Back in the day, every kitchen would have a shelf crammed with cook books. These grease-stained, dog-eared volumes held time-honored recipes passed down the generations. However, while many of us might still treasure that favorite fruit cake recipe written in Grandma’s faded cursive, in 2022 most people’s culinary output would go to pot—and not in a good way—without the internet.
Over a third of Americans prepare meals at home every day. And over 70% of home cooks prefer to find recipes online rather than in books (sorry, Grandma!) That’s a lot of potential traffic for your website, but how can you tempt recipe hunters your way?
We’ve scoured the web and rounded up ten of the best food blogs so you can see what makes them so successful. So without further ado, let’s dig in to our top ten food blogs:
Inspired Taste
Inspired Taste was launched in 2009 by food-loving couple Adam and Joanne Gallagher. They use the blog to share foolproof recipes that cater to everyone, even options for vegans, vegetarians, and anyone on a restricted diet (e.g., low carb and dairy free.) With video guides or step-by-step photos, their recipes are easy to follow, and many of them suggest variations so that users can adapt the recipes to their own preferences. We fell in love with this Dreamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.
Pinch of Yum
“Simple recipes made for real, actual, everyday life” is the headline for Pinch of Yum, a blog that aims to provide exciting but approachable recipes. The site offers multiple ways to browse recipes—by ingredient, diet, meal type, etc. Founder Lindsay started the blog as a hobby but ended up quitting her teaching job to grow it as a business. Anyone who can create a 5-star recipe for Brussels sprouts gets our vote!
Elana’s Pantry
Elana Amsterdam is a champion for paleo and keto diets and her blog, Elana’s Pantry majors on wholesome, unprocessed ingredients. Her Keto Blueberry Lemon Bread proves that recipes don’t have to be complicated to be healthy and delicious. In this one, you literally throw all the ingredients in a food processor!
Well Plated by Erin
Well Plated is another hugely successful blog that started out as a hobby. Its creator Erin Clarke was motivated by a desire to share satisfying, wholesome meals that anyone could afford. Erin’s style is chatty and instantly relatable, so reading her recipes feels like getting good advice from a best friend. A typical example of her fare is this Italian Sausage and Rice Casserole; it’s healthy, tasty, and cheap, with only one pan to wash up afterwards.
Damn Delicious
Sophisticated meals from simple ingredients; that’s what Chungah Rhee promises and delivers, in her colorful blog. Yet another success story that grew out of a hobby, Damn Delicious is now run by a team of writers, recipe developers, photographers, and food stylists. As well as hundreds of quick and easy recipes, the blog includes snippets from Chungah’s home life, often featuring the antics of her adorable corgis, Butters and Cartman. These Korean Beef Power Bowls offer a taste of what’s in store at Damn Delicious.
Closet Cooking
Most of the blogs we’ve spotlighted here picture their writers posing for the camera in a spacious, well-equipped insta-worthy kitchen. But not Closet Cooking! The writer of this blog proves that anyone can create innovative, tasty meals, even if they only have ten inches of counter space to work from! When cooking turned from a necessary chore into an obsession for blogger Kevin, he vowed never to eat a boring meal again. If his Chicken in Creamy Parmesan and Sundried Tomato Sauce is anything to go by, he’s definitely sticking to that pledge.
Skinny Taste
Gina Homolka’s goal in developing Skinny Taste was to provide a source of light, healthy, family-friendly dishes with all the flavor of their full-fat counterparts. As a mom of two, Gina shares a few tricks for sneaking extra veg into kid-friendly recipes, like this one for Sloppy Joes. Busy cooks can eliminate the time and stress of meal planning by browsing Gina’s selection of ready-made weekly meal plans.
David Lebovitz
Lebovitz is an authority on all things food and drink, with several books to his name to prove it. Every recipe on the David Lebovitz blog offers a tantalizing glimpse of his life in Paris and culinary adventures around the world. Although French cuisine is clearly his greatest passion, the recipes include many favorites from his childhood in the US, including this one for Boston Cream Pie.
A Cozy Kitchen
Adrianna Adarme makes no claims about health benefits for the sugar, butter, and flour laden recipes you’ll find at her Cozy Kitchen blog. But she does promise they will always be comforting and cozy; what more could we wish for? This seasonal Pumpkin Coffee Cake has a spiced-up espresso filling and a melt-in-the-mouth streusel crumb topping.
Minimalist Baker
Minimalist Baker is a must for those who want to keep their cooking simple. Every recipe on the site has no more than ten ingredients, can be prepared in a single pan, or takes less than 30 minutes to make. This Easy 1-Pot Black Bean Soup ticks all three of those boxes! A color-coded key indicates which diets each dish is compatible with, so it’s easy for users to find suitable recipes.
Round Up of the Best Food Blogs
With thousands of recipe blogs to choose from, there’s certainly no shortage of culinary inspiration on the web. So what can you do to get your site to rank among the top food blogs?
The blogs explored here all use high quality photography to great effect. As well as showcasing the finished dishes, these bloggers include stunning images of their fresh ingredients and helpful step-by-step pictures.
Moreover, each of these blogs has an engaging, relatable person at the helm. The content is written in a conversational style that makes the blogger seem more like your best buddy than a cooking coach.
Whether you’re a food blogger yourself or a budding chef keen to widen your culinary repertoire, you’re sure to find platefuls of inspiration in these top ten food blogs.
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