My 10 most popular recipes from my first year of blogging

Welcome to part 3 of my birthday blog content! In case you haven’t heard (seriously – have you been hibernating??), it was my blog’s first birthday on Friday and I’m not very good at confining birthday celebrations to just one day at the best of times, so obviously I really, really wanted to thoroughly celebrate my little blog’s first birthday – so welcome to day 3 of my week long blogging bonanza!

Today I am going to be sharing my 10 most popular recipes from my first year of blogging. I must confess to you that ever since I started blogging, I have been obsessed with stats… I just can’t help looking at them…everyday…usually several times a day! I find them fascinating…you can learn so much – how many people are looking at my blog, where they’ve come from, how old they are…what device they are using – even where they go next! And one of the things I find particularly interesting is which are my most popular recipes…it’s not always the ones I would have thought!

My 10 most popular recipes from my first year of blogging

So here…in reverse order…are my 10 most popular recipes from my first year of blogging  (you have to do your own drumroll…)

10. Slow Roast Ras el Hanout Lamb with Pomegranate and Quinoa Tabbouleh

My favourite recipes are the kind that look fancy but are in fact incredibly simple to do. This recipe is most definitely one of those. The lamb is simply coated in Ras el Hanout (a North African spice blend, easily available from supermarkets), and then popped in the oven for 3 hours to do its thing. The result is meltingly tender lamb, deliciously infused with the flavours North African spices…and a very relaxed chef!

9. Sweet Potato Chilli with Brown Rice and Avocado Salad (vegan)

I am a huge fan of chilli. I’ve shared several different ones on my blog, but by far and away the most popular one on Easy Peasy Foodie is this sweet potato and pinto bean version. I’m not surprised, though – it is delicious, very easy to make, super healthy and happens to be gluten free, dairy free and vegan!

8. Moroccan Lamb Stew and Jewelled Couscous

For a long time this was my most popular post. And it’s still hanging on in there in the top 10. This is easily one of my favourites – the long slow cooking creates incredibly tender lamb which is complimented beautifully by the Moroccan spices, aubergines and chickpeas. The jewelled couscous is the perfect accompaniment and is just so pretty! A great one to do for a dinner party too – most of the cooking (and washing up!) can be done ahead of time, leaving you free to relax and chat to your guests.

7. Quorn Chicken Pie (veggie)

Hugely popular, this recipe has been in my top 10 since I first posted it. It’s easy to see why – it’s totally delicious and very easy to make. It can also be easily adapted to make a meat version and is perfect for using up leftovers from your Sunday roast.

6. Vegetable Mole (vegan)

I love this recipe, but I’ve been quite surprised just how popular it has been on my blog – I thought it was a bit ‘niche’ when I posted it, but clearly that’s not the case! This recipe was inspired by a recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks – My New Roots by Sarah Britton – which I reviewed earlier this year. It’s full of delicious flavours, such as cumin, cayenne pepper, sweet potatoes, red peppers, kidney beans and coriander – not to mention cocoa powder – perhaps that’s why it’s so popular?!

5. How to Make Sprouts Interesting (7 recipes: some veggie, some not)

I really enjoyed putting this post together – though it did involve me eating sprouts for lunch for about a week! In this post I have shared not 1, not 2 but 7 deliciously different sprout recipes, including Stir Fried Sprouts with Ginger and Chilli, Sprout and Leek Colcannon and my personal favourite: Pan Fried Sprouts with Leek and Bacon. Enough to convert even the most ardent sprout hater, surely?

4. Easy Peasy 5 Ingredient Creme Egg Chocolate Tart

Not very hard to see why this recipe made the top 10! Not only is it insanely delicious, it’s also ridiculously easy and takes just 10 minutes to make. The only downside is that each slice contains about a zillion calories!!

 3. Chicken in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce

This is a really quick, but totally delicious way of cooking chicken breasts. The chicken is first fried for a few minutes then poached in stock. Add a few mushrooms and a dash of cream to make a luxurious creamy mushroom sauce to go with it. A very decadent midweek meal, ready in under half an hour! I like to serve it with some rice and a few green beans.

2. Best Banana Bread Ever

Back in February I reviewed an organic box from Riverford Organic Farms. There were 4 bananas in our box and I decided to make banana bread with them. However, I wanted to make my banana bread slightly healthier…so I decided to use brown self-raising flour, rather than white, and use slightly less sugar and butter than I would usually use. I also chucked in a handful of mixed seeds (I got that idea from Jamie Oliver’s banana bread recipe in his brilliant cookbook: Everyday Super Food). The recipe just ‘worked’ and is easily the best banana bread I’ve ever made. Since then I’ve had a few comments from readers who have made it – telling me it’s the best banana bread they’ve ever made too!

1. Quick Chicken Curry

Tada! My most popular recipe by far. This is a super simple curry to throw together. It takes well under half an hour and only uses 6 ingredients. It’s perfect for midweek dinners when you don’t have much time but still want a proper home cooked meal.

Well, it seems veggie/vegan recipes are popular, as are chicken and curry recipes plus desserts and slow-cooked lamb – expect to see more of all of these on Easy Peasy Foodie in Year 2…along with a whole lot of other exciting stuff! I wonder if any of these will still be in my top 10 in year 2? If there’s something you’d love to see on Easy Peasy Foodie, just drop me a line and I will do my best to create it for you!

Oooh and don’t forget to come back tomorrow when I’ll be sharing all the things I’ve learnt about food photography in my first year of blogging.

Missed parts 1 and 2 of my blogiversary bonanza? Check them out here…

Part 1: 10 things I have learnt from my first year of blogging

Part 2: 10 Highlights from my first year of blogging

See you tomorrow!

Eb x