Our 30 recipes to make in April 2026 include recipes for everything from salads and soups to noodles and sausage rolls. We’ve got something for everyone, whether you live in the warming northern hemisphere, where spring has finally sprung, or you’re in the increasingly cool south, where autumn has well and truly arrived. We’ve also got recipes for April Food Days, for National Sourdough Bread Day, Burrito Day, and the ‘Day of the Mushroom’ if you need an excuse to cook.
Lara here in Australia, apologising again for the long period between posts. I’ve been desperately trying to get through the backlog of prepped recipes, round-ups and stories, but these are challenging times. I’m taking care of my elderly mum, who recently had a heartbreaking health diagnosis, while Terence has had to take a break at home in Siem Reap, where he’s still recovering from a serious case of heat stroke.
As I mentioned in the last post on the most popular recipes of March, despite a couple of these compilations being very late to publish, I’m nonetheless sharing them, as readers often tell us they find these round-ups as fascinating as we do. But I do have lots of new recipes I prepped for you in recent months that I’m endeavouring to share with you all over coming days.
And if I owe you an email or message (thank you for your patience and understanding!!!), please forgive me for the delay. I’m trying hard to get back to you all this weekend. In the meantime, I hope you still find some cooking inspiration in this collection of 30 recipes to make in April 2026, despite us being well into April, and, scarily, well into 2026…
And don’t forget, if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, do browse our recipe archives, which are brimming with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved.
Now before you scroll down to our 30 recipes to make in April 2026, 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 and classic cookbooks for serious cooks.
Recipes to Make in April 2026 from Ginger Scallion Noodles to Spring Chicken Salad
These are our 30 recipes to make in April 2026, whether you’re in the northern hemisphere where spring has begun or in the southern hemisphere, where we’re reluctantly adjusting to autumn (fall).
Ultimate Guide to Sourdough Baking – All Our Sourdough Recipes
For many of you the 1st April might be April Fool’s Day. And while we love a good laugh as much as the next person (especially these days, during what have been very challenging times), for we sourdough bread lovers April 1 is National Sourdough Bread Day.
That means wherever we are in the world, and whether the locals are celebrating by sliding sourdough boules and batards into the oven or not, we’ll be making sourdough. Or rather, Terence will be baking bread, while I get the butter to room temperature, and patiently wait, drooling as the enticing aromas waft through our home. (When we’re together that is…)
So, topping our list of 30 recipes to make in April 2026 is this collection of our best sourdough bread recipes and guides: there’s an easy beginners sourdough recipe, a guide to essential sourdough baking tools you need, sourdough starter discard recipes (from scallion pancakes to sourdough crumpets), a guide to baking sourdough in a toaster oven, a sourdough pizza recipe, some ideas for thing to do with sourdough, and more.
Ultimate Guide to Sourdough Baking – All You Need to Know About Baking Sourdough
Best Breakfast Burrito Recipe with Scrambled Eggs, Shredded Chicken and Pico de Gallo
As it’s National Burrito Day on 2 April 2026, next on our list of 30 recipes to make in April 2026 is Terence’s best breakfast burrito recipe, which he shared as part of his long-time series on Weekend Eggs on quintessential eggs dishes around the world. We were latecomers to the breakfast burrito.
We discovered breakfast burritos in Austin, Texas on the 2010 yearlong global ‘grand tour’ that launched Grantourismo. We were actually more familiar with authentic Mexican food and Mexican tacos than we were with Mexican-American food and Tex-Mex, having travelled widely across Mexico before we went to the USA way back in the mid-90s.
However, once we tried our first breakfast burrito, we were hooked. We don’t make them nearly enough, as I do prefer Mexican eggs (love a classic Mexican huevos rancheros!) or chilaquiles for breakfast. But when we have the inclination to take a culinary trip north of the border, it’s fun to make these Austin-inspired breakfast burritos.
A tip: chicken breasts are easily overcooked, so use a meat thermometer; see our guide to the best kitchen thermometers. And while you can use a store-bought salsa, why not try our homemade tomato salsa although Terence prefers pico de gallo because it’s fresher tasting and less of a sauce so your burrito won’t get soggy. For hot sauces for dousing, we love Tapatio and Cholula.
Best Breakfast Burrito Recipe with Scrambled Eggs, Shredded Chicken and Pico de Gallo
Best Gazpacho Recipe for Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain
If summer can’t come soon enough for you or you’re like me and missing the warm weather, try our best gazpacho recipe for gazpacho Andaluz, an authentic Andalusian style gazpacho from Southern Spain. Made in minutes, this easy gazpacho recipe results in a vibrant orange gazpacho that tastes like a fresh garden salad in the form of a soup.
It’s the kind of gazpacho served in cities such as Seville, Granada, Córdoba, and Málaga and is essentially a no-cook meal in a glass – because in Spain gazpacho is often kept chilled in a jug in the fridge and poured into a glass from which it’s sipped like a smoothie.
Healthy and light yet filling, it’s no wonder the Spanish live off the stuff in warm weather. And it tastes even better the next day after the flavours have melded together. I can happily tuck into a big bowl of gazpacho – at room temperature and with thick buttered sourdough toast in cooler weather.
Best Gazpacho Recipe for Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain
Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe for the Mexican Chilli Crisp from Veracruz
If you’re looking for a weekend cooking project, try our easy Mexican salsa macha recipe, which will make you the addictively delicious textured salsa from Mexico‘s state of Veracruz, which can be used on everything from tacos and tostadas to salads and soups. It’s another of our 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
The spicy chilli salsa has a crispy texture courtesy of ground dried chillies, peanuts and sesame seeds. Which explains why it’s often described as a Mexican take on ‘chilli crisp’ – that massively popular Chinese chilli-based condiment, the most famous of which is the Lao Gan Ma brand – although for us, salsa macha is more like a Mexican version of Sichuan chilli oil.
If you are a lover of chilli crisp (it’s one of our all-time favourite condiments), you’ll love salsa macha. recipe. I’ve been known to liberally douse salsa macha over salads in the same way we do another Chinese sesame, peanut and chilli oil (fabulous on our bang bang chicken salad), which is how it became an essential component of this shredded chicken and corn salad.
Traditionally, salsa macha is made by pounding the ingredients in a Mexican molcajete, just as we make our condiments and pastes in a granite mortar and pestle here in Southeast Asia. But you can easily use a blender or food processor for salsa macha, which makes it quicker and easier.
Mexican Salsa Macha Recipe for the Mexican Chilli Crisp from Veracruz
Homemade Sausage Rolls with Smoky Eggplant and Pork Recipe
Terence’s homemade sausage rolls with smoky eggplant and pork mince recipe makes one of our best sausage roll recipes. Combining the eggplant with the sausage roll pork mince mixture makes a fantastic filling for a sausage roll. It’s a delicious Cambodian-inspired twist on the traditional Australian sausage rolls and another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
This sausage roll takes its inspiration from a classic Cambodian dish of char-grilled eggplant with minced pork that’s stir-fried with fermented soybeans, and is a little funky, a little salty, and a little sweet. We first shared that dish as part of a series on Cambodian barbecue recipes.
The dish is typically found on the menus of Cambodian restaurants serving traditional food and is eaten in the home, as one of an array of dishes as part of a shared family meal. It’s a dish we always order at The Sugar Palm, one of the best Cambodian restaurants in Siem Reap.
Terence developed this recipe early in the pandemic as part of a series of Asian-inspired sausage rolls and meat pies that included recipes for Cambodian Saraman curried beef sausage rolls and a chunky curry beef pie, based on Cambodia’s wonderful Saraman curry, a relation of Thailand’s Massaman curry; a spicy pork minced pie filled with prahok k’tis, a rich pork mince, prahok, coconut cream, and pea eggplant dip; and a curried chicken pie recipe based on the gently-spiced Cambodian chicken curry.
Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles
This ginger scallion sauce recipe for ginger scallion noodles makes the much-copied Momofuku homage to the classic Southern Chinese sauce that chef David Chang and food writer Francis Lam popularised outside China well over a decade ago. Terence has been making ginger scallion noodles with this sauce ever since, well before the comeback of recent years.
Before we knew it as the Momofuku ginger scallion sauce for ginger scallion noodles from chef David Chang’s Momofuku: A Cookbook published back in October 2009, Chang said it was “the secret sauce” served up in Cantonese joints all over New York City. You know the kind. They’re endearingly the same in every Chinatown around the world: brightly lit, with glossy roast ducks and char siu pork hanging in the window.
This ginger scallion sauce is super easy to make and while it’s satisfying in itself doused over noodles, Terence has long added plump sweet prawns/shrimps to the dish. I also like to ramp up the flavour and texture even more by adding a little fish sauce and sprinkling on some chilli flakes, crispy fried garlic and crunchy fried shallots, while Terence likes to add a good squirt of hoisin sauce.
Comforting Chicken Barley Soup Recipe That Evolves Into a Hearty Savoury Porridge
If it’s still soup weather where you are (or it’s only just starting!), this easy chicken barley soup recipe makes a hearty soup that thickens as the barley expands to create a savoury porridge. I concocted this warming one-bowl meal to use up leftover rotisserie chicken but you could use shredded poach chicken breasts.
You’ll love this recipe if you cooked and enjoyed my vegetable barley soup recipe. It’s what we call ‘same same but different’ here in Southeast Asia, and along with that vegetarian barley soup, Southeast Asian rice porridges and rice soups were partly my inspiration for this recipe, another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
It’s super versatile. Use a vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, leave the chicken out for a vegetarian barley porridge, and use it as a clear-out-the-fridge recipe as I did with the original vegetable barley soup, and add other vegetables and herbs. And while I love this with the density of a porridge, you could always thin it out to feed a crowd.
If you enjoy hearty soups and savoury porridges as much as I do, do browse our compilations of soup recipes. We have collections of chicken soups, and noodle soups, as well as chicken noodle soups, along with fish soups, loads of warming winter soups, and, if the weather is heating up in your neck of the woods, cold summer soups.
Comforting Chicken Barley Soup Recipe That Evolves Into a Hearty Savoury Porridge
Soy Ginger Chicken Recipe for Sticky Succulent Chicken Thighs
Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, stir-fried Asian greens or a fresh crispy salad, such as an Asian-style slaw. The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s succulent and packed with flavour.
This makes one of our favourite dishes for a quick and easy meal that looks a bit fancy. Terence can often be found in our Siem Reap kitchen sliding a container of marinated chicken into the fridge and turning the sizzling thighs in the pan, the aromas wafting through our Siem Reap apartment.
It’s amazing how such tasty, juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe. You can cook these thighs on a pan on the stovetop. It’s also a great dish to cook at a barbecue for guests who refrain from eating red meat as it’s easily as delicious as a juicy steak. It’s another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
Soy Ginger Chicken Recipe for Sticky Succulent Chicken Thighs
Fresh Herb Salad Recipe for Yum Chee from 100 Mahaseth Restaurant Bangkok
I’d been hankering to make this fragrant herb salad recipe for yum chee from the moment we first tasted it at chef Chalee Kader’s 100 Mahaseth restaurant, a casual nose-to-tail eatery in the hip Charenkroeung neighbourhood that’s one of Bangkok‘s most sustainable restaurants. While the fresh green salad looks European (it reminds me of the herby Greek lettuce salad, maroulosalata), this simple yet ingenious salad is quintessentially Southeast Asian.
Focused largely on food from Thailand’s Northeastern Isaan region, 100 Mahaseth was originally conceived as a pho joint after the chef and his business-partner fell in love with the Vietnamese soup while studying overseas, which explains why 100 Mahaseth’s menu features a hearty pho. And, um… a spicy hot dog.
Like a lot of yums or yams, the aromatic salad is doused with a dressing comprised of the distinctive ingredients of the classic northern Southeast Asian dipping sauce found in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam – fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. Plus it has the bite of the birds-eye chillies and the texture of the crushed peanuts and dried shrimp sprinkled on at the end.
For me, its European-ess comes from the green-ness of this salad and lack of crunch and combination of textures typically associated with Thai salads such as som tam (the fiery Northeastern salad made with green papaya) and khao yam (a herb and rice salad from Southern Thailand with a gazillion ingredients).
Fresh Herb Salad Recipe for Yum Chee from 100 Mahaseth Restaurant Bangkok
Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Dip Recipe for the Greek Meze Htipiti
This classic roasted red pepper feta dip recipe makes the Greek meze called htipiti and it’s incredibly delicious eaten with warm flat bread or crispy pita chips. It’s one of our best Greek recipes and it’s also a breeze to prepare with just a handful of ingredients: roasted red bell peppers (capsicums), Greek feta, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and chilli peppers, whether fresh or dried, ground or flakes. Not traditional, but I drizzle a little chilli oil on top.
If you adore small plate eating cultures as much as we do and you’re a fan of grazing on Spanish tapas, Basque pintxos, and Mediterranean mezze, the small dishes of nibbles, dips and bites traditionally enjoyed as snacks, starters and sides – from Middle Eastern mezze such as hummus, baba ghanoush and muhammara to Greek mezedes such as taramosalata and tzaziki, then you’re going to love htipiti.
We used to spend a lot of time in Greece years ago. On our first trip over 25 years ago we split a month between island hopping with backpacks and road tripping on the mainland. Years later, as guidebook authors we updated two editions of Lonely Planet Greece and guides to Crete and Cyprus, covering countless islands and criss-crossing the country by car.
One of our favourite things to do, no matter what time of year it was or where we were – whether we were at a cosy ouzerie with fireplace on a stormy Crete in winter or a sunny seaside taverna in summer on the Peloponnese – was to savour a leisurely lunch of mezedes. Fan of making homemade dips? see our guide to how to make a dip out of almost anything.
Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Dip Recipe for the Greek Meze Htipiti
Korean Corn Cheese Recipe for the Popular Korean Drinking Food Dish
This classic cheesy Korean corn recipe makes a much-loved Korean dish of fried corn kernels with mayo and grated cheese just like Korean restaurants make. You’ll love this if you’re a fan of Korean food and have enjoyed our recipes for Korean spicy udon noodles, Korean japchae (glass noodles), Korean instant ramen noodles, and bokkeumbap, fried rice stir-fried with kimchi (one of the best fermented foods for gut health) and Korean chilli paste, gochujang.
A popular side dish or banchan of the kind you’ll find in Korean barbecue restaurants, you’ll also see this filling snack on menus of Korean anju or drinking food in Korean bars and pubs. Our recipe is based on our favourite cheesy Korean corn at a popular Korean street food restaurant in Phnom Penh that’s a favourite with Korean expats.
Korean cheesy corn is also a comforting dish that’s cooked and eaten in the home. I’ve been making this corn cheese dish and serving it alongside our melt-in-the-mouth Korean meatballs, Korean potato salad, refreshing Korean cucumber salad, and zingy Korean coleslaw in recent months for my mum. All that’s been missing has been Terence’s spicy Korean fried chicken. It’s another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026
Korean Corn Cheese Recipe for the Popular Korean Drinking Food Dish
Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Butter and Herby Stuffing
My best roast chicken recipe will make you a fragrant, flavoursome and moist roast chicken thanks to a Cambodian herb butter and a chicken stuffing made with a Khmer yellow kroeung, a perfumed herb and spice paste pounded from fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, galangal, turmeric, garlic, and shallots. I cook the chicken with baby corn, carrots, potatoes, and purple shallots for a comforting Cambodian-inspired roast.
Like so many of our East-Meets-West recipes, this roast chicken recipe is one I developed with Terence way back in those early days of the pandemic. Because Terence had long ago mastered the art of roasting the perfect chicken – indeed, as far as Terence is concerned it’s one of the dishes everyone should master to become a better cook – I’d never bothered to make a roast chicken.
But we were staying at home in Siem Reap, quarantine cooking to keep us safe and undertaking cooking projects to keep us sane – and this roast chicken recipe, like so many, was the result of a longing for home and nostalgia, and missing family meals. Roast chickens were a big part of my childhood growing up in Australia in the 1970s. My mum, Russian-Ukrainian baboushka and Australian nanna all made Sunday roasts.
If you’re feeding a crowd, we have loads of recipes for vegetable sides dishes here. I also adore Hasselback potatoes and Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes, this rich Irish colcannon, and my warm German potato salad, some of our best recipes with potatoes.
Best Roast Chicken Recipe with Aromatic Cambodian Butter and Herby Stuffing
Vietnamese Banh Xeo Recipe for Crispy Turmeric Crepes Stuffed with Savoury Mince and Sprouts
Another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026, this Vietnamese banh xeo recipe makes crispy ‘sizzling crêpes’ filled with savoury minced pork and crunchy bean sprouts. Traditionally eaten as a street food snack, these Central Vietnam-style yellow turmeric-tinted pancakes are wrapped in fragrant herbs and leafy lettuce, and dunked in nuoc cham dipping sauce. They need to be eaten immediately before they start to soften.
One of our best pancake recipes from around the world and a popular street food snack in Vietnam and Cambodia, Vietnamese banh xeo – or more correctly, bánh xèo – embody two of the things that I adore about Vietnamese food (and Cambodian food): fresh fragrant herbs and healthy greens that feature so prominently and a love of wrapping and rolling fried snacks in aromatic herbs and crispy lettuce to provide balance and contrast.
A tip: make sure you prepare the nuoc cham dipping sauce early so the flavours meld together, and also ensure you have your lettuce and herbs washed and dried and ready to be served, so you can plate the banh xeo immediately. We recommend using a Vietnamese fish sauce as the flavour profile is a little different to Thai fish sauces.
Vietnamese Banh Xeo Recipe for Crispy Turmeric Sizzling Crepes
Beet Arugula Salad Recipe with Walnuts and Feta on Butter Bean Purée
This salad of beetroot, feta, walnuts, and arugula – or rucola, roca or rocket depending on which part of the world you live – makes our take on a classic beet salad. We’re big beetroot lovers, so it’s one of our all-time favourite salads, one of our best beetroot recipes, and one of our best recipes with nuts.
Spread on a butter bean purée, it’s an elevated version of the classic. I think it’s so much more delicious for its base of garlicky butter bean purée. My inspiration are the salads of the Middle East, where we lived, worked and travelled for over a decade – salads such as the Arabic balela salad on soupy chickpeas and Antalya style Turkish white bean salad.
This roasted cauliflower on hummus, baby corn on creamy white beans, and pumpkin beetroot salad on whipped feta with pistachios and fresh mint are in the same genre. I can’t get enough of these dishes that are part dip and part salad, that can be served as a snack, starter or side. If you’re also a fan, you’ll love this.
And if you’re also a beetroot lover, try these recipes for a roast beetroot salad recipe with feta, rucola and pistachios on cumin-spiced carrot hummus, my pumpkin lentil salad with beetroot, goat cheese and poppy seeds and this beet and carrot salad with goat cheese, arugula and radish.
Beet Arugula Salad Recipe with Walnuts and Feta on Butter Bean Purée
Creamy Cucumber Sour Cream Salad Recipe with Shallots and Dill
We love our cucumber salads – from this salad of crunchy cucumber spears tossed in our easy vinaigrette piled onto a creamy butter bean purée to this Burmese cucumber salad, Japanese cucumber cabbage salad and radish cucumber salad. We eat a lot of cucumbers.
Despite me calling this a cucumber sour cream salad recipe, it actually makes an Eastern European style cucumber side dish, that’s more akin to, say, Indian raita, the cooling accompaniment to spicy Indian curries, such as this Punjabi chole or chickpea curry or Indian-style Burmese curry. However you serve it, it’s one of our best cucumber recipes.
My Russian-Ukrainian grandmother presented her cucumber sour cream salad as an appetiser or zakuski, an array of small dishes that served as starters, which would then stay on the table to be eaten with mains such as kotleti (chicken mince patties) or golubtsy (cabbage rolls) in the same way this Middle Eastern style cucumber yoghurt salad is served with kofta kebabs, baharat meatballs, falafel, and fried kebbeh.
Creamy Cucumber Sour Cream Salad Recipe with Shallots and Dill
Our Best Mushroom Recipes
If you’re a fellow mushroom-lover and up for celebrating mushrooms in all their forms, it’s ‘Day of the Mushroom’ on 16 April, so browse our best mushroom recipes for a good excuse to go mushroom foraging. Mushroom seasons fall in the spring and autumn or fall, so whether you’re in the southern hemisphere or northern hemisphere, now is the time to go mushroom picking – or just head to your favourite mushroom supplier.
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.
Whether it’s the flavour of amazing fresh mushrooms, just kissed with a little garlic, shallot flavour and salt, or mushrooms made using the ‘double cooked’ mushroom technique taught to us by an Italian chef who shared his top mushroom cooking secrets, mushrooms just taste so good.
Our best mushroom recipes include recipes for perfect mushrooms on toast, creamy scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms, my mushroom Stroganoff, savoury buckwheat kasha with mushrooms, an East-West bacon, eggs and mushrooms breakfast congee, and more. Time to go mushroom foraging! Or pay a visit to your favourite mushroom supplier.
Eggs Benedict Recipe for the New York City Edition of Weekend Eggs
April 16 is National Eggs Benedict Day, so why not make Terence’s classic eggs Benedict recipe, which he shared for the New York City edition of his Weekend Eggs series on eggs dishes around the world, way back on the 2010 yearlong global grand tour which launched Grantourismo. Could there be a more quintessential New York eggs dish than eggs Benedict?
During the two weeks we spent in our home away from home in the East Village, we learnt that New Yorkers love their café breakfasts as much as Australians do and that an eggs Bennie was to New Yorkers what smashed avocado on toast is to Aussies. Eggs Benedict was easily the most popular item on New York café brunch menus when we were in the city.
Not familiar with an eggs Bennie? It’s a toasted English muffin topped with some good ham (often from Canada), soft-poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, and perhaps some chives for colour and a slightly peppery counterpoint flavour. It was one of my go-to cafe breakfasts long before that trip, and remains a favourite weekend brunch dish.
Though do keep in mind: while eggs Benedict appears deceptively simple, it requires skill to get it perfect – and to get it to the table hot. Which is why we reckon eggs Benedict is one of the dishes that every cook should master to become a better cook.
Eggs Benedict Recipe for New York City Edition of Weekend Eggs
Gnocchi with Asparagus and Mushrooms, Bacon and Parmesan Recipe
If you’re a fan of asparagus and mushrooms and pasta dishes, you’ll love my asparagus and mushrooms, bacon and Parmesan gnocchi recipe. The dish comes together quickly if you let the ingredients shine, only lightly frying the mushrooms so they’re glossy and still meaty and the asparagus remains bright and crunchy.
This delicious pasta is quick, easy and versatile. Keep things simple and let the beautiful fresh produce shine with a light pan-fry in olive oil. Or cook it longer in plenty of cream and sprinkle on extra cheese before serving for a creamier pasta. However you cook it, it’s another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
And if you are a fan of asparagus, try our recipes for fusilli with a creamy pumpkin pasta sauce, pan-fried asparagus on hummus with dukkah, my sauteed asparagus on goat’s cheese, and Terence’s classic Venetian poached eggs, asparagus, pancetta and parmesan and his contemporary take on that dish, which, while Terence shared it for Weekend Eggs, his series on breakfast eggs from around the world, makes a wonderful amuse bouche.
Gnocchi with Asparagus and Mushrooms, Bacon and Parmesan Recipe
Our Best Garlic Recipes for Garlic Day
It’s Garlic Day on 19 April, but who needs an excuse to use garlic in their cooking? We certainly don’t. We have loads of recipes with garlic. Garlic is great! It help boost your immunity, fight the flu and common cold, and improve your heart health. Garlic contains antioxidants and sulfur compounds that can reduce inflammation and bolster immune cell function. India’s ancient Ayurvedic medicine recommended garlic for reducing fever and coughs, and improving vision and skin complexion.
My Russian grandfather was strong as an ox and fit until a ripe old age. He put his good health down to regular exercise and garlic every day. For breakfast, he’d munch on raw garlic cloves with boiled eggs, black rye bread, and a whole tomato, radishes and cucumbers plucked from his veggie garden. My grandmother used liberal amounts of garlic in the rest of their meals.
It wasn’t only those Russians that believed in the powers of garlic. Ancient civilisations from Egypt to India have been using garlic for thousands of years to treat ailments and prevent diseases, using it as a treatment for everything from respiratory problems and digestive issues to headaches and insect bites.
Recipes with Garlic to Boost Your Immunity and Fight the Common Cold and Flu
Mexican Quick Pickled Onions Recipe
If you’ve made any of our Mexican breakfast recipes over the years, you would have noticed that we often use pink shallots or red onions, fresh or pickled. When they’re pickled, we’re usually using our Mexican quick pickled onions recipe to make these refrigerator pickles, another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
This easy quick-pickled onions recipe makes a zingy pickle in the style of Mexico’s Yucatan pink onion pickles. It’s a perfect condiment, garnish or side for any number of Mexican dishes but particularly tacos, tostadas and tortas. Although you can really serve these pickles with anything, from hotdogs to hamburgers.
One of our best pickles recipes, it’s also very versatile. Use red onions or purple shallots and adapt the seasoning to your taste. This is another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
Mexican Quick Pickled Onions Recipe for Tangy Pink Onions to Brighten Your Tacos
Best Chickpea Recipes for Chickpea Salads, Dips, Soups, Stews and Curries
It’s National Chickpea Day on 21 April and who doesn’t love chickpeas? (Also called garbanzo beans.) We certainly do! Our best chickpea recipes are some of our best Middle Eastern recipes, not to mention our best canned beans recipes. We always make sure to have a few cans of chickpeas in our kitchen cupboard, plus a couple of bags of dried chickpeas.
Our best chickpea recipes make a rich and hearty Moroccan chickpea soup, a North Indian Punjabi chole, gently-spiced chickpea stew or chickpea curry, if you like, and Middle Eastern hummus and tahini dips, from a traditional creamy hummus and hummus balila of warm cumin-spiced chickpeas with pickles and salad to a hummus with ground spiced beef.
Canned chickpeas are cheap and delicious and the dishes they make are fantastic value and easy to prepare. Chickpeas are also healthy and versatile. There’s no limit to the dishes you can make with canned chickpeas – or dried chickpeas, as long as you start soaking them the day before. Most chickpea dishes are quick and easy to prepare.
Making homemade hummus is one of the best things to do with a tin of chickpeas, however, chickpeas can be used to make so many kinds of dishes: dips, salads, soups, stews, and curries. I like to cook canned chickpeas a little in a well-seasoned stock, but you simply drain the chickpeas and throw them into a soup, stew or curry.
Best Chickpea Recipes for Chickpea Salads, Dips, Soups, Stews and Curries
Meatball Stroganoff Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Gently Spiced Mushroom Gravy
If you enjoyed my rich, creamy, spiced beef Stroganoff recipe you’ll love my other Stroganoff recipes – my chicken Stroganoff, pork Stroganoff (made with the Chinese velveting technique), spaghetti Stroganoff (a fusion of Strog and spaghetti Bolognese), and this succulent meatball Stroganoff.
My meatball Stroganoff recipe combines recipes for two of my favourite Russian dishes, a spicy mushroom Stroganoff and juicy Russian meatballs called tefteli,. It makes a deliciously comforting dish of Stroganoff meatballs that in cooler weather can be served with mashed potatoes, crispy shoestring fries, buckwheat kasha or pasta, and in warmer temperatures can be lightened up with a fresh green garden salad.
Having said that, I’ll happily tuck into a smaller serving of meatball Stroganoff at home in the Southeast Asian tropics. In warmer weather, I like to do as the Italians do – most Italian-style meatballs or polpetti are served with little else but a side of rucola – and I’ll enjoy this dish with a garden salad of fresh dill, sweet tomatoes, crunchy red radishes, lettuce, and onions. Devotee of meatballs? Lots more meatball recipes here.
Meatball Stroganoff Recipe for Juicy Meatballs in a Gently Spiced Mushroom Gravy
85 Picnic Food Ideas from Frittata to Fried Chicken
If you’re celebrating National Picnic Day on 23 April with a meal outdoors then browse our best picnic food ideas, which cover the gamut of picnic staples, including dips, crackers, breads, frittatas, salads, fried and roast chicken, and more. We’ve also got easy picnic ideas such as soups, finger food and savoury pastries, along with Southeast Asian style spring rolls, Vietnamese banh mi, and pies and sausage rolls with a twist.
I have to confess that there are few things I love more than a picnic in a park by the water with dear friends. We enjoyed picnics so regularly when we were young and lived in Sydney they were almost a ritual. We don’t picnic nearly enough these days and yet I’ve certainly upped my picnic game.
When we were young we’d buy rotisserie chickens from the nearest take-away, make a salad or two, hit a deli or supermarket for dips and cold cuts, and the bakery for a few baguettes. Our picnics were more about catching up with friends rather than eating good food. But they can be both.
Given the chance these days, I’d happily spend a day cooking up a storm for a spring picnic or autumn or fall picnic, and below are some of the things I’d make. Good food for people who love food. These are my best picnic food ideas for picnic lovers who are also food lovers.
85 Picnic Food Ideas from Frittata, Fried Chicken, Fresh Spring Rolls and More
Perfect Mushrooms on Toast Recipe
My perfect mushrooms on toast recipe draws from the best of my favourite sautéed mushrooms dishes: baba’s mushrooms with sour cream and fresh dill, a fantastic accompaniment to classic Russian dishes such as chicken Kiev and kotleti; dad’s garlic mushrooms that he’d do on the barbecue with leftover sausages and onions for late Sunday breakfasts; and the herbed mushrooms that with avocado toast were such a big part of Sydney café breakfasts in the late 1980s and ’90s.
Mushrooms, sour cream and dill. Obviously, my Russian-Ukrainian heritage is showing. But while these ingredients might be quintessentially Eastern European – sautéed mushrooms in sour cream with dill often featured on my baboushka’s dining table – they also made an appearance on breakfast plates on holidays, whether at home or on caravanning and camping trips when dad would fry up garlic mushrooms alongside sausages, onions and tomatoes on the barbecue or camp fire.
While those were my fondest mushroom-eating memories growing up, as a uni student in the mid-late 80s who waitressed at inner-city Sydney cafés after class and on weekends, I recall that every breakfast plate I delivered to tables featured herbed mushrooms on the side or spilling from fat focaccia sandwiches filled with roasted red capsicums, eggplants and artichokes that had me drooling just as much as the fatty bacon. This is another of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
Perfect Mushrooms on Toast Recipe with Fragrant Herbs and Parmigiano Reggiano
The Best Classic Anzac Biscuits Recipe
This is the best Anzac biscuits recipe. Loaded with texture, the biscuits are crunchy on the outside, chewy within, and taste sweet, buttery and coconut-y. This recipe is the result of my quest to recreate the Anzac biscuits of my childhood that’s as close as possible to the early 1933 Australian Country Women’s Association Anzac biscuit recipes.
In the lead up to the Anzac Day long weekend, I like to bake a few batches of these biscuits and gift them to friends and neighbours. I always get asked for this recipe. Do try our Anzac biscuit recipe, whether you’re commemorating Anzac Day at home or away this year.
If you’re not from Australia or New Zealand: Anzac Day is on 25 April. It’s a day special to Australians and New Zealanders. When you live abroad for as long as we have you use national holidays to reflect upon ‘home’, your loved ones there, and your compatriots. For long-term expats, these holidays remind us that we do belong somewhere, despite having been at large in the world for so long.
The Best Anzac Biscuits Recipe Based on the Classic 1933 CWA Recipe
Best Meatballs Recipe for the Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs
This is the best meatballs recipe for the tastiest, juiciest Italian style meatballs. Based on a traditional Southern Italian meatball, made in Sicily and Calabria that’s typically made with ricotta, parmesan and pecorino cheeses, the meatballs are fried until brown then simmered in a rich classic Italian tomato sauce. Serve as the Italians do with a rucola salad – or (shhhh… don’t tell your Italian friends…) your favourite pasta.
If you made my incredibly rich and delicious homemade Italian tomato sauce recipe, which can be used for pasta, meatballs, pizza, and parmas then here’s what you need to do with it: pour it into your biggest fry pan or skillet and put it on the stove to heat it up, then simmer these juicy meatballs in it after you’ve finished frying them.
This recipe was next in a series of posts on some of my favourite classic Italian-style and Italian-Australian recipes, including some which make use of that rich tomato sauce, including my spaghetti with meatballs recipe and recipe for Italian-Australian chicken parmigiana or chicken parma, as we call the breaded chicken cutlets topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella.
Best Meatballs Recipe for the Tastiest Juiciest Italian Style Meatballs
Spring Chicken Salad Recipe with Cabbage, Greens and Fragrant Herbs
If you’re a fan of shredded chicken salads – and if you are, we have loads of shredded or pulled chicken recipes, such as this bang bang chicken salad and chicken salad with peanut sauce, peanuts, sesame, and coriander, some of our best chicken breast recipes and some of our most popular chicken recipes – you’ll love this spring chicken salad with vibrant spring vegetables such as sugar snap peas, crisp juicy cucumbers and crunchy purple cabbage.
I use rotisserie chicken leftovers. We eat warm juicy chicken legs the first night with one of my potato salads – such as this warm German potato salad or potato salad with anchovies, capers and chives. Then the next night I’ll slice the chicken breasts up to use in a salad – such as this fig, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and chicken salad – or use two forks to pull apart the chicken breast meat.
I use the pulled chicken in grilled cheese sandwiches the first day for lunch, then split the rest between shredded chicken salads, or use the pulled chicken in a soup, such as this wonderful rice soup with green vegetables I’ve been making recently, or a Southeast Asian style rice soup or congee or chicken noodle salad. We have lots more leftover rotisserie chicken recipes here, as well as poached chicken recipes if you have leftover poached chicken breasts.
This salad recipe was next in a series of recipes I shared a couple of years ago for fancy filling salads that included this Italian melon, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto salad (a fancier version of prosciutto e melone, the classic aperitivo snack and appetiser from Italy), and this refreshing Greek watermelon feta salad with fresh mint and dill, These are easily assembled salads that are perfect for a meal for two, but can be easily scaled up to feed four, six, eight or more people.
Spring Chicken Salad Recipe with Cabbage, Greens and Fragrant Herbs
Chicken Noodle Salad Recipe with Sesame Dressing, Pan Roasted Peanuts and Coriander
This chicken noodle salad recipe with sesame dressing, pan-roasted peanuts and fresh fragrant coriander makes a cold noodle salad that’s made with buckwheat noodles and shredded poached chicken, doused in a sesame dressing, and textured with crunchy pan-roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and fresh fragrant coriander.
One of our top 30 recipes to make in April 2026 and one of our best recipes with peanuts, this is a versatile year-round dish. You can present it chilled, which you’ll want to do on a hot day, but you can also serve it up as a warm salad, which essentially turns it into a noodle dish, when it will call for a runny soft-boiled egg or two.
It’s super easy to make, coming together in half an hour, which will see it getting filed in this collection of noodle recipes made in 30 minutes or less. We’ve got tips to poaching chicken breasts in the introduction to our round-up of best poached chicken breast recipes but our most important tip: use a digital kitchen meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts.
Chicken Noodle Salad Recipe with Sesame Dressing, Pan Roasted Peanuts and Coriander
Best Recipes for Stale Bread from Croutons to French Toast
April 29 is Stop Food Waste Day, a day of action against global food waste, and we have loads of tips on how you can reduce kitchen waste, from using leftover rice to these recipes for stale bread, which will make you everything from crunchy homemade croutons and crispy pita chips to fattoush and panzanella and French toast.
Homemade croutons taste so much better than store-bought croutons, they last for ages, and they are super versatile. There are so many ways to use croutons to add texture to salads, soups and pastas. We add croutons to French onion soup and use croutons as a vehicle for Spanish tapas, such as potato tortilla slices, and Basque pintxos.
I also like to pound croutons in a mortar and pestle to create crunchy crouton crumbs, which are fantastic sprinkled on soups and pastas, such as this spiced pumpkin soup, my broccoli and potato soup, our potato and bacon soup, and this loaded baked potato soup.
Stale bread can also be used to make this classic ribollita soup recipe for the Tuscan bean, kale and bread soup, invented to use up leftovers, including days-old bread, and this Basque garlic soup recipe, which makes a gently spiced bread and egg drop soup that’s deliciously rich and hearty.
Best Recipes for Stale Bread – Stale Bread Recipes from Croutons to French Toast
Cape Malay Yellow Rice Recipe for a Cape Malay Curry Side
It’s National Raisin Day on 30 April so why not try this Cape Malay yellow rice recipe for the perfect accompaniment to a richly spiced Cape Malay chicken curry? This rice dish is often called a ‘sweet yellow rice’ due to the inclusion of raisins and sugar. I personally like the dish as salty as it is sweet and I think the dried fruit gives the rice enough sweetness. Add buttery roti and refreshing sambal and you’re set for a Cape Malay feast.
Our Cape Malay yellow rice recipe will make you a very moreish sweet and savoury rice to accompany this classic Cape Malay chicken curry we learnt to make some years ago in a very memorable Cape Malay cooking class in Cape Town’s historic Bo-Kaap, the heart of Cape Malay cuisine and culture. If you’re not familiar with Cape Malay food, you can learn more about it on that cooking class link.
While a traditional Cape Malay yellow rice recipe will typically call for you to put a pot of boiling water on the stove and require you to drain the rice and so on, our recipe calls for making this tasty turmeric-tinted rice in your handy rice cooker. It results in rice that is just as delicious as it would have been if done on the stove (perhaps even more so), and the process is far less messy.
I’ve taken inspiration from Mi Mi Khaing, author of the 1978 Burmese cookbook, Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, who in the introduction to her Burmese coconut rice recipe, another fantastic turmeric-hued rice, writes that the dish – usually cooked in a pot “over embers” with “red-hot coals over lid’ – is “suitable for electric rice cookers”. And that’s it for our 30 recipes to make in April 2026.
Cape Malay Yellow Rice Recipe for a Cape Malay Curry Accompaniment
Please do let us know if you cook any of our 30 recipes to make in April 2026 as we’d love to know how they turn out for you. And don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments below if you need help or ideas. And please do share your feedback, tips and tweaks.
