The top 21 new recipes from 2021, with everything from the plant-based classics to internationally inspired flavors!

We’re in the calendar equivalent of no-man’s-land. The time between Christmas and New Year’s where I’m never sure what day / month / year it is. Or sure what I should be doing (Working? Watching Christmas movies on the couch with Rhubarb? Making a carefully curated Insta Reel of the highlights from this year?)
So in the spirit of reflecting on 2021, today I’m sharing 21 of the most popular new recipes from the year!
And while I can’t pick my personal favorite recipe of the year, we did a few projects that I’m still swooning over, to include:
- Reader recipe week, where I cooked a bunch of your recipes and discovered some tasty new flavor combos, like Rudy’s Sunshine Salad!
- Our mega-spotlights, where we spent a month covering all the ingredients within different camps! Browse through our Ingredient 101s to see all the leafy greens and ancient grains we covered!
- Edible flowers week, which was beautiful and colorful and makes me want to put a bouquet into every recipe.
But these recipes? They’re your favorites! Here are the top 21 new recipes of the year. Enjoy!
Top Recipes Of 2021
Vegetarian Carbonara
Our most popular new recipe of the year! Ditch the pork and use mushrooms in this classic, creamy pasta dish.
Chickpea Tuna Salad
Our runner up was one of my favorites! we used chickpeas and a crafty combination of flavorful ingredients to replicate the taste of tuna salad.
Chickpea Tuna Melt
Once you have your plant-based tuna salad, you've got to make a tuna melt, right?!
Fluffy Soufflé Omelette
During our egg spotlight, we explored a bunch of fun ways to make omelettes. This unique methods ended up being one of my favorites. The concept is simple - whip the egg white and yolk separately, then fold them together!
How to Make a Veggie Omelette
This veggie omelette was originally meant to be a "vegetarian Denver omelette" (in the spirit of me moving to Denver). As it turns out, once you remove the ham from a Denver omelette, it's just a veggie omelette!
Seitan Burgers
Our seitan spotlight was a fun one (albeit a big learning curve)! Your favorite recipe from our seitan weeks? These plant-based burgers!
Buddha's Delight
Where seitan is usually used to make "fake meat" kind of recipes (like our burgers!), it's also great in stir fries. And it looks like you guys agree!
Easy Seitan Pepperoni
If there is one recipe I would want you to try out the most, it's this one. All the spices of pepperoni packed into plant-based, straight-forward pepperoni.
Egg White Frittata with Spinach and Feta
These bad boys are loaded with cheesiness and supply a nice serving of greens at the same time. Just whisk, sauté, and bake!
Seitan Steak
Eat it like traditional steak, or serve it on vegan burrito bowls, salads, and sandwiches!
Sweet Potato Salad with Quinoa and Hummus Dressing
This was actually an old, old recipe that I didn't *love*. This year, we reinvented it.
Mexican Paletas
2019 was our big popsicle year (what with the release of my cookbook and all). But that doesn't mean we stopped loving popsicles as time went on. You loved our Mexican Paletas this year (the pineapple flavor is my personal fav!)
Egg White Oatmeal
As seen on TikTok! Egg whites transform your morning oats into a protein-packed, even creamier bowl of yum.
Thai Green Curry
It's safe to say we all spent too much on takeout in 2020. So I had to recreate some of those classics, to include this Thai Green Curry!
Easy Vegan Meatballs
Seitan was the answer to the age-old (nay, ancient) problem of plant-based meatballs not sticking together while cooking!
Filipino Eggplant Omelet (Tortang Talong)
I went a little crazy at the Asian grocery store and...bought every single type of eggplant they offered. This Filipino Eggplant Omelete was one of the results!
Autumn Apple Sangria
Having moved into a larger house this year, sister and I were finally able to host dinners and parties! Which meant adding a few more crowd-friendly cocktails to the recipe arsenal.
Healthy Pumpkin Smoothie
If a pumpkin spice latte and your healthy breakfast smoothie had a baby!
3 Ingredient Fruit & Yogurt Popsicles
I love a good choose-your-adventure recipe, and popsicles are ripe for it! Mix and match your favorite fruit and yogurt flavors in this easy popsicle recipe.
Mushroom Meatloaf
I wanted a vegetarian meatloaf that *actually* mimicked the real thing. Once again, seitan came in with the solution!
Kathryn Wilkinson says
thank you! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the chick pea tuna salad recipe and make it at least once a week.
Sarah Bond says
So awesome to hear!! You should try the chicken salad as well! š