The Best Food Blogs You Need To Check Out In 2021 | Bloggingtips.com

Brett has been starting, growing, and monetizing websites since 2014. While in college, he began to learn about digital marketing. After graduating, he continued to build a diverse portfolio of websites while working a full time job. After years of building the portfolio on the side, he made the jump to run his websites full time.

Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn affiliate links when you click through the affiliate links on our website

Looking for new food blogs to read? It’s always smart to read around in your niche, and even outside of it, to stay up-to-date with what’s trending, best practices, and to see how you could make your food blog stand out from the crowd.

Whether you want to start a food blog or help your existing blog flourish, you’ll find plenty of blogging inspiration here from talented food writers, bloggers, and cookbook authors.

We’ve written about our favorite paleo blogs in the past, but in this article we take a look at some of the best food blogs around, as well as lessons you can learn from each of them to help you improve your own blog.

Pro Tip: Looking to start a food blog? Getting started is inexpensive with these free blog sites for bloggers in 2022

Which Are the Best Food Blogs to Read?

Our list features our top picks of the best food blogs to read this year. Here you’ll find firm favorites like Pinch of Yum and Minimalist Baker, as well as personal recommendations like Oh Sweet Basil.

Here are our top food blogs to read in 2022.

1. Smitten Kitchen

Smitten Kitchen is a celebrated food blog by Deb Pearlman, a foodie who lives in New York City. Deb is passionate about elevated comfort food and tangible photography.

As well as blogging, Deb has published two books — The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and Smitten Kitchen Everyday, which aim to make home cooking sublime yet accessible.

Smitten Kitchen is praised for the familiar way in which Deb talks to the reader, as if they are old friends — all of her delicious recipes start with a little anecdote or story. This familiar tone instantly puts her readers at ease.

Beth Moncel is a self-taught cook who loves to budget and problem solve. Beth launched Budget Bytes in 2009 to track her food expenses and change her relationship with food. Since then Budget Bytes has grown into a wealth of resources that teach basic kitchen skills, as well as budget-conscious recipes.

Budget Bytes is extremely easy to navigate with a landing page that helps first-time users find their feet. Each category is clearly marked and Beth makes great use of customized email opt-ins which relate to the recipe content.

Minimalist Baker is a popular food blog that shares plant based recipes requiring 10 or less ingredients, or which take 30 minutes or less to prepare.

Dana is the recipe developer, content creator, and photographer behind Minimalist Baker. She’s as generous with her technical know-how as she is with her recipes. Minimalist Baker has a wide variety of resources ranging from food photography courses to “fan favorite” recipe e-books, and resources for aspiring food bloggers.

Spoon Fork Bacon was founded by Teri and Jenny — food lovers with a passion for photography. Their love of stylish details shines through, with each recipe full of texture and color.

The lack of banner ads on the blog makes for a really pleasant user experience. Unlike many food blogs, Spoon Fork Bacon makes it easy to jump to the directions with the click of a mouse.

Food 52 is a community cooking blog that strives to bring foodies together and foster a love of cooking and collaborative learning.

The blog has a clever “Hotline” category which acts a sophisticated FAQ section, reminiscent of a magazine advice column. Readers can submit questions and search previously answered queries. Community members are also encouraged to help out where they can.

This community aspect is fostered further with regular contests where readers can submit and vote for their favorite recipes.

Naturally Ella was founded by Erin Alderson in 2007. Since then it’s grown to a large resource for natural cooking and vegetarian recipes.

As well as an extensive range of recipes to browse, Naturally Ella allows readers to discover ingredients, inspiring them to find new ways to use favorite foods and ingredients they already have at home, like apples or lemons.

Naturally Ella frequently promotes their instagram account and community by encouraging readers to share recipes using the #naturallyella hashtag.

Sprouted Kitchen is a collaborative blog between Sara Forte and her photographer husband Hugh. Sara has a love of whole foods but promotes balance and a healthy attitude to indulgence.

Sprouted Kitchens recently launched Cooking Club, which makes clever use of testimonials to entice new sign ups. They also have a very comprehensive “tools” resource that details the photography and kitchen equipment the couple uses and why they rate different pieces.

It’s clear that these bloggers understand the pages every blog should have, and are very aware of design aesthetics.

Cookie and Kate is a popular food blog founded by self-taught photographer and cook Kathryne Taylor.

Cookie and Kate employs an easy-to-navigate welcome page which helps new readers get a sense for the content and how best to find something that interests them. Extensive resources are also available for aspiring food photographers and bloggers.

Cookie and Kate has a clever strategy for building internal links by creating monthly “what to cook” posts that reference older content. This is a great strategy to try on your own food blog.

Pinch of Yum is an award-winning food blog by Lindsay Ostrom, a foodie who lives in Minnesota. Lindsay features high quality photography and video into each post and allows readers to rate and comment on recipes.

Pinch of Yum also has an extensive resource page for aspiring food bloggers that covers everything from hosting to camera equipment. For further reading you can learn a lot from Lindsay’s free photography tips and her paid course.

Skinnytaste was founded in 2008 by Gina Homolka, a food lover and photographer from Long Island with a passion for sharing family-friendly healthy recipes.

Skinnytaste uses a clever recipe key to help readers navigate based on dietary requirements or lifestyle preferences.

The blog publishes a weekly meal plan which serves as a great place to promote their books, resources, previous posts, and Facebook community. This generosity combined with free resources opens up a great platform to promote their paid products.

Serious Eats is described as “a leading resource for all things food and drink.” The blog’s no-sidebar grid layout creates a sense of the site being a real authority as it reads like a magazine — full of resources and information.

Something that Serious Eats does well is attention to user experience. The menu system at the top is also clear and easy to use, and each post is marked with an badge to help readers navigate through the various categories.

Damn Delicious is a food blog aimed at the everyday home cook who wants to take their meals to the next level. There’s a focus on keeping everything as fresh, simple, and seasonal as possible — an ethos that’s reflected in the clean layout.

Founder Chungah comes from a traditionally Korean family and incorporates recipes from her childhood, making Korean cuisine accessible to a new audience. Incorporating your own heritage into your recipes is a fantastic way to bring more personality and context to your blog.

Another way that Damn Delicious helps readers to feel connected is through the use of a handwritten script font, which gives the impression of a diary.

Oh Sweet Basil is a food blog from Carrian and Cade, a couple with a mission to reinvent family meal time. Their ethos is that a family should learn to cook and eat together, and build relationships through the love of food. The couple cleverly invites the reader to become part of that family portrait by repeating phrases like “get cozy with us and join us around our dinner table.”

Within each post there are clear headings to answer common questions like “what can I serve with this?” and “can this recipe be frozen?”

When it comes to email marketing, Sweet Basil has a subtle but repeated newsletter sign up. It’s immediately visible on every page but doesn’t interrupt the reading experience.

The Recipe Rebel is a family food blog that focuses on sharing easy, balanced, fun, and creative recipes for the whole family.

Author Ashley is a self-confessed instruction avoider and advocates for using taste, sight, and touch to tweak and perfect recipes for your family. This emphasis on eliminating fuss speaks directly to her target audience — busy parents who want to make great family food quickly.

A branded recipe key helps The Recipe Rebel’s readers navigate recipes and easily find what they’re looking for.

The Pioneer Woman is a food and lifestyle blog from Ree Drummond which documents her journey from city girl to domestic country wife.

Ree incorporates a lifestyle blog in her “confessions” category where she shares family updates, funny stories, and anecdotes. This serves to really build a sense of community as her readers get to know her on a personal level.

Recipes on The Pioneer Woman are displayed in a grid format which means the reader can quickly get a sense of the content and find what they’re looking for with ease. This is popular with food bloggers as it’s a great way to showcase more of your content at a glance.

Sally’s Baking Addiction was founded in 2011 by Sally McKenney, a self-taught baker who has since gone on to pen three books. The layout of each recipe is reminiscent of a magazine, using the full width of the page to promote other recipes and Sally’s community challenges.

Sally has created a “behind the scenes” category to share more about her family life, blogging tips, and recipe development.

The blogging resources in particular are especially helpful as they focus not just on how to start your food blog but how to grow it, the struggles than can come with this, and how to monetize.

On A Cozy Kitchen, creator Arianna shares comfort food with Latin American roots.

Something you’ll notice is that the styling of the photography is highly considered. With a broad range of recipes, it’s this photography that helps them all to flow and create a sense of familiarity.

A Cozy Kitchen has a Spotify widget in the sidebar with music to cook along to, which is a really unique touch that helps to showcase the author’s personality.

How Sweet Eats is a bright and engaging family food blog by Jessica Merchant.

Jessica shares a candid look at the life of a full time blogger, and talks about how she made the leap and the sacrifices involved. There’s some really useful information here around daily routine and organization for aspiring food bloggers.

Jessica’s email opt in gives readers the choice between a daily update or a weekly digest. This is a nice way to show care for your readers and the fact that they’re busy people too.

Tartelette is a food blog by French expat Helene Dujardin, a photographer and food lover living in South Carolina.

Helene is gluten free and so a large number of the recipes she shares are too. Her recipe index is displayed in a more traditional list form, broken down into categories with minimal photography. This goes to show that just because there’s a trend for grid-style indexes you don’t always have to follow suit.

Well Plated was founded in 2012 by author Erin who is on a mission to make wholesome food affordable and delicious.

Recipes on Well Plated come with a “jump to recipe” button which allows readers to skip the story and introduction, taking them straight to the method. This is a really thoughtful way to consider your reader’s needs.

Erin has built an extensive resource page for food bloggers and photographers. Here you can learn photography tips and how to emulate her style through blog posts and resources.

Ambitious Kitchen is a health-focused food blog that celebrates the joy of cooking with whole foods, while still enjoying the occasional sweet treat.

As well as recipes, Ambitious Kitchen also focuses on technique and skills via “how to” posts like this guide on the easiest way to cut an avocado.

Nutritional information is included in all recipe cards and readers are given the option to pin content for later at the end of each post. Not only is this useful for readers but it helps to create more popularity for your content on Pinterest.

Life Made Sweeter is a blog by Kelly, a mom of two, who aims to share classic Asian recipes with a healthy twist.

The blog has a fantastic pop up email opt in which is short and to the point. It features a clear idea of what readers can expect from Kelly, as well as beautiful, eye-catching photography.

Aspiring food bloggers can take inspiration from Kelly’s engaging and uniform photography. Developing your own signature look as a food blogger can help your content to stand out when people search for recipes online.

The Daring Gourmet takes readers on a culinary adventure around the world.

Author Kelly is a master at creating very detailed and informative product reviews that add real value for the brands involved and the reader.

Her attention to detail and extensive photography helps to make the reader feel as though each collaboration is very authentic. This is a great lesson in how to do brand collaborations well.

Oh She Glows is a vegan blog by Angela Liddon, a lover of plant-based food. Many of the vegan recipes featured are also gluten free and free from processed foods.

Fellow food bloggers can take inspiration from Angela’s photography style. It’s both appealing and helpful, as she carefully documents the various stages in a recipe.

Related: Interested in photography? Check out our favorite photography blogs for inspiration

Simply Recipes focuses exclusively on food that is simple, delicious, and reliable.

Their Thanksgiving Menu Planner is particularly inspiring as it can be altered with the click of a button. This is useful for readers who want to choose between a vegetarian, traditional, or meal prep style meal. Could you create a similar product or planner for your food blog?

How Can You Become a Top Food Blogger?

Now that you’ve read through our list of top food blogs, we hope you’re full of new energy and enthusiasm to develop your food blog into one of the best. Talent, passion for good food, and blogging knowhow can soon have you winning blog awards.

To help you even further on that journey, we recommend you read our helpful guide on how to write a great blog post. It’s full of ideas and tips to help you take your next blog post from idea to something that’s likeable, shareable, and stands out for all the right reasons.

For the best of our blogging tips, don’t forget to sign up to become a VIP subscriber. It’s free, and every week you’ll receive our advice from blogging experts straight to your inbox.

We specialize in helping you to start, grow, and monetize your blog so look out for tips on how to use social media, different ways to make money blogging, and more.