Our 28 recipes to make in February 2026 include recipes for romantic meals for Valentines Day, pancake recipes for Pancake Day or Pancake Week, Asian and Chinese recipes for Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, Middle Eastern recipes for Ramadan, and Korean recipes for Korean New Year. We’ve also got recipes for February Food Days, including our best pizza recipes for World Pizza Day, chickpea recipes for World Pulses Day, and pistachio recipes for National Pistachio Day.
For this month’s round-up of 28 recipes to make in February 2026 I’ve pulled together a collection of recipes for romantic dinners for Valentines Day, our best pancake recipes for Pancake Day or Pancake Week, delicious Asian and Chinese recipes for Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year, and Vietnamese recipes for Tet.
We’ve also got Middle Eastern recipes for Ramadan and Korean recipes for Korean New Year, whether you traditionally celebrate or you’re just getting into the spirit of things. I’ve also included seasonal recipes, if you’re looking for cooling salads to beat the heat in the southern hemisphere or soups, stews and curries to warm you up in the chilly north.
And just for the fun of it, if you need another excuse to cook this month, I’ve included recipes for February Food Days, from our best pizza recipe for World Pizza Day on 9 February, our favourite chickpea recipes and canned beans recipes for World Pulses Day on 10 February, our best pistachio recipes for National Pistachio Day on 26 February.
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. You could also browse our most popular recipes of January which were the most searched-for recipes on the site last month, the recipes where you all spent most of your time.
Now before you scroll down to our 28 recipes to make in February 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. Now let’s tell you about our recipes to cook in February.
Recipes to Make in February for Valentines Day, Lunar and Chinese New Year and Ramadan
These are our 28 recipes to make in February 2026 for Valentines Day, Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, Korean New Year, and a whole host of fun food days.
Spicy Korean Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap
Topping our list of 28 recipes to make in February 2026 is our spicy Korean kimchi fried rice recipe with fried eggs, simply for the fact that it’s our most popular recipe right now. One of our best Korean recipes, it makes a classic kimchi bokkeumbap stir-fried with Korea’s famously fiery fermented cabbage called kimchi (one of the best fermented foods for gut health) and the spicy Korean chilli paste, gochujang.
We love to top it with soft fried eggs and sprinkle on Korean roasted seaweed, sesame seeds and the Korean chilli flakes, gochugaru. It’s fantastic, filling and comforting. I also love it with Korean meatballs! It’s equally delicious and just as easy to prepare. If you enjoyed our Korean spicy noodles recipe for stir-fried udon with kimchi, bacon, pork and fried eggs, and you’re a lover of fried rice (more fried rice recipes here), you’ll adore this dish.
As with the spicy Korean noodles and this Japanese okonomiyaki recipe, the eggs aren’t the star of this dish, but for us, fried eggs with soft runny yolks that ooze into the rice really make this dish. Soft boiled eggs are also delish. If you’re opting for boiled eggs instead of fried, see our guide to boiling perfect eggs every time.
And if you love Korean food as much as we do, try our recipes for Korean fried chicken, fantastic with Korean potato salad or Korean ‘slaw’; a classic Korean cucumber salad; Korean corn cheese, which can be made even cheesier or spicier; Korean instant ramen noodles, and japchae, stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables.
Spicy Korean Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap
Thai Nam Prik Num Recipe for Smoky Green Chilli Dip from Northern Thailand
This Thai nam prik num recipe is another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026, because like the kimchi fried rice, above, it’s another of our most popular recipes right now. The recipe makes a smoky green chilli dip that’s one of the best known Northern Thai specialties – so much so that it’s often called Chiang Mai chilli relish.
Made from local green chillies grilled on a barbecue with garlic and shallots, nam prik num is typically served with crunchy pork crackling and sticky rice. If you’ve made and enjoyed our nam prik ong recipe, then you’re also going to enjoy this nam prik num. If you’re not familiar with nam priks, they are a family of Thai condiments that include dips, relishes and dipping sauces.
We love this Thai nam prik num so much that whenever we used to travel to Thailand, immediately after checking into our hotel or apartment we’d head straight to one of our favourite spots to pick up a tub of the dip, a bag of pork crackling, some Chiang Mai sausage, and sticky rice to dip into the nam prik num.
Thai Nam Prik Num Recipe for Smoky Green Chilli Dip from Northern Thailand
Sweet Pork Belly with Boiled Eggs Recipe for a Traditional Dish with Modern Presentation
One of the best pork belly recipes, this sweet pork belly with boiled eggs recipe is another of our 28 best recipes to make in February 2026 because it’s so popular right now. The classic version of this pork belly dish is a firm favourite when placed on the table in a typical Cambodian feast. It’s a simple dish, but one that has everyone eyeing off that last piece of pork belly and mopping up the remaining sauce.
That traditional Cambodian dish was the inspiration for this finger food rendition that Terence concocted as part of a series of creative Cambodian canapés recipes we developed for New Year’s Eve some years ago. But while the presentation is contemporary, you could still serve this in a rustic style with steamed jasmine rice.
Cambodian cuisine, like most of the Southeast Asian cuisines, especially the neighbouring cuisines of Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, is very regional, which means there are variations of this dish to be found all over. In Cambodia, some recipes add ginger, one recipe includes cloves. While in Vietnam, we ate the Vietnamese version of this sweet pork belly with boiled eggs dish, which generally has the addition of star anise, and in some recipes also chillies.
Sweet Pork Belly with Boiled Eggs Recipe – Traditional Dish, Modern Presentation
Soul Nourishing Chicken Vegetable Soup with Wild Rice and Spring Vegetables
It’s Homemade Soup Day on February 4th so I’m sharing my recipe for a soul-nourishing chicken vegetable soup with green vegetables and wild rice, another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026. This recipe will make you a stew-like soup with shredded chicken and vegetables such as fennel, leek, zucchini, broccoli, and broccolini, wild rice to add texture, and a generous shower of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, which gives richness and umami.
If you’re fond of a classic chicken and vegetable soup but bored with the age-old combination of chicken, carrot, celery, and potatoes, and don’t have time to make chicken stock, then try this quick and easy soup. It’s a great use of leftover rotisserie chicken or poached chicken breasts, and is one of our best chicken soup recipes, one of our best chicken recipes, and one of our best broccoli recipes.
Temperatures have been so erratic here in Australia, we’ve had heatwaves and bushfires one week, when we’re sweating over chilled soups and cooling salads, such as this watermelon feta salad, watermelon, tomato and halloumi salad, Caprese salad, melon, mozzarella and prosciutto salad, and spring chicken salad – and the next week we’re shivering and hugging bowls of comforting pastas, hearty stews and warming broths like this chicken and vegetable soup.
You can cook in a soup pot or Dutch oven. Here in Australia at mum’s I use a stock pot, but in Cambodia I use Terence’s Dutch oven, which he bakes his sourdough in. If you’ve not bought a Dutch oven yet, we highly recommend doing so. We use it for so many dishes – these are some of our favourite Dutch oven recipes. A Le Creuset Dutch oven is the most-coveted, but we have a more affordable Lodge Dutch oven which is fantastic for soups and stews.
Soul Nourishing Chicken Vegetable Soup with Wild Rice and Spring Vegetables
Sourdough Starter Discard Crackers Recipe for the Easiest Crispiest Crackers You’ll Ever Make
One for the sourdough bakers among you who are always on the lookout for sourdough starter discard recipes to use up any excess sourdough waste you have left after feeding your starter, this sourdough crackers recipe makes a crispy cracker that’s a little salty, a tad spicy, a tiny bit tangy, and utterly addictive. It’s another of our most popular recipes right now, so we’ve included it in our 28 best recipes to make in February.
The cracker is so flavoursome, crunchy and morish that it’s impossible to stop eating them once you start. Triangular in shape, the crackers are perfect for scooping up dips, and flavour-wise are perfectly matched with Middle Eastern dips such as hummus or muhammara. It makes it hard to go back to a water cracker, savoury biscuit, corn chip, or potato crisp…
They’re probably also the easiest crackers you’ll ever make, so should inspire you to test out more sourdough starter discard recipes, such as these recipes for sourdough scallion pancakes and sourdough crumpets. And if you haven’t started your sourdough adventure yet, see Terence’s post on how easy, cheap, and deeply satisfying sourdough baking is, along with his simple sourdough starter recipe and beginner’s guide to easy sourdough baking.
Sourdough Starter Discard Crackers Recipe for the Easiest Crispiest Crackers You’ll Ever Make
Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles
It’s National Chopsticks Day on February 6th so we’re sharing our Cambodian mee Katang recipe for a tasty Cambodian-Chinese stir-fry dish called ‘Cantonese noodles’ in Khmer that are eaten with chopsticks. Not every Cambodian dish is eaten with chopsticks; a fork and a spoon are used for most dishes that aren’t stir-fries and don’t involves noodles.
While not as ubiquitous in Cambodia as noodle soup dishes such as nom banh chok and kuy teav, nor as popular as wok-fried noodles like lort cha, mee Kola, chha kuy teav (stir-fried rice noodles), or mee Siem (crispy fried noodles with pork and fermented soy bean), mee Katang is sold at street food carts, market stalls, and casual eateries and is super popular.
A descendant of the Cantonese dish chow fun, mee Katang is made with the same fresh, flat, wide rice noodles called hor fun, which are stir-fried in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce to give the noodles colour as much as flavour. While we love mee Katang with pork, you can use beef, chicken, shrimps, or mixed seafood.
Served ‘dry’ or ‘wet’, in a gravy made from a tapioca or corn starch slurry, mee Katang is a cousin to Thailand’s pad see ew and Thai rad na or lad na in Laos, which share similar ingredients. It’s another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026.
Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles
Cambodian Outside of the Pot Soup Recipe for Chrouk Krao Chhnang
Another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026, this Cambodian outside of the pot soup recipe – also called ‘outside the pot soup’ and ‘out of the pot soup’ – makes chrouk krao chhnang in Khmer, a light salad of a soup, often eaten cool or at room temperature, that is made for the hot mainland Southeast Asian ‘summer’ of March-April, when the region experiences some of its highest temperatures.
One of our best noodle soup recipes, we first shared it as part of a series on Cambodian samlors (soups and stews) that included a sour beef soup with morning glory and a pork, pineapple and coconut milk soup-cum-stew. It’s another versatile Cambodian soup and it is perhaps one of the most reinterpreted, deconstructed and reconstructed of all Cambodian dishes that you’ll find on gastronomic tasting menus at Siem Reap’s finest Cambodian restaurants.
From chef Joannès Rivière at Cuisine Wat Damnak and chef Kimsan who helms Embassy to chef Sothea Seng at Lum Orng, many of the most creative Cambodian chefs have their own inventive take on Cambodia’s outside the pot soup. Most contemporary versions of the soup are finished at the table with the waiter pouring the hot consommé over the vegetables, herbs and fish, poaching it at the table.
At restaurants such as Cuisine Wat Damnak, you’ll be served everything from a full-flavoured out of the pot soup featuring fillets of fresh local fish instead of small torn pieces of smoked dried fish, while an elegant rendition at Lum Orng consisting of a delicate mound of julienned cucumbers topped with crispy fried fish, sprinkled with edible flowers, and the clearest of consommés poured over the lot by the waiter at your table.
Cambodian Outside of the Pot Soup Recipe for Chrouk Krao Chhnang
Super Bowl Food Recipes – Homemade Dips, Guacamole, Fried Chicken and BBQ Ribs
If you’re planning on watching the Super Bowl on Sunday 8 February, check out our collection of recipes for classic Super Bowl food favourites, such as dips and chips, an ultimate nachos, quesadillas, fried chicken, barbecued ribs, burgers, and hand-cut fries and homemade Sriracha sauce to go with them.
And if you’re looking for something to wash it all down with, why not try our michelada recipe for the spicy Mexican beer cocktail that has a kick of chilli around the rim. It’s a fun, fantastic, thirst-quenching drink that is perfect for the beer drinkers who aren’t big on bubbly. You can make your own homemade chilli salt but this infused lime salt also works.
Super Bowl Food Recipes – Homemade Dips, Guacamole, Fried Chicken and BBQ Ribs
Healthy Super Bowl Recipes to Make if You Prefer Fresh to Fried Spring Rolls
This collection of healthy Super Bowl recipes includes healthier snacks to munch on while you’re watching the game, including fresh Vietnamese spring rolls instead of fried egg rolls, homemade hummus recipes instead of creamy dips, crunchy Cantonese-style lettuce wraps in lieu of burritos, gently spiced Thai salads and a vegan chilli.
Of course, we still have recipes for dips and chips, our ultimate nachos, quesadillas, fried chicken, barbecued ribs, and burgers for you, but we compiled this round-up for our American readers getting together for one of the biggest gatherings in the USA after Thanksgiving who prefer healthier Super Bowl recipes.
Healthy Super Bowl Recipes to Make if You Prefer Fresh to Fried Spring Rolls
Sourdough Pizza Recipe For a No Knead Pizza Full of Flavour
February 9 is World Pizza Day so I thought I’d share our best pizza recipe, Terence’s sourdough pizza recipe, which makes a no-knead long-fermented pizza dough that’s full of flavour. It’s a fantastic way to use up the sourdough starter discard left when making sourdough bread. As a result you not only get a great tasting pizza but you get to reduce your kitchen waste in the process.
We’ve been making pizza for a couple of dozen years – one of our favourite memories is making wood-fired pizza in an oven built into the wall of our conical roofed white trullo in the countryside of Alberobello in Puglia in Southern Italy – but I have to say that this sourdough pizza recipe makes one of the most delicious pizzas we’ve ever made. Although I also adore Terence’s nduja pizza recipe.
This recipe makes two large pizzas but you can easily scale this up. The good thing is that the pizzas only need 5-7 minutes each, so in 30 minutes you can have four large pizzas to feed a family or group of friends and everyone can choose their own pizza toppings. You could do what I love to do and pop a big ball of creamy burrata on top of a pizza.
Sourdough Pizza Recipe For a No Knead Long Fermented Pizza Dough Full of Flavour
Best Chickpea Recipes for Chickpea Salads, Dips, Soups, Stews and Curries
It’s World Pulses Day on 10 February, which celebrates the sustainability of pulses in all their forms, beans, lentils and chickpeas. So I thought I’d share our best chickpea recipes, which make everything from Christine Manfield’s North Indian Punjabi chole and my gently-spiced pumpkin chickpea curry to Terence’s richly-spiced Moroccan chickpea soup he learnt to make in Marrakech and my Moroccan harira, a hearty chickpea and lentil soup.
We also have recipes for Middle Eastern chickpea and tahini dips, some of our best Middle Eastern recipes, from an authentic traditional hummus and a hummus balila of warm cumin-spiced chickpeas with pickles and salad to a hummus with ground spiced beef.
Although some of my favourite chickpea recipes make this Middle Eastern fatteh recipe for a rustic home-style breakfast of crispy pita with spiced chickpeas and yogurt sauce, sprinkled with pan-roasted nuts and fresh fragrant herbs, and this chickpea, pasta and chicken soup recipe for my take on the iconic Roman dish pasta e ceci with chicken.
We always have a few cans of chickpeas in our kitchen cupboard plus a couple of bags of dried chickpeas, but if you’re looking for more bean recipes, check out this compilation of our best canned beans recipes.
Best Chickpea Recipes for Chickpea Salads, Dips, Soups, Stews and Curries
Hasselback Potatoes Recipe with Baby Potatoes, Spiced Butter and Herbs
When it comes to recipes for vegetable side dishes, especially sides for a roast chicken or roast turkey, it’s hard to go past potato dishes, and I find it difficult to resist Terence’s heavenly creamy mashed potatoes and rich Irish colcannon, my warm German potato salad, or my mother’s classic potatoes au gratin, some of our best recipes with potatoes.
But this easy Hasselback potatoes recipe made with baby potatoes, which cook faster, provides some stiff competition. If you’re still deciding what potato side dish you’re going to serve with the Valentine’s Day meal you’re preparing for your beloved, then consider these quick and easy Hasselback potatoes over boring old roast potatoes.
Of course Hassleback potatoes are still roast potatoes, they’re just finely sliced with close parallel cuts, about three-quarters through the potato so that it still holds together, and are brushed with butter (in this case a spiced butter) to add flavour and create the crispy texture and fan-like shape. This another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026.
Hasselback Potatoes Recipe with Baby Potatoes, Spiced Butter and Herbs
Valentines Day Breakfast Recipes for a Special Breakfast in Bed
February 14 is Valentines Day and this year it falls on a Saturday, which means you can make your loved-one a special breakfast in bed. We’ve got a combination of light breakfast dishes and a few more filling egg breakfasts for Valentines Day morning, and even some Valentines Day brunch ideas for those of you planning on sleeping in late.
If you don’t find a Valentines breakfast idea you like here, then do what I did and dig into our Weekend Eggs archive. You should find plenty of cooking inspiration, whether you’re looking for quick and easy breakfast recipes for Valentines Day because you have a busy day ahead, or more extravagant breakfast ideas if you have time to linger.
Valentines Day Breakfast Recipes for a Special Breakfast in Bed
Valentines Day Dinner Ideas for Every Kind of Food Lover Because To Cook is To Love
If you’re planning on making a romantic home cooked meal for your loved-one this week – because nothing says “I Love You” like a home-cooked meal – then browse our Valentines Day dinner ideas for menus for all kinds of food lovers. Whether your beloved is a seafood lover, Mediterranean food lover, or Italian food lover, and more, we’ve got suggestions for easy recipes you can whip up Friday night.
Because as far as we’re concerned, anybody can pay for a restaurant meal, but nothing says “I Love You” like taking the time and care to prepare a beautiful home cooked meal – whether it’s a favourite dish cooked to perfection with a decent bottle of wine, or a three-course meal.
We recommend cooking two courses or three courses tops and buying a good quality cheese or chocolates or picking up a cake from the local bakery for dessert. A bottle of bubbles, a good bottle of wine, and a bunch of flowers and you’re set. Perfect. No need to waste money on an overpriced restaurant meal.
For more of our best recipes to make in February 2026, see our round-up of special Valentines Day dinner recipes, our post on a French Valentines Day dinner menu and recipes for more ideas for a romantic meal in, and our Valentines breakfast ideas if you’re going to kick off a Valentines weekend on Saturday morning.
Valentines Day Dinner Ideas for Every Kind of Food Lover Because To Cook is To Love
French Valentines Day Dinner Menu + Recipes for a Romantic Meal at Home
We’ve got a French Valentines Day dinner menu and recipes for Valentines Day dinner at home – which is so much more romantic than dining out on the restaurant industry’s busiest night of the year. At home, you can serve a whole platter of oysters (rather than one a piece!), turn the jazz up and the lights down as low as you like, tuck into seconds, and skip dessert – or take it to another room.
When we lived in Sydney when we were younger, we’d dine out for Valentines Day, birthdays, our anniversary, and, frankly, any excuse for a celebratory meal at one of Sydney’s finest restaurants. But I have to confess: the most memorable meals were the $18 prix fixe 3-course menu du jour at an atmospheric, dimly-lit, French neighbourhood bistro called L’Ironique near our home in Balmain. French bistros and brasseries are where to book a table if you’re lucky to live near one.
These days, I’d rather celebrate our love with a home-cooked meal, good bottle of wine, and Pepper curled up on her mat nearby. Have Valentines Day dinner at home and you can sip more than the two welcome glasses of bubbly included in the set menu. In fact, you could sip bubbly with your entire meal if you wished. You can linger as long as you like at your romantic candlelit table without a bill being slid not-so-discreetly in front of you. Even better? No bill!
Valentines Day dinner at home means you can serve whatever cuisine you like, but just as Paris is the world’s most romantic city, a French Valentines Day dinner menu is the most romantic meal you can make a loved one in my opinion. Start with freshly shucked oysters if they’re in season, stick to classic dishes that can’t fail, put on some jazz, light some candles, and pop that bottle of bubbles.
French Valentines Day Dinner Menu + Recipes for a Romantic Meal at Home
Best Pancake Recipes for Buckwheat, Potato and Ricotta Pancakes for Pancake Day
February 16 marks the start of Pancake Week or Maslenitsa, a week-long Slavic festival dating to Pagan times leading up to Great Lent, which marks the end of winter, and it’s a great excuse to make pancakes. Some of my best pancake recipes come from my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s kitchen, and while made all year they were especially enjoyed during Pancake Week.
The type of pancakes that my baboushka and mum mostly made were classic Russian blini, which are thin French-style crêpes style pancakes – ‘blini’ is the plural of ‘pancakes’ in Russian and ‘blin’ is the singular for pancake. But there are so many other types of pancakes from Russia, Ukraine and beyond that my family made.
They also cooked the small buckwheat pancakes that make the cocktail-size blini that are typically served with smoked salmon, sour cream, caviar, and dill; the potato pancakes that are something between a pikelet and potato fritter; and the ricotta pancakes, which became synonymous with Australian café culture in the 1980s and 90s.
We also have recipes for pancakes from around the world from Japan to Vietnam, everything from Japanese okonomiyaki to Chinese scallion pancakes.
Best Pancake Recipes for Buckwheat, Potato and Ricotta Pancakes for Pancake Day
Chinese New Year Recipes from China, Cambodia and Vietnam for Lunar New Year
Chinese New Year takes place on 17 February 2026, kicking off the Year of the Horse, and two weeks of celebrations that culminate in the Lantern Festival in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and here in Cambodia and other countries with Chinese communities, such as Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore.
If you’re celebrating Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year, or just using it as an excuse to cook Chinese food, browse our Chinese New Year recipes below, as well as our collections of Chinese fried rice recipes and Chinese egg recipes. We’ve got everything from marbled Chinese tea eggs and Chinese egg drop soup to egg foo young, both the Cantonese original and Chinese-American egg fu young with gravy.
Here in Cambodia the holiday is called Chinese New Year but it’s Lunar New Year in Vietnam and in East Asian countries that also follow the lunisolar calendar, such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan, as well as countries with citizens with Chinese heritage and Chinese diasporas, such as Australia, the UK and North American countries.
We love getting into the spirit of the holiday here in Siem Reap, our home of ten years, making dumplings, frying spring rolls, slurping noodles, and spring cleaning. These Chinese New Year food recipes come mainly from Cambodia. Some dishes are traditionally made for Chinese New Year offerings and family feasts, while others are special occasion dishes cooked and eaten year-round, not only for Chinese New Year. All have a place on the table during the spring festival.
Chinese New Year Recipes from Cambodia and Vietnam for Lunar New Year
Chinese Tea Eggs Recipe for Perfumed Marbled Eggs Almost Too Beautiful To Eat
Another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026, this Chinese tea eggs recipe makes marbled eggs – aromatic boiled eggs that have a marbled appearance when peeled. Steeped in a stock of five spice, star anise, soy and tea flavours that perfume the eggs, marbled eggs are a tasty snack when eaten on their own, but also make a lovely light breakfast to eat over Chinese New Year.
You might see this Chinese tea eggs recipe presented as ‘Cha Yip Dahn’ in cookbooks such as Charmaine Soloman’s The Complete Asian Cookbook. It’s spelt wǔxiāng cháyè dàn or 五香茶叶蛋 in Mandarin, which translates to 五香 – Spiced, 茶 – Tea, 叶 – Leaf, 蛋 – Egg.
In many parts of China and East Asia, you can buy them at a local mini-mart as you might some cup-a-noodles. Or you can make a full meal of them and add soy sauce, chilli sauce and steamed rice, and make a pot of tea, and you have a deliciously light breakfast or brunch right there.
Chinese marbled eggs are traditionally hard-boiled eggs, and even though we prefer soft-boiled eggs, we absolutely love this Chinese tea eggs recipe and are big fans of these beautiful marbled eggs. If you are as well, you can easily make double the number of eggs just by adding a little more stock to the stockpot.
Chinese Tea Eggs Recipe for Perfumed Marbled Eggs Almost Too Beautiful To Eat
Longevity Noodles Recipe for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity
This longevity noodles recipe makes long life noodles, a traditional Chinese noodle dish made during Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year to bring longevity, good luck and prosperity – as long as you don’t cut the noodles! Longevity noodles recipe are also served on other special occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.
Perhaps that’s why our recipe has been so popular because Chinese New Year, which is celebrated here in Cambodia, in China, and in other countries with Chinese communities, such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, is coming up this month on 17 February.
We love to get into the spirit of the holiday in Cambodia, cooking lucky dishes for Chinese New Year, as it’s called in Cambodia’s Chinese-Cambodian and Chinese communities, when we usually share the Chinese New Year food recipes and Lunar New Year recipes we’re cooking, beginning with this classic longevity noodles recipe, another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026.
Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity
Quick and Easy Cashew Chicken Recipe with Crunchy Asparagus and Chilli
This Chinese cashew chicken recipe with crunchy asparagus and chilli makes a classic Cantonese-style stir-fried chicken with cashews with a few tweaks to accommodate those of us who prefer even more texture, flavour and spice. The beauty of the dish is that if you’re not a fan of fiery flavours, you can skip the chillies and enjoy the dish as it’s meant to be eaten.
If you adore Asian food and you’re a spice lover, but you’re cooking for people who can’t handle the heat, Cantonese food might be the answer. While Cantonese cooking is marked by clean flavours, crisp textures, light treatment with little more than a quick stir-fry in a hot wok, and a hint of umami, it’s versatile. Just don’t tell your Cantonese friends!
I’ve adapted from Chinese-Australian chef Kylie Kwong’s recipe for stir-fried chicken fillets with cashews from Simple Chinese Cooking. I’ve swapped her cucumbers for asparagus, boosted the flavour with more soy sauce and chilli, and skipped the whopping two teaspoons of salt, which would send my blood pressure through the roof. If you enjoy this, try our Cambodian stir-fried chicken with cashews, which is even more delicious.
Quick and Easy Cashew Chicken Recipe with Crunchy Asparagus and Chilli
Korean Japchae Recipe for Stir Fried Glass Noodles with Vegetables
February 17 is also Korean New Year or Seollal, a traditional Korean festival commemorating the first day of Korea’s lunisolar calendar. One of the most important holidays for ethnic Koreans, Korean New Year is celebrated in South Korea, North Korea, and the Korean diaspora.
As in other Asian countries that celebrate Lunar New Year, Koreans take time off to visit family, and food, including a table of offerings for ancestors (Jaesa) is a much-loved component of the holiday. Korean dishes enjoyed during Korean New Year include rice cake and dumpling soups (tteokguk), seafood pancakes (jeon), and melt-in-the-mouth beef short ribs (galbi).
Homemade Korean japchae, stir-fried vegetables with glass noodles made from potato starch is another Korean New Year specialty and one of my favourite noodle dishes. Just like the other countries celebrating Lunar New Year, noodles represent longevity and prosperity. If, like us, you’re Korean food lovers and planning to use Korean New Year as an excuse to cook Korean food, we have a Korean japchae recipe for you, and more Korean recipes.
Classic Korean Japchae Recipe for Stir Fried Glass Noodles with Mixed Vegetables
Middle Eastern Recipes for Ramadan
Ramadan is due to start on 17 or 18 February, depending on the sighting of the moon, so if you’re like us and will take any excuse to cook Middle Eastern food, browse our best Middle Eastern recipes, which include recipes for everything from Middle Eastern dips served as mezze starters and appetisers to Middle Eastern salads and mains.
This compilation of our best Middle Eastern recipes includes the dishes from the Middle East that we’ve long loved to cook. We lived in the Middle East and travelled the region for work and pleasure for the best part of a decade, and know the cuisines and culture intimately.
We’ve got recipes for everything from Middle Eastern mezze, dips, snacks and appetisers that are made to be shared such as hummus, baba ganoush and muhammara to Middle Eastern salads such as fattoush and tabbouleh, and Middle Eastern mains like beef kofta and shish tawook. They’re some of our top recipes to make in February 2026.
Best Middle Eastern Recipes for Hummus, Baba Ganoush, Fattoush, Kofta and More
Classic Margarita Recipe for the Quintessential Mexican Cocktail
It’s National Margarita Day on 22 February so I’m sharing our classic Margarita recipe, the most quintessential and most popular of cocktails in Mexico, and another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026. We reckon a Margarita should be one of the first classic cocktail recipes a cocktail lover should learn to make, especially if you’re a fan of all things Mexican.
While popular around the globe, it was in Mexico where we learnt to make this Margarita recipe, on our first trip. Come sunset, whether in our apartment rental in Mexico City or our cute casita in San Miguel de Allende, I would reach for the tequila, Triple Sec and limes and mix us some classic Margaritas.
And we continue to make Margaritas, wherever we are in the world. If, like most travellers to Mexico, once back home you find yourself nostalgic for those evenings sipping Margaritas overlooking the Zocalo, try this classic Margarita recipe that I used to make during our time in Mexico and still make.
Classic Margarita Recipe for the Quintessential Mexican Cocktail
Mexican Chilaquiles Recipe for Chilaquiles Verdes with Green Salsa, Chicken and Fried Egg
It’s National Tortilla Chip Day on 24 February, so why not try our easy Mexican chilaquiles recipe with fried eggs, shredded chicken and green salsa for chilaquiles verdes. A beloved Mexican dish eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or supper in Mexico, chilaquiles was created to use up day-old tortilla chips and other leftovers, and is a very versatile dish. It’s another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026.
This Mexican chilaquiles recipe makes my take on the chilaquiles verdes (green chilaquiles) or, more correctly, chilaquiles con pollo en salsa verde (chilaquiles with chicken in green salsa) that I became addicted to at Café la Blanca in Mexico City many years ago. I hijacked Terence’s Weekend Eggs recipe series on quintessential eggs dishes from around the world to share it with you.
Mexican chilaquiles – homemade tortilla chips called totopos that are created from frying stale corn tortillas, which are then cooked in salsa, and served with Mexican cotija cheese and crema – is a pre-Hispanic Aztec dish. Chilaquiles – pronounced chee-lah-KEE-lehs – comes from a Nahuatl word that meant ‘chillies and greens’.
Long a popular Mexican breakfast dish, chilaquiles can really be eaten at any time of day. Filling and comforting, it makes for a fantastic lunch or dinner, if you’re a fan of breakfast for dinner. My Mexican friends used to tuck into late-night bowls of chilaquiles after an evening spent bar-hopping and clubbing, swearing it was the best hangover cure. For me, it’s the perfect weekend breakfast or brunch dish.
Mexican Chilaquiles Recipe for Chilaquiles Verdes with Green Salsa, Chicken and Fried Egg
White Chicken Chilli Tostadas Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Delicious Meal
It’s National Chili Day on 26 February and we have a handful of chilli recipes, but I love this white chicken chilli tostadas recipe, another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026. It makes an incredibly delicious yet quick and easy weeknight meal if you have leftover white chicken chilli in the fridge – or any leftover chilli con carne or vegetarian bean chilli.
If you’ve made our breakfast tostadas with fried eggs and enjoyed those, then you’re also going to love these. Just spread the chicken chilli on the tostadas, melt grated cheddar on top, garnish with coriander, jalapenos and avocado, and add a dollop of sour cream, and you’re done.
And of course there’s nothing stopping you from sliding fried eggs on these babies, too. Although I envisaged these tostadas more as a dinner or lunch dish and created them to use up leftovers. And if you don’t have any leftover white chicken chilli in the fridge or freezer, then this is a good excuse to make some.
I’ll also serve the tostadas with bowls of homemade tomato salsa, quick-pickled pink shallots or onions, Mexican escabeche and jalapeno pickles, but you can use store-bought to save time.
White Chicken Chilli Tostadas Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Delicious Meal
Best Pistachio Recipes from Rice Dishes to Salads and Vegetable Sides
Pistachios have been trending in recent years thanks to the ‘Dubai chocolate’ trend. If you’ve been living off the grid: an artisanal made-in-Dubai chocolate bar with a green pistachio cream and crispy kataifi pastry filling went viral on social media becoming the world’s most covetable confectionary, and everyone began making Dubai chocolate copycat recipes, from leading chocolate brands to food bloggers.
As a consequence, we’ve all been going nuts for pistachios, and the popularity of pistachios as an ingredient has surged. Pistachios have popped up in everything from croissants to cocktails, and recipes for dishes with pistachios, both sweet and savoury, have appeared absolutely everywhere, from morning TV cooking show segments to countless magazine spreads. It’s nuts. (Sorry.) But it’s a good excuse to cook with pistachios.
National Pistachio Day on 26 February is another good excuse to try some of our best pistachio recipes, which include an aromatic Middle Eastern rice textured with pistachios, cashews and raisins; warm cumin-spiced chickpeas spooned over pita crisps, drizzled with a lemony-garlic yogurt sauce and sprinkled with pistachios; a pearl couscous, pomegranate and pistachio salad; and spiced pan-fried cauliflower with chickpeas and pistachios.
Best Pistachio Recipes from Rice Dishes to Salads and Vegetable Sides
Rose Mascarpone Cheesecake Tart Recipe with Mixed Berries and Fresh Mint
It’s National Strawberry Day on 27 February so why not try our recipe for a rose mascarpone cheesecake tart topped with strawberries and other berries? It makes the easiest no bake cheesecake made with cream cheese and mascarpone, flavoured with rose for a taste of the Middle East, and garnished with fresh mint leaves. It’s another one of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026.
I’ve made this cheesecake tart with both a simple old-fashioned cheesecake base and a store-bought base when time has been tight, and as long as you can get a quality ready-made tart base, it’s just as delicious thanks to the fuss-free cream cheese filling, and glorious fresh berries. It’s gorgeous to look at and tastes sublime — especially if you’re not a fan of sickly-sweet cheesecakes.
The biscuit crust is made to a traditional recipe. Australian cooks have been making cheesecakes since Australians began milking dairy cows. Cheesecake recipes appeared in Australia’s earliest cookbooks, including The Colonial Cookbook published in 1864, which I have, through to the classic 1970s cookbooks of Margaret Fulton (Australia’s Julia Child).
A cheesecake tart is the perfect vehicle for fresh fruit and this is all about the berries. Buy the best quality fruit you can find and afford and be generous. Serve with bowls of double cream or whipped cream for dolloping, a shaker of icing sugar (or set a small sieve or sifter on the table), and a dish of fresh mint — or candied rose petals if you can source them or have time to make them. Having said that, this cheesecake tart is endlessly adaptable.
And if you’re looking for more ideas for strawberries, please try my recipes for sweet varenyky with berries for Ukrainian dessert dumplings and an easy French toast with berries and whipped cream.
Rose Mascarpone Cheesecake Tart Recipe with Mixed Berries and Fresh Mint
Creamy Salmon Soup Recipe for Karelian Lohikeitto
February 28 is Kalevala Day in Finland and Finnish Karelia. Also known as Finnish Culture Day, it’s a celebration of Finnish culture and the Kalevala, a 19th century work of epic poetry that draws from Finnish and Karelian mythology and folklore. On Kalevala Day, Finnish literature, folklore, music, and the arts are celebrated.
I’m using that as an excuse to share this easy salmon soup recipe for Karelian lohikeitto, which makes a rich and creamy salmon soup packed with vegetables, and it’s another of our top 28 recipes to make in February 2026. It has a gentle warmth due to allspice and a freshness of flavour and fragrance thanks to dill, the beloved herb of Karelian, Russian, Finnish, and other Nordic and Baltic cuisines.
The Republic of Karelia is in northwest Russia, bordering Finland, and Karelian culture and cuisine straddles that border. As the Republic of Karelia has more than 60,000 lakes and some 27,000 rivers, Karelian cuisine is distinguished by its seafood and fish, served in many forms. Fish is cured, pickled, salted, smoked, and roasted, eaten raw, in salads, pies, porridges, stews, and soups.
I knew this Karelian lohikeitto as Karelskiy rybnyy sup in Russian. It’s one of my family recipes that my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother made and it’s one of my favourite salmon recipes. Can’t source salmon or not a fan? Use your favourite fish and you have kalakeitto or fish soup. ‘Lohi’ is ‘salmon’, ‘kala’ is fish’, and ‘keitto’ is soup — in Finnish. Serve it with sour cream and slices of sourdough or black rye bread for dunking.
Please do let us know if you cook any of our 28 recipes to make in February 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. Or share your feedback, tips and tweaks.
