Sweet-and-salty potato chip cookies and a healthful, restaurant-style tuna salad were among the most popular recipes we published this year.
Each year, we publish dozens of new recipes, and it’s always fun to see which ones resonate the most. This year, our biggest hits were both from Minnesota-based Food Network star Molly Yeh. (I’ve made her Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies at home and can vouch: They’re fantastic.) But there are some sleepers on the list too, including an elegant Four Bean Salad with Tuna from Iowa City wine bar Plated Table and a super easy weeknight sweet potato soup. Happy cooking!
Rhubarb Rose Bars
This year, Molly Yeh—Food Network star and owner of Bernie’s in East Grand Forks, Minnesota—published Sweet Farm!, her third major cookbook. After we chatted with Yeh about that project, these pretty-in-pink rhubarb bars became our top-clicked recipe of 2025. They’re a dreamy spring dessert, with rhubarb’s natural tartness softened by coconut, rose, and vanilla bean.
Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies
The second Molly Yeh recipe to top our list is this fabulously excessive cookie. “Everyone knows that a salted chocolate chip cookie is ideal, but when the salt is delivered in the form of a potato chip? Forget about it!” Yeh writes in her book. We couldn’t agree more—and neither could you, it seems.
Four-Bean Salad with Tuna and Toasted Coriander Vinaigrette
Three-bean salad, you’ve met your match. This recipe created by chef Alex Smith, of the Iowa City wine bar Plated Table, features a quartet of beans, plus fennel, radishes, oil-packed tuna and heaps of fresh herbs.
Smoky Beef Chili with Beans and Sweet Peppers
This deeply flavorful chili made with beef stew meat became an instant hit when we published it this fall. The recipe comes from Pasture and Plenty, a cafe and prepared foods shop in Madison, Wisconsin. File it away now for all future tailgates and Halloween chili cook-offs.
Shepherd’s Pie with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Another Pasture and Plenty recipe slipped in right behind the chili: this old-fashioned shepherd’s pie. It’s made with ground beef and lamb and seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, onion, tomato paste, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. Add cheesy, creamy mashed potatoes, and you’ve got a comfort food winner.
Apple, Cheddar, and Sweet Potato Soup
This delightful weeknight soup—ready in under an hour—has swept away all our tasters. Cheddar cheese and a dash of smoked paprika keep it firmly on the savory side of sweet. Pair it with bread and a salad for a perfectly cozy menu.
Flourless Brownies
Gluten-free desserts are a perennial reader favorite, and we added a great new one to the collection this year with these super chocolatey, almond-based brownies. Even if you can eat flour, these are worth baking.
Spinach-Artichoke Strata
As soon as our longtime recipe developer Emily Paster pitched her idea for a breakfast casserole inspired by spinach-artichoke dip, we knew we had a winner. Like all stratas, it can be prepared the night before and baked in the morning for a low-effort brunch.
Peanut Butter and Cheez-It Cookies
A standby in the case at Crème, a bakery in Des Moines, these chunky cookies marry sweet and salty, with bright orange cheddar cheese crackers crumbled through the dough (along with peanut butter chips for extra flavor). They’re huge—plan to share with a friend.
Salted Watermelon with Mint, Honey and Olive Oil
This no-recipe recipe will become your go-to summer appetizer. It’s just cubes of chilled watermelon drizzled with honey and olive oil, then topped with flaky salt and mint…