An editor’s gotta eat, right? We’re lucky to have an endless source of inspiration in our very own food section of the mag. Here are some of the most memorable meals featured in Western Living this past year.

Our Editors’ Favourite Western Living Recipes of 2025

Midsummer Potato Salad 

I’m not afraid of any condiments (brag), but my husband is a self-described “mayo phobic” thanks to an incident at a seafood restaurant in his childhood that is too disgusting to re-tell. So as much as I love a good ol’ creamy potato salad, it’s not a dish that appears in our household too often: we dabble, instead, with tangier or oil-based options when potluck season rolls around. Molly Baz’s dill-covered, olive-oil soaked recipe was a fave this past summer, but I’ve also become smitten with the easy, crowd-pleasing summer solstice potato salad featuring in our July issue. Whole grain mustard and rice vinegar give it a pleasing punch, while sharp red onions and crunchy cucumbers add plenty of texture to the creamy, bite-sized new ‘taters. Mayo? We hardly knew ye.—Stacey McLachlan, senior editor

Roasted Beets with Cashew Cream, Pistachios and Mint

Jayme MacFayden is one of those chefs that makes it all look easy. The founder of Calgary’s Uno Pizza generously prepared a holiday feast for family and friends at designer Amanda Hamilton’s home for Western Living this year, and she put together dish after mouthwatering dish that both looked and tasted beautiful. And as she says with this one bright and beautiful beet salad, “who needs a centrepiece when you have food that looks like this?” My Slovak side embraces beets at every turn, and I’ll be happily bringing this one to my sister’s Christmas table this year—where my dairy-intolerant family will be thrilled, too. —Anicka Quin, editor-in-chief, Western Living

Watermelon Paneer Salad by chef Vikram Vij

I’m a firm believer that all salads should have fruit and/or cheese. A spinach salad is made better with strawberries and goat cheese; the peppery, bitter taste of arugula can be cut with poached pears and a creamy blue cheese and if you want to buck leaves and veggies altogether, a killer fruit salad is supreme. To my absolute delight, I happened upon beloved Vancouver chef Vikram Vij’s mind-blowing idea: what if a classic watermelon-feta salad could get an elevated Indian spin by swapping in paneer? The recipe is basically all fruit and cheese, swapping in a stringent feta for creamy, rich and bouncy chunks of paneer, drizzled in a spicy masala vinaigrette. Now that’s a salad. —Kristi Alexandra, managing editor

Devilled Beet-Pickled Eggs

I know devilled eggs have been poppin’ up all over hell and creation as of late, but I’m here to say they were one of the very first things I learned to make when I was a kid and I’ve never strayed. And perhaps no one we work with channels my inner-nostalgia with modern twists better than Julie Van Rosendaal. She is always able to bring recipes down to a series of perfectly married complex flavours with a minimum of work. This recipes is a perfect example: most chefs would find some uber-complicated way to cook beets (one of the least enjoyable things ever), then take the liquid, put it through a flux capacitor… etc. Julie? She just throws some grated beet into the pickling brine and voilà, you have a visually stunning dish that’s only a modicum of work. She even gives you an out if you don’t want to use a piping bag, which I don’t. Love—Neal McLennan, Wine & Spirits Ed.

Pickle-Brined Chicken Thighs

2025 was a banner year for pickles: pickleball, Vancouver’s first Picklefest, even Pepsi was flirting with the tangy cucumber cousin. And while that should probably repel me, I’d absolutely try it. Which is why this recipe feels like a Venn diagram of my dinner personality: pickles, grilled chicken and that sweet spot where “easy” lives. Anything Julie Van Rosendaal tells me to make is basically a personal directive, so I read this dill-pickle situation and immediately started hoarding pickle juice like it’s liquid gold. Chicken thighs, big flavour, proper kick. It’s written for the grill masters, but cast-iron people, we’re invited too. I’m genuinely salivating right now. —Kerri Donaldson, assistant editor

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