10 Most Popular Recipes of September – Recipes Our Readers Cooked

Our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023 included everything from a Southern Italian orecchiette con sugo al pomodoro recipe, which we learnt to make in Puglia, to a mee Katang recipe for a tasty Cambodian-Chinese dish that translates to ‘Cantonese noodles’ in Khmer here in Siem Reap.

We know when autumn/fall has arrived in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere, not by the actual weather, which is nearly always warm here in Cambodia, but by the recipes our readers search for, from comforting soups, rich curries and warming stews to refreshing salads, light pastas, easy noodles, and burgers.

Our 10 most popular recipes of September really reflected the change in seasons and was a real mixed bag, with something for everyone. The top ten recipes also included some of our all-time most-visited posts on Grantourismo, from my beef Stroganoff recipe to our Cambodian fish amok recipe, as well as recipes shared in recent years.

As regular visitors to Grantourismo know, I’ve long loved the end of one month and the start of the next when I sit down and review our stats to see what you searched for on the site and the recipes where you spent most of your time, which we hope were recipes you actually cooked, or at least bookmarked to cook. It helps us decide what to cook for you and share the next month, and we’ve got so many new recipes going up in October.

Now before I share our 10 most popular recipes of September, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. 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.

If you’re planning a trip, you could use links on our site to purchase travel insurance, rent a car, book accommodation, book a tour on Get Your Guide or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or travel books to inspire wanderlust.

Alternatively, you could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; buy something from our Grantourismo store such as gifts for food lovers designed with Terence’s images; or buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.

With any of those purchases, we earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra. Now let me share our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023.

10 Most Popular Recipes of September 2023 – Recipes Our Readers Cooked

Here are our 10 most popular recipes of September – the recipes our readers searched for, spent the most time on, and cooked.

Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles

Our Cambodian mee Katang recipe topped the list of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023. It makes a tasty Cambodian-Chinese stir-fry dish called Cantonese noodles in Khmer.

While not as ubiquitous in Cambodia as noodle soup dishes such as nom banh chok and kuy teav, nor as popular as wok-fried noodles such as lort cha or mee Kola, you’ll still spot mee Katang at street food carts and on restaurant menus.

A descendant of the Cantonese dish chow fun, mee Katang is made with the same fresh, flat, wide rice noodles called hor fun, which are stir-fried in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce to give the noodles colour as much as flavour.

In Cambodia, mee katang recipes typically include Chinese broccoli (kai lan or gai lan), julienned carrot and scrambled eggs, and while we love mee Katang with marinated pork, these noodles can also be stir-fried with beef or chicken, shrimps or mixed seafood.

We use a wok for stir-frying – and if you don’t have one yet, we recommend a carbon steel wok – however, you could use a skillet if you had to. You shouldn’t have any issues sourcing a quality Chinese dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster sauce, and if you prefer to use fish sauce instead of salt, we like Thailand’s Megachef, a premium quality fish sauce.

Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles

Irish Beef Stew Recipe

Our hearty Irish stew recipe makes a deeply flavoured classic Irish beef stew with a rich gravy thanks to slow-cooking, an easy roux, and half a bottle of Shiraz – and it was another of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023.

A traditional Irish stew is mostly made with lamb these days, but historically, beef, which was considered ‘winter food’, was used in stews. You can eat this stew for days, or make pot pies with the leftovers.

We cook our stews in a Dutch oven. We recommend either a Le Creuset Dutch oven if you can afford it or a more affordable Lodge Dutch oven. (We have more Dutch oven recipes here.)

We’ve also got more Irish recipes, such as this divine crispy salmon fillet with Irish colcannon with prawns, if you’re not a meat-eater. It’s based on a dish by Irish chef Liam Tomlin, who helmed Banc, once one of our favourite Sydney restaurants.

Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew

Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato

Terence’s 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 and it was another of our most popular recipes in September.

When we finally bit the bullet and made chicken schnitzel for the first time in more than 25 years in a bout of homesickness we were very pleasantly surprised. Served with my amazing warm potato salad recipe with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves, it was damn good.

It was so good that we made it a couple of times for ‘testing purposes’ using both shallow and deep frying. Crispy on the outside and moist and flavourful to bite into, the chicken schnitzel and potato salad made a very hearty and yet simple dish.

Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato

Baked Potato Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream and Spring Onions

This baked potato soup recipe has been hugely popular with our readers, making it one of our best potato soup recipes and another of our most popular recipes in September. It makes a creamy potato soup topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and spring onions or chives.

The delicious potato soup is not made with baked potatoes, rather it’s inspired by the traditional British baked potato or jacket potato with toppings first sold by hawkers on the streets of London back in the mid-1800s.

I grew up in Australia tucking into baked potatoes – or jacket potatoes as we also called them, as they were baked in their skins or ‘jackets’ – at family backyard barbecues or on holiday camping trips.

At home, mum and I were responsible for the oven-baked potatoes, which I salted and wrapped in aluminium foil, and mum baked on an oven tray. We’d put all the toppings into small bowls – crispy bacon pieces, grated cheese, sour cream, and spring onions – and everyone would load their own potatoes.

On holiday camping trips, dad was responsible for the jacket potatoes, which we’d wrap in foil and bury beneath the glowing coals of a toasty fireplace. I loved those best as they had a smoky smell as much as flavour.This baked potato soup is based on those jacket potatoes – just without the smokiness. I need to work on that!

Baked Potato Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream and Spring Onions

Orecchiette con Sugo al Pomodoro Recipe from Alberobello in Puglia in Southern Italy

This orecchiette con sugo al pomodoro recipe comes courtesy of Maria, the caretaker of the traditional trullo we settled into in Alberobello in Puglia in southern Italy. Maria gave us lessons in pasta making, teaching us how to make handmade orecchiette and this rich sugo al pomodoro with ingredients she had grown herself.

A few days earlier we’d written about the simplicity of Italian cuisine. We had eaten at a couple of trattorias in the village of Teulada on the island of Sardinia, and once again Italy had blown us away with its attitude towards food. Simple honest dishes, made using the best ingredients, treated with respect.

But that doesn’t mean that the best ingredients have to be expensive ingredients as Maria showed us in Alberobello, as she taught Terence how to make this orecchiette con sugo al pomodoro recipe.

Maria had come over to our trullo with her pasta board (a portable wooden board that covers a table or bench for making pasta) and a huge bag of flour, Semola di Grano Duro, which she used to make the pasta, pizza bases, and bread dough. More in this post on the pizza making and you’ll find the rest of the pasta making story and orecchiette recipe on the link below.

Orecchiette con Sugo al Pomodoro Recipe from Alberobello in Puglia in Southern Italy

Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings

Our Russian potato vareniki recipe makes the boiled Ukrainian and Russian dumplings stuffed with rustic mashed potato and caramelised onion that my Odessa-born grandmother used to make for family meals. Especially for the seemingly never-ending Sunday lunches that turned into dinners. It was another of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023.

As a child, It was my responsibility to set the dining table and carry the dishes from the kitchen to dining room – everything from baboushka’s Russian pelmeni and stuffed cabbage rolls, beetroot potato salad and classic garden salad, and Russian kotleti and piroshki – and I have to confess that I set the casserole pot filled to the brim with potato vareniki as close to my place setting as possible.

This Russian potato vareniki recipe makes vareniki in the style that my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother called ‘Russian’. Because vareniki or varenyky in Ukrainian, is a dish that originated in Ukraine, although the dumplings are beloved not only to Ukrainians and Russians, but many other Slavic peoples.

My baboushka would serve the vareniki swimming in butter in a casserole pot, sprinkled with fresh fragrant dill, and accompanied by dishes of sour cream (smetana).

Potato Vareniki Recipe for Mash and Caramelised Onion Filled Dumplings

Italian Chicken Cacciatore Recipe

This classic chicken cacciatore recipe for a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce was another of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023.

Called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’ – ‘pollo’ is ‘chicken’ and ‘cacciatore’ means ‘hunter’ – it’s a rustic old Italian dish typically eaten alone as a main course with crusty bread to mop up the rich sauce.

In different parts of Italy, hunter’s stew has long been made with different types of game, such as wild pheasant (fagiano alla cacciatore), wild boar (cinghiale alla cacciatore) and wild rabbit (coniglio alla cacciatore), while in Calabria it’s made with the addition of spicy Calabrian sausage and red peppers (salsiccia Calabrese al cacciatore).

Tips: use a can of the best quality canned Italian tomatoes you can afford and can source. Season with a good quality sea salt and while I prefer white pepper, use fresh cracked black pepper if you prefer.

Traditionally, in Italy, a salad would be eaten after the chicken cacciatore, but I think a panzanella – an Italian bread and tomato salad – is fantastic on the side. If I was feeding a group, I’d also be inclined to serve these hasselback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes. Leftovers? Make this Italian-Australian spaghetti cacciatore recipe.

Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce

Roast Beetroot Salad Recipe with Feta, Rucola and Pistachios on Cumin Spiced Carrot Hummus

This roast beetroot salad recipe with feta, rucola and pistachios on cumin-spiced carrot ‘hummus’ makes my twist on a classic salad that takes inspiration from the Middle East and was another of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023.

One of our best beetroot recipes, the salad is a twist on the classic beetroot salad with feta, walnuts and arugula or rucola, roca or rocket, depending on your preference. I spread the salad on a layer of carrot hummus and replace the walnuts with crunchier pistachios for added texture.

My inspiration is the Middle Eastern balela salad spread on soupy chickpeas, and the Antalya version of a Turkish white bean salad, in which the salad is also piled onto the creamy white beans.

My roasted cauliflower on hummus and baby corn on creamy white beans dishes are in the same style. Hummus lovers can head here to browse more of our best hummus recipes.

Roast Beetroot Salad Recipe with Feta, Rucola and Pistachios on Cumin Spiced Carrot Hummus

Tacos Al Pastor Recipe

This tacos al pastor recipe was another of our 10 most popular recipes of September 2023. Terence created this recipe in the Mexico City apartment where we spent two weeks during the year-long global grand tour that launched Grantourismo back in 2010.

The recipe was inspired by the tacos al pastor we ate obsessively at Salón Corona, a few blocks from the apartment, and the tacos al pastor that Austin’s ‘taco mafia’ guys introduced us to for lunch at the humble Rosita’s Al Pastor the previous week.

Every time we ate tacos al pastor in Mexico and Austin, the simplicity of corn tortillas topped with pork, marinated with pineapple, spices and chillies, grilled on a vertical spit, and sprinkled with coriander (cilantro), reminded us of the wonderful shawarma we used to eat when we lived in the Middle East. Apart from the pork, of course.

A few tips: try to source soft corn tortillas for more authentic Mexican tacos although wheat flour tortillas work if you can’t. Long tongs come in handy. For a taco feast, serve with sides of guacamole, spicy red tomato salsa, Mexican corn salsa, homemade pickled jalapeños, pickled purple shallots, pickled purple cabbage, and Mexican pickled vegetables.

If you have leftovers, you could make some quesadillas. Whatever you do, make sure to wash all that food down with margaritas or micheladas. Click here for more Taco Tuesday recipes.

Tacos al Pastor Recipe for Home Cooks Without a Vertical Spit

Please let us know in the comments below if you make any of the recipes in this round-up of our most popular recipes of September 2023 as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.