I've been writing recipes professionally for over a decade, and these are the recipes I still cook all the time.
Sometimes I never make a recipe again after I've perfected it, but these are my absolute keepers.
I know have been quite a few new faces around here over the past month or so, so let me re-introduce myself: hello, my name is Rachel and I’m a professional recipe developer. I write recipes mostly for websites but sometimes for magazines and newspapers and cookbooks too, and I publish them both under my own name and as a recipe ghostwriter.
I estimate that I write approximately 15 new recipes a month.
15 new recipes a month totals to around 180 new recipes a year. Whilst I like to think I’m proud of every recipe I produce as I’ve worked hard to make them work, the stark reality is that most of my output is recipes I cook until they’re perfect, and then never make again either because it was a client request that was not quite to my tastes, or simply because not every recipe can be a keeper.
I was discussing this with a reader the other day and it got me thinking, what are my favourite recipes I’ve written over the years? Which are my absolute keepers that I keep coming back to again and again no matter how long ago I published them?
Weeknight Dinners
One of my oldest recipes I still make all the time are my Chicken Fajitas. I published a slightly different version in my book Student Eats but I think I prefer the blog version more. Steak goes in instead of the chicken sometimes instead, these days.
Another adaptation I make at least once a month is of my Super Saucy Korean Beef Stir Fry with Peppers and Broccoli. J prefers noodles to rice so I stir two nests of cooked egg noodles into the sauce at the end of cooking. I also use whatever veg is to hand in this now, always peppers but often onions, beans or even leftover cooked savoy cabbage playing second fiddle. I’ve found this is also great to make with leftover beef or pork from a Sunday roast.
Ever since I perfected my Easy Sausage Ragu it’s been a staple: I made a big pot of it last night for dinner and J took some to work for lunch today. One of my first recipes here on ingredient was a spicy sausage version with gochujang which we now also make on repeat, choosing between spicy and aromatic depending on our mood.
I don’t know where we’d be without this Slow Cooker Sausage and Butter Bean Casserole recipe. It’s hearty, packed with ingredients I usually have in the fridge, freezer or cupboard and is just the thing coming in late on a cold night. I barely change it, sometimes just adding rosemary instead of thyme if that’s what looks healthier in the garden.
Another make-ahead meal I love (usually with air fryer chips and either corn on the cob or sliced avocado depending on the season) are my Best Ever Barbecue Ribs. I usually make them as-is, but if I’m busy so don’t have time to make the dry rub I grab a jar of Butt Rub seasoning.
Finally, if you’ve got a copy of my book One Pan Pescatarian the Kimchee Fried Rice on pg 75 is still a go-to dinner I make for myself if I can’t decide on what to make for a solo dinner and my hunger means I don’t have time to get creative.
J’s Requests
There is a running joke in my family that the recipes I write because J has requested them (or my mother’s recipes I’ve published, a few of which I’ve included below) do a lot better than my own recipes. I think this is because as a recipe developer I’m constantly being asked to reinvent the wheel to create something ‘new’, but when J asks me to develop a recipe for him what I’m instead striving to achieve is the very best version of what he actually wants to eat for dinner.
My Bolognese Lasagna, Classic Lancashire Hot Pot, Ultimate Cottage Pie and Beef Stew with Thyme Dumplings all fit into this category, as well as the Leek and Potato Soup on pg 100 of One Pan Pescatarian which I usually make for our lunch either with fresh leeks or those Picard French frozen ones you can get on Ocado, meaning as I buy potatoes by the sack a nourishing bowl of soup is always to hand.
Seasonal Favourites
Excluding my go-to recipes for Christmas and associated holidays (I’ll write about those nearer the time!) there are a couple of recipes I pull out every year to suit specific seasonal ingredients you can’t get (or shouldn’t get) at other times.
I’m hoping I’ve still got a few more pots of Slow Cooked Borlotti Beans in me for 2024, my favourite way of serving them is with lamb chops and a simply dressed green salad. I always cook borlotti beans this way, sometimes using rosemary instead of sage again if my garden would prefer it, and a chopped tomato if there are no ripe cherry tomatoes on the tomato plants that are always growing during borlotti season by my back door.
As we head into autumn if I have a home alone evening (J does not like risotto) my Creamy Butternut Squash Risotto is one of my favourite recipes to make from One Pan Pescatarian (pg 60) topped with some crispy sage, either made with squash or pumpkin, whatever I have on the counter or already started in the fridge. This is also a great place to me to use up the ends of bottles of rose or even champagne in the fridge mid-week rather than grab the trusty bottle of white cooking wine.
Moving into winter, I know I have it billed as a Christmas recipe (it is unparalleled with cold cuts) my Shredded Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad is a can’t-miss seasonal recipe for me, pretty much unchanged as the original is so good!
And finally, cycling back to spring when I’m not doing wild or interesting things with wild garlic, you can’t beat the Wild Garlic Pesto recipe I wrote for BBC Food which works equally as well with hazelnuts or cobnuts.
Curry Nights
Curries are one of my favourite things to cook for a Friday or Saturday night dinner (or even Monday if it’s a light start to the week) so I think they deserve their own section, don’t you?
I think the curry I make the most often is my Chicken Pasanda, usually because it’s quick and as long as I have a tub of natural yogurt in the fridge (I sometimes get Greek instead depending on what I’m making that week) I probably have everything else I need to hand. The Same is true for my Chicken Salli, which I also make when I need to mindlessly follow a recipe after a long day and have something that still tastes complex at the end of it, the only requirement that it be my own recipe so I can be sure it will work!
A special mention needs to also go to my Garlic Chilli Chicken Curry recipe. It’s one of the recipes I’m the most proud of and I love how well it’s gone down with so many people because even though it’s a little too involved for a weeknight I still love making it too! Re-creating J’s go-to dish (that I also love) from British Indian-style takeaways it may involve a lot of chopping but the payoff is massive and it’s what I always make when I’m planning ahead for curry but don’t fancy trying out something new. I always make this one when I’m cooking curries for guests, too.
Whilst we’re on the topic of curries, I never make aromatic pilau rice anymore because if I have time to make something that is not just plain old boiled white basmati nothing can beat Sri Lankan Yellow Rice. It’s the main reason I keep fresh curry leaves frozen in the freezer door.
Family Recipes
Ever since my father first taught me as a teenager to prick sloes all over with a pin and soak them in gin and sugar to make a liquor I’ve been making his recipes for Sloe and Damson Gin every autumn. I prefer it to the same with vodka, and I also am very proud of my Sloe Brandy recipe that makes the perfect nightcap.
I think my mother’s two greatest contributions to our family dinners are her Chicken Pie recipe (in Student Eats but published online here) and her Bolognese.
I’ve tried playing with the pie recipe but it just doesn’t work any other way: the only material difference between her pie and my pie is I use a whole 150ml pot of single cream and she uses about half, because I don’t want to put mine back in the fridge. We both sometimes use oversized spring onions instead of leeks if there are some in the vegetable plot, and we both make a Christmas version with leftover turkey. It must be made with the leftover chicken from a Sunday roast (I’ve tried cooking chicken to make this and it doesn’t work) and my father and I are agreed that the only thing better than my mother’s chicken pie is leftover cold my mother’s chicken pie. J disagrees on this, and he is completely, utterly wrong.
As for the bolognese, I’ve not changed a single thing in the ingredient list, just the method. I add my bacon or lardons after the soffrito not with, and I caramelise the tomato puree with the beef before adding the wine and tomatoes. And looking back at the recipe I need to update it as I now cook and simmer it for 20 minutes at each stage, not 15.
And finally, because my mother is also brilliant at potatoes I don’t think I could possibly want to make something other than her Jewish Potato Salad for a summer spread, or her Boulangere Potatoes (my only change to her recipe is that I’ve actually written it down rather than just build it without one) in winter when I’m craving to soft potato layers of a gratin but I can’t justify a Dauphinoise.
What are your go-to recipes that you keep making again and again, and probably will never stop?
Rachel- That garlic chili chicken curry looks absolutely divine. I think I’ll try this next week minus the chili. The older I get the more I sadly react to chili. Thanks for this!
I enjoyed this. I have a few recipes I make every year at certain times of the year and a list of favorites that are go to recipes.