The best TikTok recipes of 2021

TikTok's everywhere these days - everyone and their nan has an account (even Dame Judi Dench has been on it, look it up if you don't believe us). If you're on TikTok your feed will no doubt be full of a multitude of different recipes and food life hacks, from baked feta pasta, to pesto eggs. These are some of the most popular videos on the app and they taste delicious.

With so much content on TikTok, however, it can be a bit difficult to find the diamond in the coal as it were. Well fear not, we've done the work for you and compiled this handy list of some of our favourite TikTok recipes from 2021.

TikTok's baked feta pasta recipe

If you've been on TikTok this year, you will have definitely seen this recipe in one form or another. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the baked feta pasta recipe was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, recipe on TikTok this year.

The recipe really is as simple as it sounds. Here's the original recipe from @liemessa.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 chilli, chopped and seeded

Oregano

Pasta of your choice

A bunch of fresh basil

Salt and pepper to season

Directions:

1. Start by preheating your oven to 200°C. Fill an oven dish with tomatoes and cover in olive oil. Place four whole peeled garlic cloves on top of the tomatoes. Then place an entire block of feta in the centre of the dish and cover it in more olive oil. Top with chopped chilli if you fancy a bit of spice. Season the tomatoes and feta and add a bit of oregano - feel free to add some other ingredients such as olives to really make the dish your own.

2. Put the dish in the oven for 15 minutes. Whilst it bakes cook your pasta. You can cook whatever kind you want, be it spaghetti or penne. It's not included in the original recipe but we would recommend saving a bit of the pasta water as this will help the sauce later on.

3. After 15 minutes remove the dish from the oven. Add some fresh basil to the dish and mix everything together. You can then add the pasta of your choice. Add a couple tablespoons of the pasta water - this will help the sauce coagulate.

And then voila... There you have it: a quick, easy and most importantly delicious pasta sauce for any occasion.

TikTok's pesto egg recipe

Second to baked feta pasta this year was probably the pesto egg recipe. These TikTok recipes really do what they say on the tin and this recipe is even simpler than the last. Check out @amywilichowsky's version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

Pesto (basil if following the recipe to a T)

Salt and pepper to season

Chilli flakes

Bread of your choice

Ricotta (optional)

Honey (optional)

Avocado (optional)

Directions:

1. Start by heating a pan on the hob. Use a dollop of pesto instead of olive oil. Smear the pesto around the pan.

2. Once the pesto has had a chance to heat up, crack two eggs on top. Add some pepper and chilli flakes, and leave to cook.

3. Now would be a great time to put some toast in the toaster - in the video it looks like they use sourdough, but really the choice is yours. Whatever bread you use it will taste delicious (maybe with the exception of banana bread... although we're not going to stop you giving that a go - could be the next viral TikTok recipe?).

4. Once the eggs are cooked through, take them out the pan with a spatular and place on top of the slices of toast. You can top the toast with cream cheese, butter, or just leave plain. In the original video they use avocado and ricotta. On top of the egg you can add more chilli flakes, some salt and pepper and honey, as they do in the video.

And there you have it - pesto eggs: a quick, easy, delicious dish. Be warned though, once you start cooking eggs like this it'll be hard to go back.

TikTok's hummus pasta recipe

Another day another TikTok pasta recipe (and not the last one on this list). Hummus and pasta both make for great snacks individually, so why has no one thought to combine them? The maths definitely checks out: hummus + pasta = delicious.

Well thanks to TikTok we've been blessed with a slew of Hummus pasta recipes. Here's one of our favourites from @healthgirlkitchen.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of hummus

Pasta of your choice

Salt and pepper for seasoning

1 finely chopped courgette

1 finely chopped aubergine

Chopped mushrooms

Directions:

1)Wash and finely chop your aubergine, courgette mushrooms and add to a baking tray. Cover in olive oil and roast in the oven at 200°C for 25 minutes or until soft when prodded with a fork.

2. While the veggies roast, cook the pasta of your choice in boiling water (as instructed on the packet). As with the Feta pasta, save a bit of the pasta water.

3. Add a table spoon of hummus and a little bit of pasta water to the cooked pasta. Season to taste. You can then add some roasted vegetables to make a quick and tasty pasta salad.

TikTok's smashed potatoes

It was hard deciding which potato recipe to include in this list. Potato recipes make up a lot of food TikTok and many of them have gone viral this year. But for pure ease and tastiness, we had to include smashed potatoes on this list.

This will honestly change the way you cook roast potatoes going forward - it's incredible how such a simple change can make such a significant improvement. Check out @sometimessamaheats' version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Small potatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Fresh parsley (optional)

Chilli flakes (optional)

Directions:

1. Wash and boil your potatoes until fork tender.

2. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Transfer the boiled potatoes to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Using the bottom of a glass, press down on the potatoes until they resemble those in the video. generously cover in olive oil and salt and pepper. Feel free to add other seasoning to the party - why not add some chilli flakes for a bit of spice? Place in the oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

...And there you have it, a delicious twist on a British classic. We recommend you top with some chopped fresh parsley, but really what you do with these potatoes is up to you. Why not add them to a traditional Sunday roast?

TikTok's shakshuka

TikTok is a great place for shining some light on some great recipes from around the world, shakshuka being one of them. This dish originated in North Africa and is popular there and in the Middle East. There are many variations on it and it can be changed to be your own.

@cookingwithlynja is a great channel to follow for recipes because of the fun she injects into the videos through the chaotic editing as is the case with her shakshuka recipe.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

3 crushed cloves of garlic

1 diced white onion

1 diced red pepper

Olive oil

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon of chilli flakes

A generous pinch of salt

A few drops of green tabasco

A handfuls of fresh spinach

1 tin of plumb tomatoes (although normal chopped tomatoes will work as well)

A bit of crumbled feta (to taste)

Directions:

1. Crush a few cloves of garlic and heat in a pan with olive oil. Once brown, add the chopped onion and red pepper.

2. Once the onion and pepper have softened a bit, add the cayenne, cumin, chilli flakes, salt and a few drops of green tabasco. Leave these favours to get to know each other for around a minute or so then add a tin of plum tomatoes (although chopped tomatoes will work just as well). Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.

3. Leave the sauce to thicken for around 5 minutes then add the washed spinach - this will help the sauce thicken.

4. Cook until you can make a well in the sauce that holds its shape. Then make 3 or 4 wells and crack some eggs into them.

5. Once the eggs are poached through, crumble some feta over them, add some more tabasco if you fancy and you're good to go.

TikTok's salmon rice

Salmon rice is another recipe that was impossible to avoid this year. Like the other dishes on this list, its strength is in its simplicity. This recipe can use leftovers from another meal, namely cooked salmon and rice. Watch the original recipe from @emilymariko.

Ingredients:

Cooked salmon, chilled

Leftover rice

1 ice cube

A sheet of parchment paper

Japanese mayo (if you can't find any, normal mayo will do, but it really makes the difference)

Sriracha

Soy sauce

1 sliced avocado (optional)

Kimchi (optional)

Seaweed (option)

Directions:

1. Put the cooked salmon in a microwave proof bowl or plate and break apart with a fork. Place the cooked rice on top, put an ice cube in the middle and cover with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Put the dish in the microwave for 1 minute.

3. Once out of the microwave, throw away the ice cube and parchment paper and top the rice with soy sauce, sriracha and Japanese mayo - you can use normal mayo if you don't have this but you can definitely taste the difference (this stuff is da bomb). Serve with kimchi and seaweed, but don't worry if you don't have these lying around the house - it will taste great without. Some recipes even add sliced avocado, although this is also another optional addition.

TikTok's Zaalouk

As with shakshuka, Zaalouk blew up on TikTok through being exposed to a wider audience. The Moroccan dip is incredibly easy to make and is similar to baba ganoush. For a dish that tastes this great and is this easy to make, it's about time it made its way into more kitchens worldwide - and after reading this I'm sure it'll become a staple of yours too. Not to mention its completely vegan and super healthy. What more could you want? Check out @lahbco's Zaalouk recipe below.

Ingredients:

1 peeled and cubed aubergine

3 peeled and deseeded tomatoes (Roma tomatoes are the ones used in the recipe)

4 crushed cloves of garlic

1/3 cups of chopped parsley

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 teaspoon of coriander

1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder

2 teaspoons of salt

A big squeeze of tomato puree

1/2 a lemon juiced

Crusty bread to serve

Directions:

1. Start by peeling and cubing your aubergine. Place the aubergine in a pan with the garlic, tomato and parsley. Add the powdered coriander, cumin seeds, chilli powder and salt. Top with 1/3 cup of water an a glug of olive oil and stir the ingredients together.

2. Bring the pan to a simmer and cover. Cook for 10-25 minutes, stirring continuously.

3. Once softened, mash the pans contents with a wooden spoon. Add a squeeze of lemon and the tomato paste. Stir and add salt and pepper. And there you have it - serve with some crusty bread and some slices of lemon (optional).

TikTok's quesadilla hack

Whilst not technically a recipe and more of a food life hack, this hack dominated food TikTok this year, with variations popping up all over the app - from pizza to breakfast themed alterations. This really is one of the simplest recipes on the list and can be done using ingredients lying around the house. Whilst you can follow this recipe by @feelgoodfoodie, we recommend using it as more of a framework to make your own creations. Really go ham with this one (or veggie ham, or whatever really - any fillings will taste great).

Ingredients:

1 tortilla wrap (white or brown)

1/2 of an avocado, pitted and smashed (optional)

2 eggs, scrambled (optional)

Cheese, grated (optional)

Salsa (optional)

Directions:

1. First put your tortilla wrap on a chopping board and using a knife or pizza cutter make a cut halfway through the tortilla (the radius for all you maths nerds out there). Then put your four ingredients in each quarter of the wrap (in the TikTok video she used avocado, scrambled eggs, grated cheese and salsa, but the choice is yours).

2. Once you have done this fold one quarter over another, then fold a second time and a third time and you should be left with a quesadilla a quarter of the size of the original tortilla (this may sound confusing but it makes a lot more sense in the video).

3. Transfer the tortilla to a heated oiled skillet (or a standard frying pan) and cook on each side for a couple of minutes. And there you have it - a delicious quesadilla made easy.

Gigi Hadid's vodka pasta recipe

Yes you heard us right another pasta recipe. What can we say? Everyone loves a bit of pasta, and this is made clear on TikTok with the biggest trends this year being pasta related. Another big trend this year was Gigi Hadid's delicious vodka pasta recipe (yes you heard us right).

This recipe caught us off guard in many ways, first by the suggestion to use vodka (you know, that thing you have in shots) in a pasta sauce, then by the fact it was created by Gigi Hadid, and finally by the fact it tastes amazing. Watch @mamainthekitchen's version of this recipe and give it a try yourself.

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice

Olive oil

1/2 red onion

2 crushed garlic cloves

A big squeeze of tomato puree

1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)

2 teaspoons of chilli flakes (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoons of black pepper

235 ml of double cream

80 ml of pasta water (saved from cooking pasta in)

Parmesan

2 tablespoons of fresh basil

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of vodka (optional)

Directions:

1. Start by boiling your pasta.

2. Whilst the pasta is cooking, fry the onion in an oiled frying pan. After the onion has softened a bit, add the garlic. Once the garlic has browned but not burned, add the tomato puree, then add the salt, chilli flakes and pepper.

3. Once this has darkened add the cream and stir until combined. If you have any lying around the house this is when you can add a tablespoon of vodka and cook until evaporated but no worries if you don't - lots of recipes don't include this step.

4. Once combined, add your pasta water (which you have saved from your pasta), and the pasta itself, and mix together. Then add a bit of parmesan, your basil and butter. To finish stir the butter in and voila, there you have it: Gigi Hadid's famous pasta.

TikTok's 10 minute chilli garlic noodles

This recipe really stands out for how quick it is - at the end of it you have a proper, healthy, balanced meal made in 10 minutes. Whilst this recipe may require going to the shops and buying some ingredients you don't normally use, it is a great way to spice up your routine (in more ways than one). Check out @mikhaeats' version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of light soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon of chilli oil

1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder

1/2 tablespoon of black vinegar

1/2 tablespoon of sesame seeds

1/8 teaspoon of ground Szechuan peppercorn (or a few whole ones)

1 tablespoon of a neutral oil (i.e. vegetable oil)

Chopped spring onion (optional)

Some cucumber sliced lengthways (optional)

Directions:

1. Start by making your sauce. You do this by adding the garlic, soy sauces, black vinegar, chilli oil, chilli powder and sesame seeds to a large bowl and mixing together.

2. After this, boil your noodles, and once done remove and drain. You can have them cold or hot - if you want them cold, wash them under some cold water.

3. Then heat up your oil in a pan and pour the heated oil into your sauce.

4. Finally add you noodles and mix with the sauce. Serve with your spring onions and cucumber (both optional but add a lovely crunch to the dish so we would definitely recommend).

Tik Tok's pasta chips

Another recipe that seems to be everywhere at the moment, pasta chips are a fun twist of the classic snack. We know what you're thinking "another pasta dish?" - Well yes... technically you're right. But this snack really reinvents the wheel and is super easy to make so you should definitely give it a try. Here's @cookingwithbello's version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice (not spaghetti though)

Olive oil

A table spoon of tomato puree

A sprinkle of parmesan

1 teaspoon of paprika

Serve with pesto (optional).

Directions:

1. First boil your pasta.

2. Once the pasta is cooked, transfer it to a bowl and cover generously in olive oil, add your tomato puree, parmesan and paprika and mix it all together.

3. Transfer the pasta to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and add some more olive oil.

4. Cook at 200°C for 10 minutes or until brown and crispy. Serve with pesto or a dip of your choice. And there you have it: a great snack made from a great meal.

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It may be you're new to cooking or you might be an expert chef - whatever your experience in the kitchen you can still be surprised by a new recipe from a different part of the world or a different culture to your own. However it might just be, as is the case with many of these recipes, that you've discovered a new way of cooking with ingredients you are familiar with. TikTok has allowed many of these recipes that may have slipped under your radar to gain a new exposure.

Whilst it can seem a bit daunting knowing where to start with the shear amount of recipes out there, we recommend just going for it. If you see a recipe that interests you why not give it a go? Most of the recipes on this list can be made with ingredients found around the house and will take little to no time to make. Feel free to get creative and change these recipes up: is one of the dishes missing a little something? Why not bring your culinary experience to the table and build upon the recipes already out there? Don't be afraid to get creative.