from Italy), this Mediterranean style chicken salad with spring vegetables and a garlicky lemony Middle Eastern dressing, and this refreshing Greek watermelon feta salad with fresh mint and dill.
Fig Salad with Prosciutto, Buffalo Mozzarella, Chicken and Balsamic Glaze
Smoky Eggplant Salad on Hummus with Sesame, Pomegranate and Parsley
One of our best eggplant recipes, and one of our best Middle Eastern recipes, our smoky eggplant salad recipe makes a Middle Eastern style salad of smoky charred eggplant, fresh flat leaf parsley, pomegranate, and sesame seeds piled onto creamy homemade hummus, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with more sesame and pomegranate seeds. It was another of our most popular recipes of July 2025.
It’s a cinch to make after grilling the eggplant. Just before serving it, I douse the salad in a simple light dressing of extra virgin olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice, pile the eggplant salad onto the hummus, drizzle with a little more good quality extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with more sesame seeds and pomegranate seeds. It’s so easy but so delicious.
This eggplant salad is fantastic served as one of an array of Middle Eastern mezze such as muhammara, hummus Beiruti and baba ganoush, alongside salads such as fattoush, tabbouleh, a farmers salad, and pearl couscous with pomegranate and pistachios, and for a proper Middle Eastern feast, as an accompaniment to seven-spiced meatballs, kofta kebabs, shish tawook (garlicky chicken skewers), and spiced rice.
Smoky Eggplant Salad on Hummus with Sesame, Pomegranate and Parsley
Please let us know in the comments below if you make any of the recipes in this collection of our most popular recipes of July 2025 on Grantourismo, as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
