Since Broadsheet launched in 2009, we’ve published hundreds of recipes from dozens of top chefs. Scrolling through them all gives a snapshot of where our eating habits have taken us – both in terms of what’s on our plate and the venues we’ve loved – over the past 15 years: the nation’s 2010s obsession with “stoner” food and fried chicken, the era when creativity on the breakfast scene was hitting new heights, through to a rising awareness of native ingredients. Then there are the Covid years, when we were all working from home, looking for whatever kitchen shortcuts we could find.
Through all the dining trends, venue openings and closings, and love affairs with certain modes of eating, a clutch of recipes have proven to be standouts. And, perhaps signifying the global upheavals of recent years, the most popular recipes on Broadsheet have been heavy on comfort: lots of cheese, bowls of pasta, potatoes aplenty and some sweet treats sprinkled in as well. Here we’ve collected the 15 most popular recipes from 15 years of Broadsheet.
If you’ve ever asked “how good can a potato really be?” this recipe – the most popular ever published on Broadsheet – is your answer. Broadcaster Annabel Crabb’s “glass” potatoes are so named for their bottoms: “a translucent, crackling, toffee-coloured brittle delight”. Just don’t skimp on the salt and oil.
Take rich, flavourful cauliflower cheese, wrap it in filo and you have this hot mess of a pie by Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad. Jazzed up with curry powder and English mustard, it’s also great if you’re feeling a bit lazy. and its “scrunched up” edges are part of the charm.
It seems Broadsheet readers love an Ottolenghi pie. This one takes the layers of breaded eggplant, cheese and tomato sauce of an Italian-American eggplant parmigiana and tops them with crunchy kataifi (or string) pastry for a deeply delicious – and meatless – dinner party centrepiece.
Having a great lamington recipe in your arsenal is almost as important as a go-to roast chicken technique or your mum’s spag bol method. And this one, by Beatrix’s Nat Paull, is a classic: fluffy sponge sandwiching homemade strawberry jam, coated in chocolate icing and encased in coconut. It’s a labour of love that is well worth the effort.
If you’re going to make a chocolate cake, it may as well be “the fudgiest of all the chocolate cakes”. Which is precisely what this can’t-stop-at-one-slice bake is, according to its maker Nadine Ingram. And she’d know: she’s the founder of beloved Sydney bakery Flour and Stone, where the counter is a riot of Sydney-famous sweet treats.
Just a few ingredients are all it takes to pull together a classic spaghetti carbonara – but there are several ways it can go wrong (hello, scrambled eggs and split sauce). This recipe, from Sydney pub The Dolphin, helps you dodge any possible pitfalls and offers a bonus tip to inject your pasta with extra flavour.
This recipe is a version of a dish created by a family-owned restaurant on the Amalfi Coast – Stanley Tucci recently declared it one of the best things he’s ever eaten. The original recipe is kept under wraps, but Danielle Alvarez’s take is, luckily, a less closely guarded secret.
Potato cake, potato scallop, potato fritter – we might have a never-ending nationwide debate about what these deep-fried spud rounds are called, but we can all agree they’re a marvellous invention. Adam D’Sylva’s recipe leans heavily on the batter to guarantee the correct crispiness and avoid any unnecessary greasiness.
Brownies are a dime a dozen – that’s why it’s good to have a brownie recipe that’s head and shoulders above the rest. This one by Natalie Paull of Beatrix is exactly what you want. For starters, it has a perfectly fine-flaked top and a special method for keeping the brownies soft for longer. Plus, it has the potential to be endlessly adapted.
Got a barbeque coming up? This corn will really get the party started. Charred sweet kernels with a hint of smoky paprika are amped up with a tangy sour cream dressing and a hit of lime for good measure.
Crisp shards of flatbread, sprinkles of toasty almonds and dollops of tangy yoghurt come together in this crowd-favourite take on fatteh from Melbourne’s Moroccan Soup Bar. The caramelised almonds are what really make this dish shine.
This warming Ottolenghi recipe is a twofer: not only does it yield a series of eggplants wrapped around paneer (or tofu, if that’s more your bag), but it also includes a zingy coconut dal that’s brilliant all by itself.
The first rule of nailing this rich butter chicken is to use bone-in chicken thighs to pack in the flavour. And never, ever use chicken breasts. Amandeep Sharma, a former Attica chef, would make this as a staff meal for his fine-dining chef colleagues. It was a massive hit – and you’ll find it’s just as popular when you make it at home.
At the time of writing, this perfectly textured risotto from Adam Liaw has only been on Broadsheet for a little over a year. Yet it’s already one of our most popular recipes of all time, testament to the faith home cooks everywhere have in the cookbook author and TV host’s meticulous, foolproof recipes.
In our mind, summer is ripe for minimalist cooking: few ingredients, not much use of the stove and speedy enough that you’re not cutting into beach time. This recipe from Brisbane’s Botanica ticks all those boxes, as well as a fourth one: it packs big flavour.
