All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (2024)

Table of Contents
Salads and Sides Chicory Salad with Persimmons, Pomegranates, and Walnuts Creamed Spinach Fall Greens and Apple Salad Mashed Potatoes with Melted Leeks Roasted Cauliflower with Cilantro-Pecan Pesto Jumble of Sweet-and-Sour Onions Entrees Fettuccine with Squash & Pistachio Pesto Grilled Steaks with Celery and Anchovy Salad Pasta alla Gricia with Silvered Sugar Snap Peas Salmon with Roasted Grapes and Arugula Salad Braised Short Ribs with Pear, Ginger, and Star Anise Lamb and Pomegranate Shawarma Chicken Scaloppine with Mushrooms Chickpea and Spinach Orecchiette with Crispy Lemon Bread Crumbs Leek, Lettuce, and Fava Soup Dessert Spiced Persimmon Slab Pie Comice Pear Clafoutis Date and Tamarind Loaf Pear Sorbet Apple Oven Cake Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Brittle

From apple cake to comforting braised short ribs, these dishes will become your new fall classics.

The month of October brings pumpkin spice lattes, carving sessions, spooky season, the list goes on. Along with some seriously tasty seasonal drinks, autumn also offers a handful of fruits and veggies that hit peak seasonality during the prime fall month when leaves are changing color.

If you haven’t visited an apple orchard to pick your own basket of the fruit this season, take advantage of some of the best in the West—you can then whip up an apple oven cake or toss the freshly picked fruit into a salad made with fall greens.

When your sweet tooth hits around the end of the month and you’re trying to keep your hands out of a bag of candy, grab a couple handfuls of pumpkin seeds saved from carving and make a batch of cinnamon pumpkin seed brittle instead. Share the brittle with friends, bag them up to send to family, or save them all for yourself to snack on whenever you need a sweet treat (we won’t judge).

Outside of the desserts and candies, you’ll want to be baking and making to share (or not): Chicories, persimmons, cauliflower, leeks, and pomegranates are at their peak. Dive headfirst into fall with a homemade coursed dinner starting with a leafy green and persimmon salad, followed by lamb pomegranate shawarma. Finish the night off with a glass of sparkling red wine and pear sorbet.

The sun is setting earlier, the days are feeling shorter, and soup is making its way into season. We’ve got a unique soup to get you started as you transition from summer gazpachos and into warm and cozy dishes with flavor combinations including lettuce, leeks, and fava beans. Whatever you’ve got a craving for this month, we’ve got a recipe based on seasonal offerings to help you curb it. Keep scrolling for all of our favorite recipes to make in October.

  • Salads and Sides
  • Entrees
  • Dessert

Salads and Sides

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (1)

1 of 6Thomas J. Story

Chicory Salad with Persimmons, Pomegranates, and Walnuts

Fruits, nuts, Fuyu persimmons, and two kinds of chicory (frisée and radicchio) go into this seasonal and generous salad that’s still light. Toss it at the last minute so it stays crisp.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (2)

2 of 6Victor Protasio

Creamed Spinach

At Alfred’s Steakhouse in San Francisco, the creamed spinach looks like it’s from 1960, but it appeals to modern palates hungry for big flavor: It’s made with a smoky bacon-fat roux, plus fennel pollen and chile for spark. Although this recipe is labor-intensive, it’s worth it.

More Videos From Sunset

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (3)

3 of 6Romulo Yanes

Fall Greens and Apple Salad

A big, colorful salad is a welcome sight at any dinner table. The rich cheese and ginger-apple cider dressing unite the fruit with the greens.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (4)

4 of 6Angela Brassinga

Mashed Potatoes with Melted Leeks

Leeks can be difficult to clean, but they’re worth the effort for their sweet, subtle yet unmistakable flavor. Cooked until very tender and almost caramelized, they blend beautifully with mashed potatoes.

5 of 6Ren Fuller

Roasted Cauliflower with Cilantro-Pecan Pesto

Blanching the cilantro for the pesto helps prevent it from oxidizing, making for a pesto that can be stored in the fridge for a week or more. Instead of parm, this Mexican-inspired recipe uses cotija cheese and more commonly found pecans instead of pinenuts.

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6 of 6

Jumble of Sweet-and-Sour Onions

This colorful medley of small onions adds a sweet-tart note to a fall dinner. It tastes best with small, regular shallots (about the size of a walnut in its shell) to the supersize ones. The small type is firmer and blends better with the other onions.

Entrees

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (7)

1 of 9Annabelle Breakey

Fettuccine with Squash & Pistachio Pesto

Cooking with store-bought cubed squash saves time on weeknights. You can sub in almonds or walnuts for the pistachios if you’re trying to avoid an added trip to the store—though they add a delightful delicate flavor.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (8)

2 of 9Annabelle Breakey

Grilled Steaks with Celery and Anchovy Salad

This is a dinner for people who have big appetites (or are on the paleo diet). If you want less meat, just grill two steaks and cut them in half. Also, cutting the celery by hand gives you neater, crisper pieces than if you use a handheld slicer or a food processor.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (9)

3 of 9Laura Dart

Pasta alla Gricia with Silvered Sugar Snap Peas

“Pasta alla gricia is a very simple Roman pasta dish consisting of guanciale (cured pork jowl) and pecorino. As I do with many traditional Italian dishes, I use the classic as a springboard for improvisation,” says chef Joshua McFadden of Ava Gene’s in Portland. “Here I add very thinly sliced snap peas, which creates an amazing texture as well as adds a fresh green note to the otherwise quite rich pasta. And I use my Cacio e Pepe Butter as a perfect shortcut, once again demonstrating that a well-stocked larder means delicious food in minutes.”

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (10)

4 of 9Annabelle Breakey

See Also
Thai Chicken Coconut Soup Recipe :: gluten free, dairy free, autoimmune option

Salmon with Roasted Grapes and Arugula Salad

In this healthy weeknight dinner, thyme and arugula keep the sweetness of the grapes in balance. Plus, nearly all the cooking is done on a single baking sheet.

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5 of 9Victor Protasio

Braised Short Ribs with Pear, Ginger, and Star Anise

This Chinese-inspired take on short ribs gets its freshness from Bosc pears cooked in the sauce, plus more pears on top in a raw relish. If you have time, cook the recipe a day ahead. The flavors will be deeper, and you can more easily lift the fat from the sauce.

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6 of 9Iain Bagwell

Lamb and Pomegranate Shawarma

For the easiest prep and biggest hit of flavor, slather the meat with tangy pomegranate-molasses marinade ahead of time; ditto for the tahini dressing. Then it’s quick to grill! Slice the lamb, mix it with mint, pomegranate seeds, and the dressing, and set it out with lettuce and warm pita bread.

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7 of 9Annabelle Breakey

Chicken Scaloppine with Mushrooms

Pounded thin, chicken thighs cook fast and stay moist. The lemony sauce is great with a side of asparagus, though in cooler months when asparagus might not be easy to find you can saute dandelion greens of kale the same way.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (14)

8 of 9Caitlin Bensel

Chickpea and Spinach Orecchiette with Crispy Lemon Bread Crumbs

Layered flavors give this hearty vegan dinner depth: sweet onion, fire-roasted tomatoes, garlic, red chiles, and black olives. If you’re an omnivore, try adding a couple of minced anchovy fillets; they add savory oomph without noticeable fishiness.

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9 of 9

Leek, Lettuce, and Fava Soup

To keep the color in this mild spring soup bright, use a deep green head of lettuce, cooking it only enough to wilt it, and peel favas shortly before using them.

Dessert

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (16)

1 of 6Thomas J. Story

Spiced Persimmon Slab Pie

Our favorite new way to serve Fuyu persimmons (the ones that look like tomatoes) is in this juicy, spicy pie, which accents their delicate fruitiness with cinnamon and lemon. For the best flavor, let the persimmons ripen at room temperature until they’re bright orange and have a slight give; this may take as long as a week.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (17)

2 of 6Victor Protasio

Comice Pear Clafoutis

Somewhere between a custard and a pancake, you’ll find clafoutis. This version of the classic French dessert, made with slightly floral Comice pears, is best when the stem end of the pears yields slightly to the touch, signaling that the fruit is flavorful but neither hard nor squishy.

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3 of 6Nik Sharma

Date and Tamarind Loaf

The inspiration for this cake is a sweet chutney made from dates and tamarind, which is commonly served as a dipping sauce with samosas and other fried snacks. It’s served well with a dust of confectioners’ sugar or drizzle it with a little kefir crème fraîche.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (19)

4 of 6

Pear Sorbet

Light and refreshing, this sorbet is a delightful way to end a heavy meal. If you want to serve sparkling wine with the sorbet, choose one that’s sweeter than the one in the sorbet. Extra-dry sparkling wine is actually sweeter than brut. (We liked Chandon Riche extra dry for this recipe.) Pear juice may be substituted for sparkling wine.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (20)

5 of 6

Apple Oven Cake

This puffed pancake works nicely as either an elegant brunch dish or a rustic dessert.

All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking Before October Is Over (21)

6 of 6

Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Brittle

This warmly spiced brittle also makes a crunchy garnish for your holiday dishes or as a centerpiece for your fall tablescapes.

Keep Reading:
  • fall food
  • fall recipes
  • pumpkins
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