r/52weeksofcooking • u/didiwritesomething • 2h ago
r/52weeksofcooking • u/52WeeksOfCooking • Dec 08 '25
2026 Weekly Challenge List
/r/52weeksofcooking is a way for each participant to challenge themselves to cook something different each week. The technicalities of each week's theme are largely unimportant, and are always open to interpretation. Basically, if you can make an argument for your dish being relevant to the theme, then it's fine.
- Week 1: January 1st - January 7th: Inspired by a Joke
- Week 2: January 8 - January 14: Singaporean
- Week 3: January 15 - January 21: Contrasts
- Week 4: January 22 - January 28: Vinegar
- Week 5: January 29 - February 4: Ugandan
- Week 6: February 5 - February 11: Hotpot
- Week 7: February 12 - February 18: Sugar
- Week 8: February 19 - February 25: Flying
- Week 9: February 26 - March 4: Braising
- Week 10: March 5 - March 11: Turnips and Radishes
- Week 11: March 12 - March 18: Oddly Named
- Week 12: March 19 - March 25: Fictional Places
- Week 13: March 26 - April 1: Chilis
- Week 14: April 2 - April 8: Hanami
- Week 15: April 9 - April 15: Syrian
- Week 16: April 16 - April 22: Infused
- Week 17: April 23 - April 29: Alpine
- Week 18: April 30 - May 6: Bucket List Destination
- Week 19: May 7 - May 13: Tricolor
- Week 20: May 14 - May 20: Jams and Jellies
- Week 21: May 21 - May 27: Symmetry
- Week 22: May 28 - June 3: Fifteen Minutes or Less
- Week 23: June 4 - June 10: Coffee
- Week 24: June 11 - June 17: Tarot
- Week 25: June 18 - June 24: Gardening
- Week 26: June 25 - July 1: High-fiber
- Week 27: July 2 - July 8: World Cup
- Week 28: July 9 - July 15: Wild West
- Week 29: July 16 - July 22: Offal
- Week 30: July 23 - July 29: Science Fair
- Week 31: July 30 - August 5: Cantonese
- Week 32: August 6 - August 12: Gimmicks
- Week 33: August 13 - August 19: Lost in Translation
- Week 34: August 20 - August 26: Trinidadian
- Week 35: August 27 - September 2: Rolling
- Week 36: September 3 - September 9: Ginger
- Week 37: September 10 - September 16: Same Longitude
- Week 38: September 17 - September 23: High-hydration dough
- Week 39: September 24 - September 30: Pears
- Week 40: October 1 - October 7: Cottagecore
- Week 41: October 8 - October 14: Velveting
- Week 42: October 15 - October 21: Taro
- Week 43: October 22 - October 28: Y2K
- Week 44: October 29 - November 4: Southern Italian
- Week 45: November 5 - November 11: Nuts
- Week 46: November 12 - November 18: Cocktail Party
Join our Discord to get pinged whenever a new week is announced! (React to the stickied comment in the #planning channel!)
r/52weeksofcooking • u/Agn823 • 5d ago
Week 43 Introduction Thread: Y2K
This week we're going back 10 years (don't correct my math, I'm pretty sure it's correct) to an era of butterfly hair clips and low rise jeans. This was a time where people thought computers would literally stop working because computer systems would confuse 2000 with 1900. Planes, banks, and power grids were all part of the panic. Meanwhile, we were busy downloading songs one at a time on LimeWire and hoping nobody picked up the landline.
In terms of food trends of that era: Think cosmopolitans, molten chocolate cakes, sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto everything. Also popular were Dunkaroos, Bagel Bites, blue raspberry anything, Starbucks Frappuccinos, Atkins and low-carb everything. If you remember eating it at the turn of the century, it counts!
r/52weeksofcooking • u/tmo308 • 1h ago
Week 40: Cottagecore - 전복내장죽 (Abalone Guts/Intestines Porridge), 감죽 (Persimmon Porridge), and a Mulled White Wine Toddy (meta: with a drink)
r/52weeksofcooking • u/Pinkbasil • 3h ago
Week 41: velveting - pepper chicken stir fry
Certainly made the chicken a lot more tender - good experiment!
r/52weeksofcooking • u/gaclyn • 15h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Spinach and Artichoke Dip
I remember this being served at every single party from 1999 New Year’s Eve to well into the mid 2000s. And while spinach and artichoke dip never dies, it always takes me back to the Y2K.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/tacoquokka34 • 10h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Caveman turkey bacon sandwich with slayer slaw
r/52weeksofcooking • u/MiddleZealousideal89 • 18h ago
Week 43: Y2K - 🎶 My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard 🎶
r/52weeksofcooking • u/morelbolete • 7h ago
Week 43: Y2K- Pizza bagles
A party snack I could have made in this year :) Child helped and loved eating them of course.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/my_dys • 12h ago
Week 42: Taro - Cottage Pie-Esque Stuffed Potatoes Topped with Taro Pommes Aligot
I went into this challenge planning to make cottage pie-style stuffed potatoes topped with a potato-taro mash. After cooking and mashing the taro, I wasn't a fan of the texture on its own, so I pivoted and turned it into taro pommes aligot instead. For me, that solved the texture issue.
Crispy potato skins were hollowed out and stuffed with a cottage pie-inspired filling of ground turkey, onions, garlic, peas, carrots, fresh herbs, and a super-thick pan gravy. The potatoes were then topped with a cheesy taro-potato aligot, finished with Parmesan and green onions.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/stupidestnameever • 22h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Pepperoni Pizza Lunchables (meta: things I couldn’t eat while pregnant)
Homemade marinara (my son’s favorite food right now!) and some quick plain naan breads. Delicious :)
Meta explanation: cold pepperoni is discouraged during pregnancy
r/52weeksofcooking • u/Appropriate-Cry3445 • 13h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Cooking Light Raisin-and-Pine Nut Stuffed Peppers
From the Best of the Year 2000 Cooking Light magazine. Also fully made in a microwave, which was a shock.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/upliftingsuspenders • 15h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Emergency Stockpile Destash Tuna Curry on Rice
r/52weeksofcooking • u/BoredOfTheInternet • 14h ago
Week 43: Y2K - Warm Tuscan Chicken & Roasted Vegetable Wrap on a Sun-Dried Tomato Tortilla
r/52weeksofcooking • u/MelleMigo • 19h ago
Week 40: Cottagecore - Lentil Sweet Potato Roast with Cauliflower and Tempeh (Meta: Cookbook)
Recipe from the cookbook "Love is Served". This was really delicious and I will def make it again.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/andsometimesnot • 21h ago
Week 42: Taro - Arbi Masala (meta: UTSSS)
* The roundish fish-cake looking pucks on the plate are Taro. The rest is edible.
As someone who was the farthest thing from a picky eater, Taro or Arbi was the bane of my young life! The strange fibrous, pulpy mush often disguised as potato would find itself on my lunch plate after a gruelling day of alphabet, addition, painting and softball at school… destroying everything I knew and loved! Yea, I hated it.
And I must be young at heart because nothing’s changed and I still hate it, although I really tried to do everything to give the recipe every chance I could. I steamed and mashed it with tempered spices, rolled it into fritters and pan fried them. It’s meh with a hint of 🤢. Seekh kababs, daal, tomato chutney, cucumber and onion salad, and paratha saved lunch today.
My meta is UTSSS or Use that sexy stupid stuff- to try to incorporate some of the many, many ingredients I’ve collected over time but haven’t used at all or enough.
Meta ingredients used in this recipe: mustard oil and carom seeds.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/MelleMigo • 19h ago
Week 42: Taro - Nirvana Latte wirh Taro Boba Pearls (Meta: cookbook)
Latte Recipe from "Vegan for Youth". The Taro Boba was the only way for me to get sth Taro lol
r/52weeksofcooking • u/MelleMigo • 19h ago
Week 41: Velveting - Lava Tofu on Panang Curry (Meta: Cookbook)
Curry recipe from a curry cookbook. The lava tofu is my version of realising the theme without using meat. It didn't turn out quite as gooey as I'd hoped, but it was still very soft and delicious! Lava Tofu recipe from "Wendy the food scientist"
r/52weeksofcooking • u/pawyer25 • 1d ago
Week 43: Y2K - Garden Pesto made in the Original Edition Magic Bullet
r/52weeksofcooking • u/RainbowDillo • 20h ago
Week 42: Y2K - shake n bake fail
I was pregnant in the year 2000 and figuring out how to be a stay at home mom. Dinner was shake n bake, a lipton sidekick and frozen microwaved veggies. Or maybe some KD if I was feeling especially tired.
I attempted to do this again but make jt better. Somehow, I channeled my inner 2000 bad cook so hard that this meal was TERRIBLE. Worst thing I’ve made all year. Somehow the pork chops were soggy and the Mac n cheese was dry. Steamed the frozen veg, so that was about as good as could be expected.
Thankfully I only disappointed 2 friends and one kid this week.
r/52weeksofcooking • u/aryn240 • 22h ago
Week 43: Y2K - TteokboKKi with Yams
Hey, I know sweet potatoes aren't yams, but this theme was tough give me a break