This post contains affiliate links.

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

A vibrant collage showcases colorful dishes like curry, salad, popsicles, drinks, sandwiches, and pizza. The text 21 Top Recipes of 2021 is boldly displayed at the center, celebrating a culinary journey through last yearโ€™s delights.

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. I’m not 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 Iโ€™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, including:

  • 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

A bowl of vegetarian carbonara with mushrooms, garnished with herbs and Parmesan cheese, and a fork resting inside.

Vegetarian Carbonara

Our most popular new recipe of the year! Ditch the pork and use mushrooms in this classic, creamy pasta dish.
Get Recipe
Chickpea tuna salad on a serving plate with a spoon.

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.
Get Recipe
Chickpea tuna sandwich with melty cheese.

Chickpea Tuna Melt

Once you have your plant-based tuna salad, you've got to make a tuna melt, right?!
Get Recipe
Two golden soufflรฉ omelets garnished with herbs sit in a black pan, with empty eggshells nearby on a blue surface.

Fluffy Soufflรฉ 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!
Get Recipe
An omelet with vibrant vegetables and a side salad elegantly rests on a black plate atop a yellow table. Nearby, find the essential ingredients like red bell pepper, mushrooms, and a refreshing glass of waterโ€”perfect companions for learning how to make an omelette.

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!
Get Recipe
A plate of eggplant curry with rice is garnished with cilantro. Next to it is a smaller bowl of the same dish, glasses of ice water, and a bowl of rice, all elegantly placed on a vibrant red surface.

Eggplant Curry

An Indian-inspired curry that is, to put it lightly, SO DAMN GOOD.
Get Recipe
Vegan seitan burgers on a blue background.

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!
Get Recipe
A bowl of Buddhas delight stir-fry with colorful bell peppers, snow peas, broccoli, and mushrooms on a yellow background, accompanied by sliced mushrooms and glasses of ice water.

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!
Get Recipe
Pizza with melted cheese and vegan pepperoni slices on a yellow background, showcasing three cut slices.

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.
Get Recipe
egg white frittata in a pan with one slice missing.

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, sautรฉ, and bake!
Get Recipe
Grilled seitan steak strips with broccoli rest on a black plate, accompanied by a small dish of sauce. Set on a yellow table with water glasses, a knife, and a gray napkin nearby.

Seitan Steak

Eat it like traditional steak, or serve it on vegan burrito bowls, salads, and sandwiches!
Get Recipe
Sweet potato salad with grains and cranberries.

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.
Get Recipe
Four popsicles in red, yellow, white, and green are sprinkled with chili powder and arranged in a row on a blue wooden surface.

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!)
Get Recipe
A bowl of egg white oatmeal topped with sliced bananas, juicy blackberries, almond butter, and a touch of jam set against a vibrant red background. Surrounded by fresh eggs, extra blackberries, and a ripe banana, with a wooden spoon nestled in the bowl.

Egg White Oatmeal

As seen on TikTok! Egg whites transform your morning oats into a protein-packed, even creamier bowl of yum.
Get Recipe
Bowls of Thai eggplant green curry with rice, garnished with lime slices and chili, surrounded by fresh ingredients on a blue surface.

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!
Get Recipe
A bowl of spaghetti topped with meatballs in tomato sauce garnished with parsley, accompanied by a plate of spicy seitan wings. Beside it is a fork, a glass of ice water, and a sprig of fresh parsley, all on a blue surface.

Easy Vegan Meatballs

Seitan was the answer to the age-old (nay, ancient) problem of plant-based meatballs not sticking together while cooking!
Get Recipe
Plate with two browned tortang talong halves, rice, lime wedges, greens, and a small cup of sauce on an orange surface. A fork and napkin are beside the plate.

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!
Get Recipe
Two glasses of apple sangria with apple cubes and cinnamon sticks sit on a white surface. A green apple, cinnamon sticks, and a white cloth are nearby, set against a vibrant red background.

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.
Get Recipe
Two glasses of creamy pumpkin smoothie with striped straws sit gracefully on a white surface, surrounded by quaint pumpkins and a spoonful of rich pumpkin puree, all set against a vibrant turquoise background.

Healthy Pumpkin Smoothie

If a pumpkin spice latte and your healthy breakfast smoothie had a baby!
Get Recipe
Assorted fruit and yogurt popsicles are arranged on a peach surface with ice cubes, surrounded by sliced strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple.

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.
Get Recipe
Sliced vegetarian meatloaf topped with sauce on a cutting board, garnished with herbs. Accompanied by mushrooms and a small bowl of ketchup.

Mushroom Meatloaf

I wanted a vegetarian meatloaf that *actually* mimicked the real thing. Once again, seitan came in with the solution!
Get Recipe
Eat vegetarian cookbook.

Let's eat more plants!

Packed with over 100 reader-favorite vegetarian recipes, my cookbook is your go-to guide for easy, healthy meals that make plant-based eating a breeze.

grab a copy

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

Question? Ask your question here! Sarah personally answers comments every weekday.

2 Comments

  1. Kathryn Wilkinson says:

    thank you! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the chick pea tuna salad recipe and make it at least once a week.

    Reply
    1. Sarah Bond says:

      So awesome to hear!! You should try the chicken salad as well! ๐Ÿ˜€