My most-cooked recipes and pantry MVPs

What were your dinner staples this year?

You’ve made it. We are here at the end of whatever this year was, and this week feels like a brief respite from looking ahead. I hope you have some quiet time with a good book, or some quiet time in the kitchen, or some rowdy time with good friends, or whatever you need right now.

My most-cooked recipes of the year

I always preach keeping a greatest-hits list around, collating the recipes your household deems winners. Yes, you have to actually write it down, because then, when you just can’t think of dinners to cook, it’s right there, in your notes app or your planner or your Google docs, with ideas aplenty.

I try to get this list from my podcast guests each week, too—in part, that’s what this newsletter is. (If you’re new here, welcome!)

Of course a lot of our dinners were improvised: I make taco-ish salads with chorizo and beans and cabbage on repeat, same with pasta, sausage, beans, greens.

But these are a few of the recipes I cooked most in 2024.

Zaynab Issa’s Gochujang-Sesame Noodles (BA) I usually add baked tofu.

Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Ginger-Peanut Warm Kale Salad (via Anna Jones)

Sasha Marx’s Al Pastor Skewers (Serious Eats) This marinade is also great on roasted mushrooms for a veg version; sometimes I purée a bit of the pineapple in, too.

Nobu’s Miso-Marinated Black Cod (The Kitchn) I usually marinate just the night before, but it’s always great.

Carolyn Gratzer Cope’s Instant Pot Pulled Chicken (Umami Girl) I find this is even better after sitting overnight in the cooking liquid.

Zoe Barrie Soderstrom

’s Easy Dumpling Noodles (TikTok) Simple gingery cabbage + garlic chives + ground meat + noodles. I fuss with sauce a bit depending on what’s in my fridge.

Julia Turshen’s Turkey Meatballs with Gochujang Glaze (You’ll have to buy her excellent new book, What Goes With What, to get this one, but I promise it’s worth it—one of my most-cooked-through books of the year!)

Molly Baz’s Slow-Roasted Salmon With Harissa (BA) Sometimes I go even slower and lower, more like 250°.

Lidey Heuck’s Easy Banana Bread (NYT Cooking) I make this at least once a month; it’s the snack my kid brings to school most often. I have adjusted my version a bit over the years, using yogurt instead of sour cream and oil instead of butter. Sometimes I roast the bananas first to really bring out their sweetness.

Molly Baz’s Pumpkin Bread With Salted Maple Butter (BA) Fabulous even if you skip the butter and pepitas for everyday snacking.

Tell me: What were your go-to recipes this year?

Most popular episodes of The Dinner Plan

I’ve so enjoyed talking to cookbook authors this fall, and couldn’t pick a favorite episode if I tried. But if you want to tune in to the most-listened-to episodes so far, start with these:

Prep-Ahead Thanksgiving and More With Dan Souza
There are some smart tips here for all kinds of hosting—and you can grab Dan’s crowd-favorite cauliflower soup recipe here.

What NYT Cooking’s Editor in Chief Actually Makes for Dinner
Emily Weinstein shares her weeknight rotation and most beloved cookbooks—plus the reason she actually prefers a galley kitchen.

Julia Turshen Won’t Make Lasagna for a Meal Train
Not that she doesn’t love lasagna!

The Flavor-Packed Sauce Betty Liu Puts on Every Vegetable
Betty Liu is the author of My Shanghai and The Chinese Way—and a busy surgical resident. So she has some insights on cooking when time is tight.

Zoe Barrie Soderstrom Gives Meal Planning the Restaurant Treatment
A great resource if you’re thinking about doing more meal planning in 2025.

This newsletter contains affiliate links; you probably know how this works by now. I receive a small commission from your purchases.

Pantry empties

I’m doing a bit of kitchen organizing right now, and it’s clear that some ingredients have been in very heavy rotation around here.

Achiote powder / annatto for the al pastor above.

Sweet potato starch (via local Chinese market) for exceptionally crispy tofu, riffing on

Kristina Cho

’s recipe.

Brooklyn Delhi’s Chickpea Tikka Masala pouches—I usually bulk up with tofu for a quick dinner.

These fabulous red pepper flakes.

Three-year aged doubanjiang (great for mapo tofu!)

Greatest kitchen upgrades

We’d been using a fridge water dispenser (given old pipes, we weren’t that surprised when our water tested positive for small amounts of lead.) But I hated using all that fridge space and constantly having to lug it across the kitchen. So we recently invested in this undersink contraption and it’s pretty much life-changing. Water! From a tap! Who knew?

I also didn’t feel great about boiling water in an electric kettle that had some plastic parts inside. Using this new kettle from Fellow feels truly luxurious, and offers temperature control for teas that don’t want actually-boiling water.

What you’ve been buying

I often link to books in these sends—don’t forget there’s a whole list of every podcast guest’s most-recommended cookbooks here!—but the most-purchased item from across my two newsletters this year is this little Champagne stopper.

Perhaps you need one for New Year’s Eve?

I want to thank each of you for listening and reading as I fumble through and figure out how to make a show and keep it going after years of building things for other people’s companies. I hope you’ve found some dinners you love here.