Most Popular Recipes of 2011

Happy New Year's! I hope that everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve and that 2012 will bring you lots of happiness, love, success, and great food!

Like most other bloggers do around this time, I wanted to celebrate the start of a new year by looking back on the most popular recipes of 2011, according to the readers (and my Google stats). I must say that you guys have excellent taste in recipes - these were all some of my favourite meals of the year too!

Without further ado, here are the most popular recipes from last year, counting down from Number 10:

10. Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Ravioli

This was my first time making ravioli and I was thrilled with the results! The creamy, rich pumpkin and goat cheese filling was so good that the ravioli didn't need anything other than a simple drizzle of olive oil and some grated parmesan to go with it.

9. African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

This is a slight adaptation of one of my favourite recipes from the taste space, and you guys seemed to really like it too! This dish is the perfect winter comfort food: warm, hearty, rich, and filling, with the added bonus of being healthy too!

8. Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup

I was surprised at how incredibly flavourful this soup was with so few ingredients. It's definitely one of my favourite soups I've ever made - in fact, I'm surprised I haven't made this again recently .. I may have to add it to this week's menu!

7. Chicken and Apple Sauté

This was another simple and healthy dish that was still full of flavour. I was surprised at how popular this recipe was, but I guess it shows that people always need recipes for quick and easy weeknight meals. One of my blogging goals for 2012 is to try to include a lot more recipes like this!

6. Roasted Vegetable Galette

I made this dish as part of my Thanksgiving Week of recipes as an idea for a vegetarian main course, but this is so good it definitely shouldn't be considered only for Thanksgiving! Roasted vegetables are amazing on their own, but wrapped in a buttery crust and topped with goat cheese, they enter a whole new level of deliciousness!

5. Apple Pie Smoothie

I had too many apples than I knew what to do with in the Fall, but instead of turning them into a rich dessert, I decided to try to replicate the flavour of apple pie in a healthy smoothie. I'd say the experiment was a big success, and it looks like you guys thought so too!

4. Beet Hummus

This recipe became quite popular after being shared on Glamour magazine's health & fitness blog, where they raved about this "hot pink hummus". I was thrilled to be featured on their site, but even more thrilled that this hummus was being shared with so many people because it's not only a gorgeous colour, but it tastes amazing!

3. Spicy Pumpkin Hummus

Hummus seems to be a popular food with you guys, as 2 of the top 5 recipes on my blog were for hummus. This spicy pumpkin hummus has a very subtle hint of pumpkin but is full of flavour and was the perfect snack for Fall.

2. Gingerbread Crepes with Eggnog Whipped Cream

These crepes were the result of one of my first attempts at creating an original recipe from scratch, and I was so proud of the way they turned out! The chocolatey gingerbread crepes were so good that I ate them as a snack on their own, but when filled with an eggnog whipped cream, they transformed into quite an amazing holiday breakfast. I was so honoured to have them featured in Eat in Eat Out's premiere issue .

1. Hidden Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

The most popular recipe by far this year was these delicious little pepperminty cookies. They were based off one of my favourite holiday cookie recipes, but instead of putting the candy cane kiss on top of the cookie, I hid it inside. I ended up liking this version even better than the original and made them at least a few times this year. I can guarantee that they're going to be first on my list of cookies to make when the holidays roll around again next year!

Next up I'll be rounding up my own top 10 favourite recipes of 2011, so stay tuned!