Our 10 most popular recipes of October include a few recipe collections – our best pasta recipes, best Asian egg recipes and best potato soup recipes – along with an assortment of recipes for everything from our easy homemade pita chips recipe to my take on an Antalya style Turkish white bean salad recipe with jammy soft-boiled eggs.
October has ended, which means it’s time to review the Grantourismo stats to see what visitors to Grantourismo searched for, read and cooked (or at least saved to cook) and share those with you, so here are our 10 most popular recipes of October 2022 for your cooking pleasure.
I always find it so interesting to see what recipes brought you to our site and what recipes most inspired you, and this month’s stats were as fascinating as usual. I would so love to know how many of you actually cooked these recipes and how they turned out for you.
Before I tell you more about the 10 most popular recipes of October, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to use links on our site to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about the 10 most popular recipes of October.
Most Popular Recipes of October from our Pasta Recipes to Asian Egg Recipes
Best Pasta Recipes from Bigoli con Salsa to Tagliatelle alla Bolognese and ‘Spag Bol’
Our best pasta recipes topped the list of the most popular recipes of October with the greatest number of visitors. The compilation included everything from traditional Italian recipes for ragù alla Bolognese and lasagne from Bologna in Northern Italy to a spaghetti Bolognese of the Italian-Australian kind our mums made when we were kids.
Some of our best pasta recipes – such as the Venetian bigoli con salsa and Sardinian spaghetti con vongole e bottarga I mentioned, along with our orecchiette con sugo al pomodoro recipe from Puglia – date way back to 2010, the year we launched Grantourismo with a year-long grand tour of the world.
That was the year we began our quest to travel more slowly and more sustainably, and more locally and experientially, with the aim of really scratching beneath the surface of the places we settled into, to better engage with locals and get an insight into how they lived their lives.
While we had delicious food experiences which gave us a taste of places and their people, history and culture everywhere we settled into that year, some of the best food experiences were in Italy. There we did everything from shop Venice’s Rialto markets with a local chef and restaurateur to learn how to make wood-fired pizza and handmade pasta from the lovely Maria in Puglia.
Best Pasta Recipes from Bigoli con Salsa to Tagliatelle alla Bolognese and ‘Spag Bol’
Best Asian Egg Recipes for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch and Dinner from Weekend Eggs
It was great to see this compilation of our best Asian egg recipes for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, and dinner made the list of the most popular recipes of October.
The collection included a half-boiled eggs recipe for the classic Singaporean and Malaysian kopitiam eggs, a Chinese tea eggs recipe for marbled eggs steeped in an aromatic stock of tea, spices and soy, Japanese egg donburi recipes, a Thai son-in-law eggs recipe, and Indonesian boiled egg curries.
If you’re a lover of savoury egg dishes then you’re going to love this round-up of our best Asian egg recipes, which I pulled together from our Weekend Eggs archives. It doesn’t include all our Asian eggs recipes, just a selection of some of my favourites. You’ll have to browse the archive for more egg recipes from Asia, the region we’ve called home for the last 12 years.
I’ve included everything from a katsudon recipe for a crunchy Japanese pork cutlet, cooked in eggs and spring onions, served atop a bowl of rice and sprinkled with slices of scallions to another donburi (rice bowl) recipe for oyakodon, a Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl made from eggs, spring onions and chicken simmered in dashi.
Best Asian Egg Recipes for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch and Dinner from Weekend Eggs
Best Potato Soup Recipes from Chicken Potato Soup to Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Our best potato soup recipes include everything from my easy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe for a creamy vegetable soup that’s incredibly comforting, and an easy chicken and potato soup recipe for a homemade potato and chicken soup with a stock made from scratch to a loaded baked potato soup topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and chives.
Three of our most popular recipes in September were potato soup recipes, which should be no surprise, as potato soups are just so comforting and we all need comfort in these challenging times. So I thought I’d compile a collection of our best potato soup recipes from our archives for your convenience as much as my own. It was so great to see that this was one of the most popular recipe posts of October.
The compilation also includes my potato and bacon soup recipe for warming potato soup topped with crispy bacon, crumbled croutons and crunchy fried shallots, a rustic chunky potato soup with sautéed cabbage, smoky pork sausage and butter beans, and a creamy corn chowder without cream, the creamy consistency courtesy of the potatoes.
I also have an old-fashioned vegetable barley soup recipe for a versatile clean-out-the-fridge soup that’s deliciously filling, deeply flavourful, and super affordable. It’s inspired by a soup my Australian grandmother used to make to use up an abundant harvest from my grandfather’s backyard veggie garden.
And if you enjoy slurping soups as much as I do, please do check out our other soup recipe round-ups. We have collections of chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, and fish soups, along with warming winter soups and cold summer soups, depending on what hemisphere you’re in.
Best Potato Soup Recipes from Chicken Potato Soup to Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Easy Homemade Pita Chips Recipe for Crunchy Baked Pita Crisps Made in Minutes
This quick and easy homemade pita chips recipe will make you super crunchy baked pita crisps that are made within minutes – 20 minutes maximum to be precise – and it was another of the most popular recipes of October.
They’re perfect for scooping up homemade dips such as hummus, baba ghanoush, guacamole, and salsas. They’re also versatile – brush them with olive oil flavoured with spices or herbs to complement any dip.
These pita chips are also perfect in the Arabic salad that you’ll find right across the Arab world, but particularly in Lebanon, called fattoush – or a ‘village salad’ or ‘peasant salad’ – and we’re sharing a recipe for fattoush very soon.
Easy Homemade Pita Chips Recipe for Crunchy Baked Pita Crisps Made in Minutes
Antalya Style Turkish White Bean Salad Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs for Antalya Piyaz
This Antalya style Turkish white bean salad recipe with jammy soft boiled eggs makes you my take on Antalya usulü piyaz – a Turkish white bean salad made the Antalya way – and it was so cool to see it was another of the most popular recipes of October.
Traditionally, the cold, soupy, garlicky white beans are topped with tomatoes, onions and hard-boiled eggs. I blend the white beans for a hummus-like texture, pile on a salad of cherry tomatoes, purple shallots and fresh herbs, and top with jammy eggs.
Our Antalya usulü piyaz recipe will make you my take on an Antalya style Turkish white bean salad. Antalya piyaz is the most quintessential dish of Antalya, a beautiful beachside city on the Mediterranean in southwest Turkey where we spent some months writing guidebooks in an Ottoman house in the Old Town years ago.
Very different to fasulye piyazi, the traditional Turkish bean salad you may have eaten at restaurants in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey, Antalya piyaz is unique to Antalya and the surrounding region. Also called tahinli piyaz, as the white bean sauce is made with tahini, it’s on the menu at almost every Antalya eatery, from sit-down restaurants to simple take-away spots, but you can make it at home wherever you are.
Antalya Style Turkish White Bean Salad Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs for Antalya Piyaz
Juicy Meatball Noodle Soup Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs and Aromatic Herbs
My juicy meatball noodle soup recipe with jammy soft boiled eggs, aromatic herbs, crunchy fried onions, chillies, and chives makes a Southeast Asian style noodle soup with deliciously rustic homemade pork meatballs. It was another of our most popular recipes of October.
This meatball noodle soup recipe will make you succulent pork meatballs that swim in the kind of savoury noodle soup that you’ll find all over mainland Southeast Asia, but is closest in style to the traditional Cambodian noodle soup called kuy teav, which we eat here for breakfast in Cambodia‘s northern city of Siem Reap.
I use traditional Cambodian toppings such as sliced carrots and bok choy and provide an array of beloved Southeast Asian condiments and garnishes typically served with noodle soups so diners can customise their own broths: fresh fragrant herbs, crunchy fried shallots, fish sauce, chilli oil, chilli flakes, and chives or spring onions.
The main differences between my meatball noodle soup recipe and the soup you’ll slurp in a local noodle joint are the style of meatballs and the boiled eggs. When eggs are served with noodle soups and rice porridges here in Southeast Asia they’re generally hard boiled, while the meatballs are firm, dense and chewy.
My meatball noodle soup recipe boasts juicy pork meatballs and jammy soft boiled eggs, otherwise, it’s a very typical Southeast Asian noodle soup of the type you’ll find here in Cambodia and in neighbouring Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, and it’s absolutely delicious.
If you’re a soup lover like I am, we have recipe round-ups for chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, fish soups, potato soups, as well as warming winter soups and cold summer soups, depending on what hemisphere you’re in, and we’re always adding new recipes and creating new recipe collections for our extensive recipe archives.
Juicy Meatball Noodle Soup Recipe with Jammy Soft Boiled Eggs and Aromatic Herbs
Easy Old-Fashioned Chicken Egg Salad Recipe for a Creamy Chicken Salad or Sandwich Filling
This easy chicken egg salad recipe makes an old-fashioned creamy chicken and egg salad dressed with mayonnaise and it was another of our most popular recipes of October.
Tuck into bowls of the salad with sides of gherkins for a satisfying meal or use as a sandwich filling. Lay lettuce leaves on thick slices of sourdough, pile on the chicken egg salad, and garnish with fresh herbs for tasty open sandwiches.
One of the reasons I’m so fond of this chicken egg salad recipe is that it makes a light yet filling salad – because it’s missing the potato that makes potato salads so heavy-ish (as much as we love them). You’d probably never eat a bowl of potato salad on its own (or maybe you would… I would…), but you’re more likely to serve it as a side to fried chicken or barbecued meats, whereas you can tuck into a bowl of chicken egg salad without feeling bloated.
Unlike a potato salad, which you’re probably not going to spread between a couple of slices of bread (or are you?), this chicken and egg salad is made for piling onto a few lettuces leaves on a thick piece of sourdough, and sprinkling on a few sprigs of fresh aromatic herbs. Yum. Thick slices of toast also work and in the American South they squeeze it into croissants. I’m definitely trying that.
Easy Old Fashioned Chicken Egg Salad Recipe for a Creamy Chicken Salad or Sandwich Filling
Broccoli and Potato Soup Recipe with Cheddar Cheese, Crispy Bacon and Crunchy Croutons
This broccoli and potato soup recipe with cheddar cheese, crispy bacon and crunchy croutons was another of our most popular recipes of October. It makes a deliciously creamy broccoli potato soup without cream, but with loads of flavour and texture thanks to the cheese, bacon, croutons, and toppings such as fragrant fresh herbs, extra virgin olive oil, sour cream, and chilli flakes.
Melted cheddar cheese will give your broccoli potato soup a richness and denser texture if you use enough of it – and there’s a long tradition of using cheddar in broccoli soups. I prefer to sprinkle a little quality vintage cheddar cheese at the end (or a little Parmigiano Reggiano), along with a handful of other toppings, rather than turn my broccoli and potato soup into a soupy green fondue. But that’s just me. You do as you prefer.
And as for that colour: broccoli is green, so I’ve never understood why so many broccoli potato soups look yellow, even when the greater proportion of the vegetables on the ingredient list is broccoli. This latest batch of broccoli and potato soup I made for the recipe photo shoot was with a several days-old piece of broccoli, which had some older florets that were yellowing at the base, resulting in a broth that wasn’t as green as I liked. Although it certainly was yellow.
But that’s easily fixed: after you’ve blended your soup to the perfect consistency, toss a few fresh green veggie leaves or handful of herbs into the blender and give it a quick blitz. It doesn’t matter what they are, as long as they’re fresh and green. If you use a mix of herbs and leaves, there won’t be a dominant flavour, just an added freshness.
Broccoli and Potato Soup Recipe with Cheddar Cheese, Crispy Bacon and Crunchy Croutons
Thai Meatball Curry Recipe for a Thai Red Curry with Tender Meatballs and Fragrant Basil
This Thai meatball curry recipe makes a Thai red curry with tender meatballs flavoured with Thai spices and fresh herbs, and garnished with fresh fragrant Thai basil and coriander, red chillies, and crunchy fried shallots.
While the red Thai curry is traditional, the soft succulent meatballs are a not-so-traditional addition, but they’re incredibly delicious all the same. It was another of our most popular recipes of October.
If you’re fond of Thai food and particularly rich curries, and you’re a lover of rustic, succulent European-style meatballs, then I think you’re going to enjoy my Thai meatball curry recipe. It will make you a traditional Thai curry with not-so-traditional melt-in-the-mouth meatballs, so perhaps don’t share this with your Thai friends.
If you’re familiar with Thai food, you’ll know what I mean. Thai beef and pork meatballs tend to be firm, dense, a little chewy, and almost bouncy. I’m not a fan. Fish balls have a similar texture, although are ever-so-slightly softer, but for some reason I much prefer those quality in a fish ball to a meatball. Just don’t tell my Thai friends!
I find that a red curry paste or a Massaman curry paste work best with these meatball curry. We have both a homemade red curry paste recipe (which also includes tips for using a mortar and pestle) and a homemade Massaman curry paste recipe, both of which you can pound from scratch in a mortar and pestle. But you can also use your favourite store-bought Thai red curry paste or store-bought Massaman curry paste.
Thai Meatball Curry Recipe for a Thai Red Curry with Tender Meatballs and Fragrant Basil
Char Siu Pork Omelette Recipe with Crunchy Sprouts, Chinese Celery Leaf and Sriracha
Our char siu pork omelette recipe makes a delicious meal from char siu pork leftovers wrapped in a fluffy omelette and garnished with crunchy bean sprouts, Chinese celery leaf, finely sliced red chillies, and Sriracha sauce. It was so cool to see that it was another of our most popular recipes of October.
This char siu pork omelette recipe was created to use up leftover char siu pork, so if you don’t happen to have some Chinese barbecued pork tucked away in the fridge as we did this week, then I recommend you make that first. If you’re up for a second cooking project, make some homemade Sriracha sauce too.
Many home cooks think a pan is a pan – but it isn’t when it comes to an omelette pan. To achieve the correct shape for a perfect omelette, you need the right pan. For a four egg omelette like the omelette you’ll be making for this recipe, you need a 20cm (8-inch) omelette pan. These pans have steeper and taller sides than many all-purpose fry pans.
If you enjoy this, try Terence’s char siu pork burger recipe with Asian slaw, which is like the best bacon burger you’ve ever tried with an Asian twist. Using skinless pork belly strips marinated in the classic Chinese char siu sauce, it’s a flavour-packed burger with a little kick from the Sriracha mayonnaise and a refreshing Asian-style slaw in every bite.
Char Siu Pork Omelette Recipe with Crunchy Sprouts, Chinese Celery Leaf and Sriracha
Please do let us know if you make any of our most popular recipes of October in the comments below, as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
broccoli and potato soup recipe with cheddar cheese, I will be trying to make this dish in December
That’s great to hear! Let us know how it turns out for you :)