The 30 most popular recipes of September 2025 included long-time reader favourites like my deeply flavoured beef Stroganoff, spiced Middle Eastern style rice with dried fruit and nuts, aromatic Cambodian coconut rice noodles, and creamy cauliflower cabbage soup. Newer recipes of recent years also made an appearance, including Terence’s bite-size take on Cambodian natang, a dip of minced pork, coconut cream and peanuts on crispy rice cakes, and our Thai-Japanese pad kra pao udon noodles.
I’ve pulled together this round-up of the 30 most popular recipes of September 2025 for your cooking inspo as much as my own. As usual, there’s a real mix of recipes, from ‘recent’ recipes to all-time reader faves that top these lists each month, and were on the most popular August recipes, such as my deeply flavoured beef Stroganoff, aromatic Middle Eastern style spiced rice with dried fruit and nuts, and fragrant Cambodian coconut rice noodles.
The ‘newer’ recipes of recent years that landed in the top 30 for the first time since they were published will make you everything from pad kra pao udon noodles, a deliciously inauthentic dish of Japanese udon noodles stir-fried with pad kra pao, the popular Thai street food dish, to a hearty penne pasta based on the Spanish ‘poor man’s potatoes’, a rustic home-style dish of fried potatoes, sausages, bell peppers (capsicums), and onions.
We’d love to think that these were the recipes that were not only the most searched-for recipes and the recipes where you spent most of your time on the the site, we loved to think that you also cooked them. Please let us know if you did in the comments at the end of any of the recipes. We love hearing from our readers and respond to every comment.
Now before you scroll down to our most popular recipes of September 2025, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. There are lots of ways, but 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 cooked in September.
Most Popular Recipes of September 2025 – Recipes Readers Cooked Last Month
These were our most popular recipes of September 2025 – the recipes that readers searched for, spent time on, and hopefully cooked in September.
Gently Spiced Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
Once again, one of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes, which mum used to make regularly when I was a kid growing up in the ’70s, topped the list of most popular recipes of September 2025 on the site. It’s my classic beef Stroganoff recipe, which differs a little to my mother’s, in that it’s more richly spiced and includes an unusual ingredient.
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
Spiced Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Dried Fruit and Nuts
My quick and easy Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins will make you a fragrant 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
Cambodian Rice Noodles with Herbaceous Coconut Soup
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 September 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 Single 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 September 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
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 September 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
Deeply Flavoured 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
Spicy Calabrian Style Sausage Pasta Recipe from Southern Italy
I was so chuffed to see that this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe was another one of the most popular recipes in September 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
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan
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
Breakfast 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 September 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.
Comforting Russian Buckwheat Kasha Recipe with Bacon, Caramelised Onions, Mushrooms and Eggs
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 September recipes.
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Chinese American Crispy 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 September 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
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
Gently Spiced 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
Sour Beef Soup with Morning Glory Recipe for Samlor Machou Kroeung Sach Ko
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. (Recipe above).
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
Roast Broccoli Recipe with Zucchini, Green Beans and Sesame Seeds
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
Cambodian Fried Rice Recipe for the Best Bai Cha
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!
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
Cambodian Green Papaya Salad Recipe for Khmer Bok Lahong
This green papaya salad recipe makes Cambodia’s Bok Lahong or Nhoam Lahong, a fragrant, crunchy salad that’s a little funky, spicy, sour, salty, and a tad sweet. Typically eaten as a late afternoon snack, this bespoke Cambodian salad is made to order, and has cousins in Laos (Tum Som), Thailand (Som Tam), and Vietnam (Gỏi Đủ Đủ).
One of Cambodia’s favourite salads, it’s a fresh, aromatic, crunchy salad that is a little funky, a little spicy, a little sour, a little salty, and a little sweet. It’s a well-balanced salad and this is arguably what sets it apart from its bolder cousins in Laos (where pounded salads are called Tum Som), Thailand (Som Tam), and Vietnam (Gỏi Đủ Đủ), which are, respectively, a lot funkier, more fiery, and more fragrant.
We first shared this recipe as part of a series on classic Cambodian salad recipes, which included an addictive Cambodian minced pork larb, an aromatic grilled beef salad, and, some of my favourites right now, a light and tasty pork and jicama salad, a wonderful Cambodian banana flower chicken salad, and a green mango and smoked fish salad.
Cambodian Green Papaya Salad Recipe for Cambodia’s Bok Lahong
Cambodian Amok Trei Recipe for a Rich 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 August 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
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
We shared this Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe from our Marrakech riad kitchen in Morocco, where Terence learnt to make this deliciously rich tagine from Jamila, our riad cook, and Essaouria, where we made it again for this recipe. A Moroccan tagine is a slow-cooked stew made from meat, generally lamb or chicken, but can contain anything from duck to fish. It’s quintessential Moroccan comfort food.
Morocco was the first stop on our year-long grand tour of the world, which launched Grantourismo, with the aim of 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.
Terence watched Jamila, the lovely cook at our Marrakech riad make this Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds and while he loved the results, there are a couple of things that he wanted to do a little differently to Jamila, so he tweaked the recipe accordingly. Just don’t tell Jamila – she’s a force of nature!
In his Moroccan edition of Weekend Eggs he wrote about how there were many different versions of chakchouka. Well, that’s nothing compared to the variations of tagine in Morocco. You won’t find two cooks who’ll agree on exactly what should go into a tagine as most follow their own family’s recipes, finely tuned in their ancestors kitchens over many generations. If you enjoy this, try our classic chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
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
Russian-Ukrainian 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
Hummus with Spiced Ground 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.
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
My Russian salmon potato salad recipe with soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill makes a filling salad that you can eat year-round. In the cool season, you can serve it with warm potatoes and seared salmon straight from the pan, while it can be refrigerated for warm weather meals, such as summer barbecues and spring picnics.
My Russian-Ukrainian family loved their salads, from this classic garden salad and this pink beetroot potato salad to this Soviet-era crab salad. I ate a lot of salad as a child, but potato salads were my favourite salads. My Australian grandmother made a typical Aussie style potato salad for Sunday family dinners, while my Russian baboushka made a few Russian potato salads.
Salmon lover? Browse our best salmon recipes collection, which includes recipes for Russian blini with smoked salmon and caviar, a twist on that: buckwheat pancakes with smoked salmon and ‘caviar’ of gherkin and radish, creamy smoked salmon dip, elegant devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar, Cambodian salmon ‘ceviche’, smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’, fish soup with salmon, smoked salmon pasta with capers and dill pickles, Vietnamese caramelised salmon, an easy salmon tray bake, salmon fillets with crispy skin, and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar.
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
Sourdough Crumpets Recipe for Your Sourdough Starter Discard
This sourdough crumpets recipe puts your sourdough starter discard to use, so that it doesn’t go to waste, to make authentic English crumpets and it was another of our most popular recipes of September 2025.
They’re absolutely delicious with lashings of butter and dollops of homemade jam. They don’t take long to make, so like our sourdough scallion pancakes recipe will hopefully inspire you to try more sourdough starter discard recipes.
Now if you haven’t begun your sourdough journey yet and are in two minds as to whether you want to commit, see Terence’s simple sourdough starter recipe, his beginner’s guide to easy sourdough baking and his post on how deeply satisfying he finds sourdough baking, a response to the sourdough backlash.
Sourdough Crumpets Recipe for Your Sourdough Starter Discard
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 and it was another of our most popular recipes of September 2025.
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
Natang Recipe for Cambodian Pork Coconut and Peanut Dip with Crispy Rice Cakes
This Cambodian natang recipe makes an addictively delicious dip of minced pork, coconut cream and peanuts that’s made to be eaten with homemade crispy rice cakes, which in turn are intended to use up the rice that sticks to the bottom of a pot or use up any leftover rice.
Natang is one of those dishes claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand as their own and is found in both countries, due to their shared histories. (Thais call the dish khao tang na tang.) In both Cambodia and Thailand, natang is frequently said to be a Royal Khmer or Royal Thai dish although Cambodian chefs we’ve interviewed believe it to be from the countryside. There’s no reason that it can’t be both.
One of the arguments for natang having originated in the countryside is that it was created to be eaten with the rice crust (called bai kdaing) that forms from rice stuck on the bottom of the cooking pot or rice crackers made from leftover rice that’s flattened and left to dry in the sun. If you’re in Cambodia, you can try delicious versions of natang at The Sugar Palm and Chanrey Tree, both in our guide to Siem Reap’s best Cambodian restaurants.
Natang Recipe for Cambodian Pork Coconut and Peanut Dip with Crispy Rice Cakes
Hearty Penne Pasta with Fried Potatoes, Sausage and Peppers Recipe
This penne pasta with sausage, potatoes and peppers recipe makes a hearty pasta that incorporates the Spanish ‘poor man’s potatoes’, a rustic home-style dish of fried potatoes, sausage, 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.
If you made my recipe for ‘poor man’s potatoes’ – a traditional dish from Southern Spain, and one of those dishes that make even better leftovers – and you enjoyed that, you’re going to love this soul-nourishing pasta dish. It’s one of our best pasta recipes and one of our best recipes with potatoes. It was another of our most popular recipes of September 2025.
We shared this dish as part of a series of 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
Spaghetti Stroganoff Recipe for a Russian Inspired Mushroom Bolognese
My spaghetti Stroganoff recipe will make you a Russian Stroganoff inspired mushroom Bolognese with spaghetti instead of tagliatelle, and a ragù of mushrooms and ground beef and pork, flavoured with the quintessential Stroganoff ingredients, allspice, paprika, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and sour cream. It’s deeply flavoured yet quick and easy to make.
If you’re a fan of the legendary Russian dish beef Stroganoff and a lover of the Northern Italy classic ragu alla Bolognese, the rich meaty sauce traditionally served with tagliatelle; the Italian-Australian/American spaghetti Bolognese, or even my ‘cheat’s Bolognese’ (some of our best pasta recipes), you should also enjoy my spaghetti Stroganoff recipe, a delicious fusion of the lot.
And if you are a Stroganoff fan, we’ve got a collection of best Stroganoff recipes, which includes recipes for my beef Stroganoff, chicken Stroganoff, meatball Stroganoff, mushroom Stroganoff, and pork Stroganoff, which uses the Chinese velveting technique. We also have recipes for classic Stroganoff sides, including crispy shoestring fries, mashed potatoes, buckwheat kasha, and dill pickles.
Spaghetti Stroganoff Recipe for a Russian Inspired Mushroom Bolognese
Tonkatsu Recipe for Crunchy Japanese Deep Fried Pork Cutlet and Tonkatsu Sauce
Terence’s Japanese tonkatsu recipe makes the most tender, juicy, deep-fried pork cutlet you’ll ever taste. This simple but revered deep-fried Japanese pork dish has an amazing crunch from the golden panko crust, melt-in-your-mouth moist pork, and the tangy taste of the tonkatsu sauce.
Terence writes in the post how he first realised what a great dish tonkatsu could be on our second trip to Tokyo way back in 2010 on our yearlong global ‘grand tour‘ dedicated to slow, local and experiential travel and food that launched this website. It was almost mid-way through the year and we were at a tranquil tonkatsu place at sleek Roppongi Hills when we ate a perfectly deep-fried, breaded pork cutlet in complete silence.
How could such a simple dish be so incredible we wondered? Well, it’s the combination of the golden panko crunch, moist tender pork, the punch of the brown tonkatsu sauce, and refreshing cabbage ‘salad’ that makes a great tonkatsu. While it is essentially just deep-fried crumbed pork, it’s an easy dish to get wrong. But follow this tonkatsu recipe and you’ll make the best tonkatsu ever. Maybe almost as good as that tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo.
Tonkatsu Recipe for Crunchy Japanese Deep Fried Pork Cutlet and Tonkatsu Sauce
Pad Kra Pao Udon Noodles Recipe for a Deliciously Inauthentic Noodle Dish
This pad kra pao udon noodles recipe makes a deliciously inauthentic noodle dish of Japanese udon noodles stir-fried with Thai pad kra pao, a popular Thai street food dish of stir-fried ground meat and holy basil, typically topped with a fried egg and served with steamed rice. A breakfast staple in Thailand, our pad kra pao with udon makes a fantastic all-day dish. It was another of our most popular recipes of September 2025.
If you’re a lover of Thai pad kra pao – transliterated more correctly as pad ka phrao, but popularly written as pad krapow and pad grapao – you’ll enjoy this pad kra pao udon noodles recipe, as well as Terence’s recipe for pad kra pao Scotch eggs and our original Thai pad krapow omelette rice bowl recipe, which makes our idea of a Thai style donburi or Japanese rice bowl.
You’ll especially enjoy this udon pad kra pao if you’re a lover of Japanese udon noodles, those delightfully thick, dense, chewy wheat noodles used to make yaki udon, the classic Japanese noodle dish of stir-fried udon with vegetables in a soy-based sauce. Udon lovers should also see our breakfast yaki udon with bacon and eggs.
Pad Kra Pao Udon Noodles Recipe for a Deliciously Inauthentic Noodle Dish
Please let us know in the comments below if you make any of the recipes in this collection of our most popular recipes of September 2025 on Grantourismo, as we’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
