10 Comforting New Year's Day Recipes Our Readers Love

Easy, satisfying dishes for a calm New Year’s Day.

By Laila Ibrahim

Published December 26, 2025

Overhead view of a soup lifting a bite of soup — Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

After weeks of hosting, cooking, and juggling social plans, New Year’s Day tends to call for something slower and simpler. It’s a moment to reset the rhythm, make something comforting without a lot of effort, and ease back into cooking that feels grounding rather than ambitious. These are the easy, satisfying dishes our readers save most—recipes that deliver plenty of flavor while keeping things low-key and manageable.

Love these recipes? With MyRecipes, your personal home for recipes, easily save and organize your favorites, plus thousands more, in one convenient place.

Pasta al Tonno (Pasta With Tomatoes and Tuna)

Sasha Marx

With little more than canned tuna and tomato, pasta al tonno is easy, fast, pantry-friendly, and perfect for a weeknight dinner.

Pasta al Tonno (Pasta With Tomatoes and Tuna)
Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon-Egg Chicken Soup)

Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze, Food Stylist: Margaret Monroe Dickey, Prop Stylist: Claire Spollen

Avgolemono is a mixture of eggs and lemon used to thicken soups and sauces in Greece, and here it's used to make a tangy and creamy chicken soup.

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon-Egg Chicken Soup)
Sheet-Pan Harissa and Orange Chicken With Chickpeas

Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine

A marinade of harissa, honey, orange, and warm spices gives this easy sheet-pan chicken dinner a bold flavor.

Sheet-Pan Harissa and Orange Chicken With Chickpeas
Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Bean and Pasta Soup)

Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

This Tuscan-style pasta e fagioli soup is all about the beans, which are cooked to creamy, tender, and plump perfection.

Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Bean and Pasta Soup)

Continue to 5 of 10 below
Sheet-Pan Greek Chicken

Serious Eats / Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Chelsea Zimmer, Prop Sylist: Josh Hoggle

Layered with lemon vinaigrette, herbs, vegetables, and tzatziki, this sheet-pan chicken recipe turns a simple supper into a restaurant-style Greek feast.

Sheet-Pan Greek Chicken
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Potato and Kale Soup With Sausage) Recipe

Serious Eats / Eric Kleinberg

Caldo verde, a potato and kale soup from northern Portugal, is one of those dishes that seem custom-made for lazy rainy days, when you want something hearty and comforting but don't feel like putting in a ton of effort.

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Potato and Kale Soup With Sausage) Recipe
Easy Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts With Lemon and Rosemary Pan Sauce Recipe

J. Kenji López-Alt

Pan-roasted chicken with pan sauce—like this one flavored with fresh rosemary and lemon—is the ultimate weeknight staple. It's inexpensive, delicious, and takes less than half an hour from start to finish.

Easy Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts With Lemon and Rosemary Pan Sauce Recipe
Roasted Cauliflower With Pine Nut, Raisin, and Caper Vinaigrette

Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt. Video: Serious Eats Video

Simple roasted cauliflower gets dressed up with a Sicilian-inspired vinaigrette.

Roasted Cauliflower With Pine Nut, Raisin, and Caper Vinaigrette

Continue to 9 of 10 below
Hearty White Bean and Spinach Soup with Rosemary and Garlic Recipe

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

White beans in a garlicky rosemary broth with wilted spinach make for a quick and easy, balanced, and delicious 30-minute meal in a bowl.

Hearty White Bean and Spinach Soup with Rosemary and Garlic Recipe
Sheet-Pan Chicken Piccata

Serious Eats / Jatin Sharma

This dish features juicy chicken nestled in a buttery sauce, with no stovetop required.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Piccata

Explore more:

More Serious Eats Recipes