Our compilation of recipes to cook in October 2025 includes loads of spring and autumn-fall food ideas. Whether your weather is warming up or cooling down, we’ve got lots of recipes for you – for Mexican tacos, Asian noodles, homemade pizza, Vietnamese meatballs, and more. Whether you’re cooking around seasonal produce – yes, we’ve got pumpkin recipes – or using food days as a fun excuse to cook a dish you love, there’s a recipe for you.
We’ve got something for everyone in this compilation of recipes to cook in October 2025, no matter where you are and what the weather’s like. While we’ve got warming soups, stews and curries if it’s still cool or starting to cool down, if it’s starting to heat we’ve got great salads, such as our butternut pumpkin, lentil, baby beetroot, and goat’s cheese salad, and year-round dishes like Mexican tacos, Asian noodles and quick and easy pastas.
And once again we’ve used Food Days and Food Weeks to give you reasons to get in the kitchen, from a Polish chef’s secrets to dumpling success for National Pierogi Day to our 30 best curry recipes from Southeast Asia, South Africa and beyond for our British readers marking National Curry Week. We’re also sharing our best pickles recipes for National Canning Day and best recipes with nuts for National Nut Day.
Don’t forget, if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, browse our recipe archives, which are heaving with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. Or browse our most popular recipes of September which were the most searched-for recipes on the site, the recipes where you all spent most of your time and hopefully cooked.
Now before you scroll down to our recipes to cook in October, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. Now let’s tell you about our recipes to cook in October 2025.
Recipes to Cook in October 2025 – Tacos, Curries, Noodles, Pizza, Pierogi and More
These are the recipes to cook in October 2025, whether you’re using seasonal produce as inspiration, a holiday or Food Day as an excuse to cook a dish you love, you’re cooking for a casual gathering of family or friends, or making a meal for one or two.
Vietnamese Coffee Recipes for International Coffee Day
The 1st October is International Coffee Day so we’re sharing our guide to making these beloved Vietnamese coffees with condensed milk, egg, yogurt, and coconut cream. They’re some of the most deliciously comforting coffees you can make in your own kitchen if you can’t get to Hanoi, Saigon or Vietnam’s coffee capital, Dalat, where you can do coffee tours.
Of course, you can find these Vietnamese-style coffees, the most traditional of which is a thick syrupy coffee made from dark roasted robusta coffee beans, combined with sweetened condensed milk, served in tall glasses right across Southeast Asia, not only in Vietnam.
The creamy, heady, drip filter brew is the traditional local coffee of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, despite the proliferation and popularity of third wave cafes with counters that look like chemistry labs, and baristas crafting specialty coffees from single origin fair-trade beans, and bottling their own cold brews. Coffee lover? Also see our guide to the world’s best destinations for coffee fans.
Vietnamese Coffee Guide – How to Make Coffee With Egg, Yogurt and Coconut
Pumpkin Lentil Salad Recipe with Beetroot, Goat Cheese, Pistachios and Poppy Seeds
It’s also National Pumpkin Seed Day on 1 October and our recipe for this pumpkin lentil salad with beetroot, goat cheese and pistachios is packed with flavour and texture courtesy of mixed seeds, including pumpkin seeds, as well as sunflower seeds.
Butternut pumpkin and lentils are pan-fried in cumin, arranged on mixed salad leaves, topped with baby beetroots and goat’s cheese pearls, sprinkled with crunchy pistachios, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and fresh mint, and dressed with a fig balsamic vinegar dressing.
If you’re a fan of Middle Eastern food, you’ll love this salad, which takes inspiration from the cuisines of the region. You might also like these beetroot salad recipes, such as this beetroot arugula salad with walnuts and feta on butter bean puree, our roast beetroot salad with feta, rucola and pistachios on cumin-spiced carrot hummus, this beet carrot salad with goat cheese, arugula and radish, or pumpkin beetroot salad on whipped feta with pistachios.
My recipe for a Russian spiced pumpkin porridge also includes pumpkin sees. The recipe makes my take on a traditional Cossack dish from Southern Russia, between Ukraine and the Caucasus Mountains, where my grandfather was born. Made with butternut pumpkin and barley, it’s savoury, sweet and gently spiced with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and currants.
Pumpkin Lentil Salad Recipe with Beetroot, Goat Cheese, Pistachios and Poppy Seeds
Best Vegetarian Recipes for World Vegetarian Day from Mushroom Stroganoff to Chickpea Curry
It’s also World Vegetarian Day on 1 October so why not browse this round-up of our best vegetarian recipes, from a creamy mushroom Stroganoff and a spicy chickpea curry to a comforting mushroom noodle soup with handmade pasta and an easy vegetarian bean chilli recipe for chilli con carne sin carne. We’ve also got loads of salad recipes and meatless soups.
When I decided to share a compilation of our best vegetarian recipes to make for World Vegetarian Day today, I was surprised how many vegetarian recipes we had in our archives, and there are far more vegetable-forward recipes, as well as vegan recipes, than the veggie recipes I’ve compiled here.
We are not vegetarian nor even vegetable-driven, but we eat plenty of vegetables. We simply believe in having a nutritious balanced diet, with as little processed food as possible, regularly eating meals without meat, as we appreciate their value to our health, as well as to the environment.
We adore good quality vegetables cooked to perfection, and would take a bowl of flavoursome vegetables over a fake piece of vegan meat any day. With many of our best vegetarian recipes we’ve simply removed the meat and bumped up the seasonings and spices.
Best Vegetarian Recipes for World Vegetarian Day from Mushroom Strog to Chickpea Curry
Best Taco Recipes for Taco Day – Chicken Tinga Tacos, Tacos Al Pastor, Breakfast Tacos and More
October 4 is National Taco Day and our collection of best taco recipes, which we first shared for #TacoTuesday, includes everything from our tacos al pastor recipe inspired by the Mexico City tacos we love, and recipes for Mexican-American and Tex-Mex-style tacos from a chicken tinga taco recipe to Austin-inspired breakfast tacos.
Our Taco Tuesday recipes make mostly wheat flour tacos, which are a mix of Mexican, Mexican-American and Tex-Mex-styles of tacos. That’s not to say they’re inauthentic. Wheat flour tortillas are used to make tacos in Mexico, mostly in the northern Mexican states that border the USA, as well as the southern USA Borderlands that were part of Mexico not all that long ago. Wheat flour tortillas are also used by Mexican-Americans.
Mexican taco fillings – or toppings, because corn tortillas are flat until you scoop the taco up and fold the tortilla to eat it – are fairly restrained. By contrast, our toppings are more generous, in the Tex-Mex style, as you can see, so our Taco Tuesday recipes make a meal rather than the snack that Mexican tacos typically are. Whatever, we love them all. Who doesn’t love a good taco?!
Taco Tuesday Recipes – Chicken Tinga Tacos, Tacos Al Pastor, Breakfast Tacos and More
Slow Fried Egg Recipe with Creamy Dill Spread on Sourdough with Pickles and Radishes
October 5 is a Sunday, which is my favourite day for a lazy late breakfast or brunch, so why not true my slow fried egg recipe with creamy dill cheese spread on sourdough toast with dill pickles, radishes and sweet paprika. The dish was inspired by my late grandfather’s daily breakfast – an egg, fresh crispy cucumbers and radishes picked from his veggie garden, homemade gherkins, and rye bread, all washed down with black tea with lemon – and a shot of vodka.
Don’t let the ‘slow’ in the title put you off. The dish comes together quickly, ‘slow’ just refers to the egg technique. Once you’ve prepped your plates, you make your slow-cooked eggs: coat a small pan with the lightest coating of olive oil – we use these adorable little non-stick single-egg pans – then crack an egg into the pan, and slow-fry over the lowest heat for a couple of minutes until the egg is just cooked.
Some slow-fried egg recipes will baste the egg in water, so you’re essentially cooking the eggs in water. But we don’t think that’s necessary. By all means try it, but we find we can slow-fry the eggs in this little pan and the eggs cook yet the yolk and white still stay soft without the edges crisping up. If you’ve made this before why not browse Terence’s Weekend Eggs recipe archives for more Sunday egg ideas.
Slow Fried Egg Recipe with Creamy Dill Spread on Sourdough with Pickles and Radishes
Best Asian Noodle Recipes for the Moon Festival and National Noodle Day
It’s Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival and Mooncake Festival, which is a good excuse to cook Chinese food, from this egg drop soup to Chinese fried rice. It’s also National Noodle Day on 6 October, so browse our noodle dishes for an array of noodle soups and stir-fry noodle dishes.
We’ve got everything from a Singapore curry laksa and creamy coconut-based Chiang Mai khao soi gai to Lao khao soi from lovely Luang Prabang (one of my favourite riverside towns in Southeast Asia), which has a Bolognese-like sauce, and Indonesia’s chicken soup for the soul, soto ayam, from lively Yogyakarta.
We also have this collection of noodle recipes from around the world for good luck and long life, which we shared for Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year. That compilation includes recipes for everything from noodle soups to stir-fried noodles, from Asia and beyond. There’s Cambodian nom banh chok, Thai rad na ga, Korean instant ramen, classic Japanese yaki udon, Hokkien noodles, and more noodles galore.
And if you’re new to noodles, we’ve got an Asian noodle guide, which covers the most popular types of fresh and dried Asian noodles, how to use the noodles, with links to noodle recipes for each type of noodle, and tips to shopping for noodles in Asia and the rest of the world.
Best Asian Noodle Recipes to Satisfy Your Comfort Food Cravings
Best Curry Recipes for National Curry Week
Our British readers are celebrating spicy bowls of goodness this week in the UK, where curry is the national dish and the 27th National Curry Week kicks off on 6 October. We’ll use any excuse to cook curries. You, too? Then browse this compilation of our 30 best curry recipes from Southeast Asia, South Africa and beyond.
Our collection includes everything from a rich Cambodian Saraman curry and its cousin Thai Massaman beef curry to the more gently-spiced Vietnamese chicken curry, this Cape Malay chicken curry from Cape Town, a Burmese Indian-style curry we fell in love with in Myanmar, and the decadent pork belly curry, gaeng hang lay moo from Northern Thailand.
We’ve also got recipes for curry noodles, coconut curry soups, Terence’s meat pie and sausage roll recipes based on Southeast Asian curries, and his creamy curried egg sandwich recipe, a favourite of mine. Though I have to say that the dish I’m really looking forward to making when I get back home to Siem Reap is this Cambodian chicken curry.
Best Curry Recipes from Southeast Asia, South Africa and Beyond
Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma Recipe Pan Fried on the Stovetop
Our chicken shawarma recipe will make you richly spiced succulent chicken thigh pieces pan-fried in minutes to replicate the flavour of traditional chicken shawarma. A popular Middle Eastern specialty, a shawarma is essentially a takeaway sandwich, made to order, prepared by the shawarma guy who slices the succulent spiced chicken or beef off vertical spits, rolls the meat up in flat bread, and wraps it tightly in paper.
A shawarma sandwich is for taking away, while shawarma plates are usually ordered for sitting down to eat inside the eatery, although you can also order them to take home. Shawarma is a hugely popular street food in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where we lived for almost eight years. We’d eat shawarma a couple of times a week, sometimes eating one on the spot and taking the second one home.
But if we were ordering enough takeaway Arabic food for a proper meal, we’d order a shawarma plate, which is essentially what you see below, along with tubs of Middle Eastern mezze such as hummus and baba ganoush, salads such as fatoush, and perhaps some falafel, kebbe, shish tawook or kofta kebabs. The guys would always slip plenty of complimentary warm flatbread into the big paper bag.
While nothing can match the experience of biting into soft warmed flatbread, heated at the base of the vertical spit, spread with garlicky toum, rolled around hot potato fries, zingy pickled cucumber slices, and fragrant, juicy, gently spiced chicken pieces just-sliced off the vertical rotisserie, our chicken shawarma recipe makes a dish that’s intended to evoke the experience if not replicate it exactly.
Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma Recipe Pan Fried on the Stovetop
How to Make Polish Pierogi on National Pierogi Day – The Secrets to Dumpling Success
It’s National Pierogi Day on 8 October, so if you haven’t made pierogi before why not try your hand at making Poland’s delicious boiled filled dumplings? They’re not as hard to make as you might think. While it takes time, it’s worth recruiting some helpers and making a big batch. You can freeze bags of pierogi or fry up leftover boiled dumplings the next day.
During our two weeks in Kraków back in 2010 on the yearlong global grand tour devoted to slow, local and experiential travel that launched Grantourismo, we settled into a cosy apartment in the historic centre with a big well-equipped kitchen. I’d been making Russian-Ukrainian dumplings all my life, so I sought out a pierogi master to learn how to make pierogi, which are very similar, and learn the differences between the dumplings.
My great grandmother, Daria, was born in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk, which had been part of Poland, when it was called Łuck. I think that Polish connection partly explains the fondness and special attachment I’ve always felt to Poland, Polish culture and Polish food. We ended up getting pierogi making lessons from the chef of our favourite Polish restaurant who taught us the secrets to dumpling-making success.
It turned out that there aren’t that many differences between pierogi and pelmeni and vareniki and that Polish eat exactly as Russians and Ukrainians do. But it was still fun finding that out! If you’re feeding family or a group of friends do as my family did and serve a few fresh salads to accompany the dumplings, such as this Russian garden salad, pink beetroot potato salad or Olivier potato salad, and bowls of dill pickles and sour cream for dolloping.
How to Make Polish Pierogi – Learning the Secrets to Dumpling Success in Krakow
Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables for National Salmon Day
October 8 is also National Salmon Day and while we have loads of salmon recipes, I thought I’d share this easy salmon tray bake recipe for crispy skinned salmon fillets baked so that the skin crackles but the flesh remains moist, with roasted spring vegetables that are just-done so that they’re still fresh and crunchy.
Sprinkled with spring onions and fresh fragrant dill and served with lemon slices, it makes the lightest of spring roasts. We’re happy to have the salmon fillets drizzled with a little extra virgin olive oil, but a bowl of homemade tartare sauce on the table adds a nice touch if you’re feeding a group. And if it feels like autumn-fall where you are, try Terence’s crispy skin salmon fillet with colcannon with prawns or creamy mashed potatoes instead.
If you’re a salmon lover, our best salmon recipes include recipes for 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, Russian salmon potato salad, smoked salmon pasta with capers and dill pickles, Vietnamese caramelised salmon, salmon fillets with crispy skin, and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar.
Easy Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables
Easy Nduja Pizza Recipe and How to Make a Dutch Oven Pizza
It’s International Beer and Pizza Day on 9 October, and while we can’t help you with the beer, we can share an easy pizza recipe. After Terence conquered the challenge of making sourdough bread in a toaster oven, he thought it was time to experiment again: could he get a pizza with a decent crust and a firm base using the lid of the Dutch oven? It turns out that it is well and truly achievable. This pizza is so good!
Terence’s easy pizza recipe makes a gently spiced nduja pizza with the Calabrian food speciality called ’nduja di Spilinga, a spicy spreadable pork sausage paste, which he combines with tomatoes and tomato paste to make a delicious base. Although cooked in a Dutch Oven it manages to have the hallmarks of a pizza made in a traditional pizza oven.
We first shared this recipe as part of a series of ’nduja recipes that included recipes for Terence’s spin on Australian chef Christine Manfield’s eggplant ‘sandwich’ with ’nduja instead of basil pesto, the Calabrian take on eggs in purgatory with ‘nduja for our Weekend Eggs series, tasty ’nduja bruschetta, and spicy ’nduja pasta. Can’t find any ‘nduja locally? You can buy ’nduja online, thankfully! Also worth noting: Terence has a sourdough discard pizza recipe.
Mexican Huevos Rancheros Recipe for World Egg Day
It’s World Egg Day on October 10 and it’s a Friday, so you could browse Terence’s 15 year-old series called Weekend Eggs on quintessential egg dishes from around the world for egg recipes to make on the weekend. Or you could try this Mexican huevos rancheros recipe, which is our most popular egg recipe with readers right now, after Terence’s guide to how to boil eggs perfectly every time.
Terence’s traditional Mexican huevos rancheros recipe with chorizo makes the classic Mexican ‘ranch eggs’, a breakfast staple in Mexico. A tomato salsa is enriched with soft spicy chorizo sausage and spread around fried eggs with runny egg yolks laid on warm tortillas. Although this huevos con chorizo for scrambled eggs with chorizo is my favourite..
We fell in love with both dishes on our first trip to Mexico many years ago and they’re our best Mexican egg breakfasts, which are our favourite kind of egg breakfasts. Terence also has a recipe for a contemporary-styled Mexican ‘ranch eggs’ inspired by the original, which is made with a poached egg rather than fried egg.
Not in the mood for Mexican eggs? Then browse these compilations of our best Weekend Eggs breakfast eggs dishes from our yearlong global grand tour in 2010, which launched Grantourismo, our best Asian egg recipes, and our 24 most popular Weekend Eggs recipes from 2024, one of our annual round-ups, or these egg recipe collections for scrambled eggs recipes, boiled eggs recipes and fried eggs recipes.
Mexican Huevos Rancheros Recipe with Mexican Chorizo for the Best Mexican Breakfast
Rice Porridge Recipes for World Porridge Day
October 10 is also World Porridge Day, which was started in Scotland to raise awareness of child hunger and raise funds for the charity, Mary’s Meals, which feeds 3 million children around the world a nutritious meal every day. Porridge is the national dish of Scotland, where oats have been grown since 600AD and archaeologists have found evidence of wheat ground for gruel as far back as 3500BC.
Rather than Weekend Eggs, we savoured Weekend Oats in Scotland’s Edinburgh on our 2010 yearlong global grand tour dedicated to slow, local and experiential travel that launched this site and our Weekend Eggs series. When we sought egg dish ideas for the series, every local we met told us the real Scottish breakfast was oat porridge. While we don’t have a traditional porridge recipe, we do have a recipe for cranachan with oats, berries, whisky and honey.
In Southeast Asia, where we’ve lived since 2011, we eat savoury rice porridge more than a sweet oat porridge, so I thought I’d share our best breakfast rice recipes for rice soups and rice porridges, which will make you everything from a luxuriant Chinese congee and comforting Southeast Asian rice porridges to Japanese rice bowls. Also see my recent rice cooker congee recipe, which is a cheat’s rice porridge recipe for an easy crab and corn congee.
Best Breakfast Rice Recipes for Congee, Rice Soups and Rice Porridges
Pan Roasted Brined and Marinated Pork Chops Recipe
This pan-roasted brined and marinated pork chops recipe is a recipe that defies the notion that pork chops are generally dry and bland. Using a simple brining technique combined with a spicy marinade, the bland pork chop is transformed into a succulent and zesty main course. Terence’s recipe makes the juiciest pork chops ever.
One of the tips Terence picked up years ago for making char siu pork is to use a meat tenderiser, not the meat tenderiser that is like a hammer to thin out and tenderise fillets, like for pork tonkatsu, but a tenderiser that leaves small incisions in the meat to allow the flavour to more quickly penetrate the meat than a four-hour marinade. We love to serve these pork chops with a side of creamy mashed potatoes.
Just like our eternally-popular Cote de Boeuf recipe, the leftovers almost make buying bigger (or better, thicker) cuts of pork worthwhile. A sandwich made with leftover pork, fresh sourdough bread, some spicy rocket (rucola) leaves, and some great old style Maille Grain Dijon Mustard is a thing of beauty.
Pan-Roasted, Brined and Marinated Pork Chops Recipe for the Juiciest Pork Chops
Best Asian Dessert Recipes for National Dessert Day
It’s National Dessert Day on 14 October so why not try one of our easy Asian dessert recipes for a taste of the sweet side of Southeast Asia in your home. Our super-easy recipes for Asian sweets make everything from mango and sticky rice to Thai tea ice cream.
Southeast Asian desserts are distinguished by tropical fruits, such as mango, banana and coconut, ingredients that add texture such as sago, tapioca and sesame seeds, and spices such as star anise and cinnamon. You can eat some of these desserts warm in autumn/fall or winter and chilled with crushed ice in spring and summer.
One of my favourites is this Thai mango sticky rice recipe adapted from chef David Thompson’s Thai Street Food cookbook, which makes the much-loved Thai dessert kao niaw mamuang. Another favourite is this banana coconut tapioca pudding recipe for Cambodia’s chek ktis, a sweet and creamy aromatic dessert of stewed banana in coconut milk and tapioca pearls, perfumed with star anise.
Easy Asian Dessert Recipes for a Taste of the Sweet Side of Southeast Asia
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Sauce
It’s National Chicken Cacciatore Day on 15 October, which is the best excuse to make this classic chicken cacciatore recipe for a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce. 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 sourdough bread to mop up the rich sauce.
Italian hunters made the stew over an open fire while out on the hunt or en route home. 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).
In the Italian diaspora, where the first Italian-American chicken cacciatore recipe was published in the USA in the 1920s, chicken cacciatore is typically served with pasta. We also have a recipe for an Italian-Australian spaghetti cacciatore, one of our favourite mid-week meal ideas.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Sauce
Best Mushroom Recipes for National Mushroom Day
October 15 is also National Mushroom Day here in Australia. Mushroom season falls in the spring and autumn-fall, so whether you’re in the southern hemisphere or northern hemisphere, now is the time to go mushroom picking before the season ends – or just head to your favourite mushroom supplier and make some of our best mushroom recipes.
We adore our mushrooms. One of the best mushroom dishes we tasted in our lives was a massive whole roasted mushroom at La Tavernetta in Camigliatello Silano in Calabria. As we cut into this enormous wild mushroom, juices gushed out of it and formed a pool on the plate. It was a revelation. We’ve been a little obsessed with cooking mushrooms ever since.
Our best mushroom recipes include recipes for the perfect mushrooms on toast, creamy scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms, my Russian mushroom Stroganoff, savoury buckwheat kasha with mushrooms, and an East-West bacon, eggs and mushrooms breakfast congee.
Our Best Mushroom Recipes Give You a Good Excuse to Go Mushroom Foraging
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
It’s Four Prunes Day on 17 October and it’s four prunes, not just Prune Day, because four prunes are apparently the number of prunes we should all be consuming a day to stay, um… regular – which is as good an excuse as any to cook our Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe, which Terence learnt to make from Jamila, the lovely cook at our Marrakech riad.
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 the year-long grand tour of the world dedicated to slow, local and experiential travel which launched Grantourismo, and cooking food, especially slow food, was a big part of that project.
If you’re making a full Moroccan meal, kick it off with bowls of Terence’s spiced Moroccan chickpea soup, which he also learnt to make from Jamila, or my hearty Moroccan harrira made with lentils. For dessert, try my take on a sweet Moroccan orange salad with cinnamon, mint, pomegranate and pistachios. And if you enjoy this lamb tagine, make our classic Moroccan chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives.
My chicken leek soup recipe for a quick and easy take on a classic Scottish cock-a-leekie soup also contains prunes. A traditional cock-a-leekie recipe calls for a whole chicken, but using pulled poached chicken or shredded rotisserie chicken leftovers will save you time without sacrificing flavour.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
Spaghetti Pangrattato Recipe and More Pasta Recipes for National Pasta Day
October 17 is National Pasta Day so why not make our spaghetti pangrattato recipe for a quick and easy pasta made with pangrattato. This deliciously simple pasta has loads of texture and flavour courtesy of the Italian condiment pangrattato, which is crispy, fresh, zesty, and packed with umami.
If you’ve made our pangrattato recipe for the Southern Italian garnish made from stale bread and breadcrumbs, lemon zest, flat leaf parsley, and grated Parmesan, then you need to make this spaghetti pangrattato. Serve it with lemon slices or wedges to squeeze over the pasta.
We have lots more quick and easy pasta recipes if you’re planning a pasta party, such as this canned tuna pasta with scallions, capers and fresh herbs, our asparagus, mushrooms and bacon gnocchi recipe, this creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi recipe, my penne Bolognese recipe for a ‘cheat’s Bol’, and our cherry tomato feta pasta recipe.
Spaghetti Pangrattato Recipe for Pasta with Zesty Crunchy Breadcrumbs
Creamy Mashed Potatoes Recipe for Making Perfect Potato Mash Every Time
Depending on where you live, 18 October is National Mashed Potato Day. I have no idea who came up with that day, but as a lover of potato mash I’m running with it! Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe makes our favourite comfort food side dish: perfect potato mash. Serve it with a great steak, such as cote de boeuf, a classic roast chicken, some lovely sausages, or a crispy skinned fish fillet. It’s the perfect accompaniment to almost anything.
We first shared Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe at the request of readers who saw Terence’s mashed potatoes in his five-spice crispy pork belly recipe post. A simple dish, his creamy mashed potatoes relies on a very simple formula: one kilo potatoes, 250 grams butter, and 250 millilitres of full cream milk.
Add a good few twists of a salt grinder – and fresh pepper if you wish – and you have a classic creamy potato mash. A tip: while some chefs, particularly French-trained chefs, like to use a food mill, Terence prefers to use a potato ricer followed by a tamis, pushing the potatoes through with a bowl scraper.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes Recipe – How to Make Perfect Potato Mash Every Time
Our Favourite Indian Recipes for Diwali, Festival of Light
This year the main day of the Diwali festival falls on 20 October, although the Hindu festival of Light is celebrated over five days, beginning two days before Diwali and extending two days after. We’re using it as an excuse to cook Indian food, which we’ve been cooking and eating for as long as we’ve been together. This tamarind eggplant recipe from Rajasthan is one of my favourite Indian dishes and comes courtesy of Australian chef Christine Manfield.
Christine 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. I love it with Indian raita and rice. I also adore this chole bhatura recipe for a Punjabi chole or chickpea curry from the Punjab region of Northern India, also from Christine’s book.
If you’re a fan of South Indian food, try this Kerala egg curry recipe made with quintessentially Keralan ingredients like coconut cream and green chillies. It’s traditionally made with hard boiled eggs, but we like our eggs a little softer; see Terence’s guide to cooking perfect boiled eggs. Typically eaten for breakfast with Malabar paratha or idiyappam, you could really tuck into it at any time of day, even in the evening if you’re a breakfast-for-dinner kind of person.
Tamarind Eggplant Recipe from Rajasthan from Christine Manfield’s Indian Cooking Class
Best Recipes with Nuts for National Nut Day
It’s National Nut Day on 22 October so why not browse our best recipes with nuts, and particularly our best pistachio recipes for cooking inspiration? They include recipes for sauces, snacks, salads, sides, noodles, stir-fries, braises, curries, and more.
Nuts have been used in cooking forever for their health properties, as much as for flavour and texture. In fact, one of the easiest ways to add crunch to a dish is to pan-roast some nuts in a small non-stick pan, crush them up in a mortar and pestle, and sprinkle them over the dish.
Our best recipes with nuts feature dishes from right around the world – from savoury vegetable sides from the Middle East to spicy salads from Southeast Asia, from a recipe for Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds to a Vietnamese clay pot caramelised fish recipe with turmeric, dill and peanuts.
Best Recipes with Nuts for Salads, Sauces, Sides, Noodles, Stir Fries and Curries
Our Best Pickles Recipes for National Canning Day
It’s National Canning Day on 23 October and that doesn’t mean a celebration of canned food but rather home preserving: think jams, marmalades, relishes, and pickles, so we thought we’d share our best pickles recipes, which make a range of homemade pickles.
We’ve got recipes for Mexican pickles, including Yucatan pink onion pickles, quick pickled red cabbage and pickled jalapeños, all of which are fantastic on Mexican dishes such as tacos, tostadas and nachos and Tex-Mex favourites such as chilli con carne and burritos and Mexican escabeche or mixed vegetable pickles to munch on with cold Mexican cervezas.
We’ve also got recipes for Eastern European style dill pickles, which my Russian-Ukrainian family served with every meal and are brilliant with fish and chips and fried chicken. Pickles are also fantastic for adding zing, tang and crunch to potato salads (or any salads), tartare sauce, or your favourite burgers, sandwiches and hot dogs.
Our Best Pickles Recipes for Easy Delicious Refrigerator Pickles and Quick Pickles
Authentic Muhammara Recipe for Syrian Walnut Roasted Red Pepper Dip from Aleppo
One of our favourite Middle Eastern recipes, this authentic muhammara recipe makes the delicious Syrian walnut roasted red pepper dip from Aleppo. A traditional muhammara is a smoky, savoury, sweet, and subtly spiced dip that’s served as part of a spread of mezze or appetisers eaten with warm flatbread. While muhammara hails from the Northern Syria city of Aleppo, it’s served right across the Middle East.
We fell in love with muhammara on our first trip to Syria way back in 1999. On our subsequent trips to Syria, muhammara was the first dish we’d order soon after landing in Damascus. Our recipe is based on the official Aleppo muhammarra recipe from the Academie Syrienne Gastronomie (Academy of Syrian Gastronomy), shared with us when we were in Aleppo for a food story – with just a couple of tweaks.
While muhammara hails from Aleppo, we spotted it on every restaurant menu around the country as we drove all over Syria researching and writing the first Lebanon and Syria guidebook for Lonely Planet. Muhammara is also on menus at Syrian restaurants and Arabic restaurants across the Middle East, although outside the region it’s nowhere near as ubiquitous as hummus and baba ganoush. We reckon it should be! Try it with our garlicky shish taouk.
Authentic Muhammara Recipe for Syrian Walnut Roasted Red Pepper Dip from Aleppo
Pumpkin Recipes for Pumpkin Soups, Pumpkin Pasta, Pumpkin Curry and More
October 26 is Pumpkin Day although for our North American readers October is Pumpkin Month. Our best pumpkin recipes include a Middle Eastern pumpkin hummus recipe for a pumpkin chickpea dip with dukkah, a Cambodian pumpkin coconut soup recipe for a rich creamy soup, a spicy pumpkin chickpea curry recipe, and a recipe for a speedy spiced pumpkin pasta that clings lusciously to fusilli and other spiral pastas.
If pumpkins are as plentiful and as affordable where you are as they are here in Australia right now, please make some of our pumpkin recipes. We’ve got pumpkin salads, a savoury pumpkin porridge, spiced pumpkin soup, a sweet pumpkin pudding, and more. Although this creamy pumpkin pasta recipe is one of my favourites.
If you’re a pumpkin lover, start with some of my favourite pumpkin recipes: this pumpkin lentil salad, spiced pumpkin soup and Cambodian pumpkin coconut soup, and if you’re fond of sweet-savoury porridges such as my buckwheat kasha with bacon, eggs and mushrooms make this spiced pumpkin porridge with spices, seeds and dried fruit, topped with crunchy caramelised pumpkin.
Pumpkin Recipes for Pumpkin Soups, Pumpkin Pasta, Pumpkin Curry and More
Best Recipes with Potatoes from Potato Salads to Potato Soups and Sides for National Potato Day
It’s National Potato Day on 27 October and our best recipes with potatoes include everything from potato salads, potato pancakes and perfect creamy mashed potatoes to potato-filled Russian dumplings, spicy potato wedges, and crispy potato fries. We’ve got potato fried rice, breakfast tacos with crunchy potatoes, and classic Spanish potato tortilla.
It’s hard to find an ingredient as comforting as the potato. Some of our best potato recipes include some of the most delicious potato dishes in our recipe archives, from potato soups to potato sides, such as crispy Hasselback potatoes and the fluffiest mashed potatoes, to potato salads like this Burmese potato salad and this creamy Korean potato salad.
Some of my favourite potato recipes include my Russian salmon potato salad recipe with soft-boiled eggs, gherkins, capers and dill, a Thai Massaman curry fried rice with crunchy potatoes, crispy shallots, and pan-roasted peanuts, and Terence’s Basque-style fried eggs with chorizo and crispy potatoes.
Best Recipes with Potatoes – Potato Salads, Potato Soups and Potato Sides
Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for National Chocolate Day
It’s National Chocolate Day on 28 October which is the reason you need to try this afternoon chocolate delight recipe made with bread, chocolate, olive oil and salt for pa, xocolata, oli i sal in Catalan. The recipe comes courtesy of one of Barcelona’s best chefs, Jordi Artal. It was a traditional Catalan after-school treat that his grandmother made him, which inspired one of the creative contemporary desserts that chef Jordi serves at his restaurant, Cinc Sentits.
Naturally, Jordi was the first chef we thought of consulting for Terence’s series, The Dish, on the quintessential dishes of places, when we knew we were returning to Barcelona. When we approached Jordi to teach Terence a dish that in some way represented the new wave of creative Catalan cooking in Barcelona, Jordi took a u-turn.
Many of the inventive plates Jordi creates are based upon dishes Jordi grew up eating in the family home. So instead of teaching us a contemporary dish that would be complicated and difficult to make, Jordi suggested showing us how to make this traditional Catalan “afternoon chocolate delight” that his grandmother used to make for him after school as a treat. We’re so glad he did! It’s so simple yet sublime.
Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for the Catalan Treat Pa Xocolata Oli i Sal
Australian Grilled Pipis, Garlic and Karkalla Recipe for Wild Foods Day
It’s Wild Foods Day on 28 October and that’s a great excuse to celebrate Australian native ingredients. I’ve been reading a lot of wonderful cookbooks on native Australian food since I’ve been back in Australia, but not cooking as much as I’d like to as it’s challenging to source the ingredients. Obscure Asian ingredients are easier to find. But I do have a couple of recipes I’ll share with you soon.
In the meantime, if you can get hold of some karkalla, try this distinctively Australian grilled pipis, garlic and karkalla recipe, which comes courtesy of Chef Lennox Hastie of Firedoor restaurant in Sydney, Australia, from his wonderful cooking with fire cookbook, Finding Fire – along with some sides of entertaining tips and grilling advice.
Pipis are a small saltwater clam endemic to Australia. They’re called pipis on the east coast but also known as a Goolwa cockle or Coorong cockle in South Australia. After they have opened, they’re then served with a beautiful emulsion of olive oil, lemon and pipi juice, with a hint of chilli and a little parsley.
Garlic scapes and karkalla, a native Australian succulent, add crunch and a salty hit, and are a nod to the long culinary history of our indigenous Australians who used pipis as a source of protein and cooked them over fire. If you can’t get pipis, clams, razor clams or cockles make a fine substitute and karkalla can be substituted with samphire or another edible succulent.
Grilled Pipis, Garlic and Karkalla Recipe by Chef Lennox Hastie of Firedoor in Sydney
Scottish Cranachan Recipe for Raspberries, Cream, Whisky, Honey and Oats for National Oatmeal Day
It’s National Oatmeal Day on 29 October so why not try this cranachan recipe for the Scottish dessert of fresh raspberries, cream, whisky, honey, and toasted oats that’s traditionally served for sweets at the end of a Burns Night Supper, but can be eaten at any time of year.
The raspberries and heady honey cream are layered in a parfait glass for a sort of Scottish trifle or a Scottish take on the strawberry-driven English dessert, an Eton Mess. Made with homegrown Scottish products, including Scotch whisky and oats, cranachan is a quintessentially Scottish dessert. The cream can be swapped for creamy Greek yoghurt and you can skip the whisky if serving this to children. Just don’t tell your Scottish friends!
If you’re looking for more dessert or sweets recipes with berries, try my recipes for rose mascarpone cheesecake tart with mixed berries and fresh mint, sweet varenyky with berries for Ukrainian dessert dumplings, and an easy French toast with berries and whipped cream.
Scottish Cranachan Recipe for Raspberries, Cream, Whisky, Honey and Oats
Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Traditional Irish Beef Stew
If you’re in the northern hemisphere where the weather is starting to cool, try our Irish stew recipe for a deeply flavoured classic Irish stew with a rich gravy thanks to an easy roux – and half a bottle of Shiraz. Dishes don’t get more Irish than this hearty traditional Irish stew, considered by many to be Ireland’s national dish.
We’ve got more Irish recipes. For another stew, I love this Irish beef and Guinness stew with dumplings. Another favourite of mine is Terence’s divine crispy salmon fillet with Irish colcannon with prawns. It’s based on a dish by Irish chef Liam Tomlin, who helmed Banc, which was one of our favourite Sydney restaurants before its closure. Terence has been making it for many years and I never get tired of it.
And if you’re looking for more stew recipes, we’ve got recipes for a deeply flavoured old-fashioned chicken stew, the Russian beef stew called Solyanka, a Spanish rabo de toro oxtail stew, a French cassoulet, a tomato bredie, a classic Cape Town stew, the Hungarian stew porkolt (often confused goulash), a Cambodian pork stew with star anise and ginger, and my chorizo, cabbage and three bean stew (a spicy take on kapusniak).
Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew
Xiu Mai Recipe for Vietnamese Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Coriander
Our xiu mai recipe makes Vietnamese style meatballs in tomato sauce that are traditionally eaten with crusty Vietnamese baguettes, dunked in the rich sauce and used to scoop up the meatballs. ‘Xiu mai’ is Vietnamese for ‘meatballs’ and in Vietnam these xiu mai are eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, in cold and warm climates, from the cooler Central Highlands to the tropical Mekong Delta in the sultry south. They are that delish!
You’ll love this xiu mai recipe for Vietnamese meatballs in tomato sauce if you’re a meatball lover – and if you are, here are more of our best meatball recipes – especially if you’re a fan of Italian style meatballs in tomato sauce and a devotee of Vietnamese food, especially Vietnamese street food.
In Vietnam, xiu mai is a much-loved street food dish also eaten in the home. You could order a bowl of xiu mai from a street food stall, which will be served with a demi baguette to break up and dunk into the rich sauce and scoop up the meatballs. In your own home, you could serve xiu mai with bread, noodles or steamed rice. Leftover xiu mai? Make banh mi xui mai – these Vietnamese meatballs stuffed into crispy baguettes.
Xiu Mai Recipe for Vietnamese Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce with Coriander
Please do let us know if you make any of our recipes to cook in October 2025 as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
