Looking to start a food blog? It helps to look at the best food blogs to get ideas first. In this blog post, I’m going to share 16 awesome food blog examples to inspire you to build a food blog of your own.
But before I get started, let me first share with you how to start a food blog, get traffic, and monetize it.
Becoming a food blogger FAQ
Should you start a food blog?
If you want to share recipes, build a following, and make money, you should start a food blog. Rather than starting a generic food blog, it’s far better to niche down and share specific types of recipes. For example, focus on sharing healthy recipes, vegan recipes, quick and easy recipes, or flat out delicious recipes.
You’ll find it’s easier to grow a loyal following when you focus on one type only. After all, if you’re on the keto diet, you’ll want to follow a food blogger who only posts keto meal ideas.
Why food blogs are so popular
Have you ever been stuck in a food rut? You’re not the only one. When people are sick of making the same dishes every night, you need a good food blog to help you out. People are always on the lookout for ideas to start making better, healthier dishes, no matter their skill level.
If you want proof of just how popular food blogs are, take a look at Pinterest, and you’ll find food bloggers with millions of followers. Take a look at some of the top food bloggers on Pinterest.
- Averie Cooks – 700k Pinterest followers
- Local Milk – 400k Pinterest followers
- Cookie and Kate – 250k Pinterest followers
- How Sweet Eats – 500k Pinterest followers
- Vanilla Bean – 300k Pinterest followers
How to choose a good food blog name
Food blogs are known for their creative names. One of the first things to do when starting a food blog is to come up with a name for your food blog.
It might seem like all the good food blog names are taken, but that’s simply not the case. You just need to have a spark of creativity to find a name you can run with.
Look at other food bloggers, including the ones on this list of the best food blogs, for ideas. And when you’re stumped, use your first name such as “Cooking with [Name].”
How to start a food blog
To start a food blog, you’ll need a domain name and a hosting account to start. I recommend starting with HostGator.
Once you’ve chosen a domain name, HostGator will set up your WordPress blog, so you’ll be ready to go from the jump.
To design your food blog, choose a blog theme. I recommend using the Astra Pro theme and their starter templates to get a perfectly designed food blog set up in minutes.
How to get traffic to a food blog
As I mentioned earlier, Pinterest is a very popular place to find recipes. As you would expect, food bloggers flock to Pinterest to share their latest content.
When you write a blog post, use Canva and their Pinterest templates to create multiple pins promoting your post. Then upload these pins to Pinterest, making sure to spread them out. Since it can be a challenge to keep a consistent pinning schedule, I recommend using a Pinterest scheduler like Tailwind.
But to get a huge boost of Pinterest traffic, I recommend taking part in Tailwind Communities. In Communities, food bloggers get together in niche groups and share each other’s pins to help grow each other’s blogs. You can imagine just how powerful it is to have your pins shared by some of the bigger food bloggers.
Grow your blog by automating your Pinterest marketing strategy with Tailwind!
How to make money with a food blog
Getting traffic to a food blog shouldn’t be too hard. Monetizing it, though? That’s the challenge. After all, when people are looking for recipes, they just want the recipe, then they leave your site. Trying to sell something to these visitors is going to present a challenge. Luckily though, there’s an easy way to make money with a food blog.
To monetize a food blog, sign up with a display ad network. When you monetize with an ad network, you get paid for every pageview the ads appear on. This way, you can focus entirely on putting out great content while allowing the ad network to worry about the ads side of things.
16 best food blogs: Ideas and examples
Sprouted Kitchen
Married couple Sara and Hugh Forte run sprouted Kitchen. Sara has always enjoyed cooking, and in this blog, she creates posts about using cooking to slow down and enjoy time together as a family. She strongly believes that taking care of yourself through food is part of the overall mindfulness picture, and that comes through in her posts. Hugh adds to the blog with his excellent camera work, providing photos of the entire cooking process.
If you want to see more from the Sprouted Kitchen, they’ve published two cookbooks and a weekly meal planner called the Sprouted Kitchen Cooking Club. These are well worth checking out if you like what you see here.
I Am A Food Blog
The name of this blog says it all, really. It was set up by writer Stephanie Le, who soon found a huge following and has even won awards such as the 2014 Editor’s Choice award by Saveur Magazine.
If you like Asian cuisine, then this is the blog for you. There are tons of Asian-inspired recipes here, from small-batch Japanese cheesecake to coconut chicken ramen.
On top of the recipes, there are also lots of posts about travel. If that’s your thing, then you’re going to have a great time checking out this blog.
Recipe Girl
Want to find a recipe for a dish you want to try? Sick of making the same things over and over again? Then you’ll want to try out Recipe Girl. There are over 3000 recipes here, so whatever you’re into, you’ll find a recipe here that suits you.
The blog makes it very easy to find what you’re looking for. There’s the option to search the recipes by cuisine type, ingredients, meal type, and courses. It makes it very easy to find something that suits your needs perfectly.
There are also blogs on travel and lifestyle here, so there really is something for everyone. Take a look and see what they can offer you.
Budget Bytes
The problem with some food blogs is that they feel so inaccessible. There are so many ingredients, some of which aren’t easily found in your local supermarket, and they’re often way too expensive. What can you do?
The answer is to check out Budget Bytes. This was set up by blogger Beth Moncel, a self-taught cook who wants to bring her knowledge to you. She created the site to keep track of her own food expenses and change her own relationship with food. Now, she offers meal ideas that won’t break the bank, which is excellent for those on a budget.
It’s really easy to get around the site, and you’ll be able to find everything you need with ease. If you want help with meal planning, you can use opt-in emails to get even more ideas.
Sweet As Honey
For those on special diets, such as low-carb diets, keto diets, or diabetic-friendly diets, sweet treats don’t feel like something you can enjoy. However, this blog aims to change all that. Sweet As Honey brings you baking recipes that offer you the sweet treats you want, and they’re all special diet-friendly.
Even if you don’t need to be on a specific diet, it’s always a great idea to try out some healthier versions of old favorites, too. This blog shows you that baking healthier treats are very much possible, and you can still enjoy the desserts you love.
Minimalist Baker
Are you looking to lead a plant based lifestyle? Then you need to check out the Minimalist Baker. This blog focuses on plant based recipes, so you can find tasty meal ideas that are totally vegan and veggie friendly.
As well as the recipes, there are other resources you can check out here too. These include food photography guides and ebooks that are full of fan-favorite recipes.
It’s easy to navigate around and check out some recipes, so take a look and see what strikes your fancy here.
Love And Lemons
This is another excellent blog if you’re vegetarian and want more meal ideas. Most of the recipes here are vegetarian, and they’re all delicious. The blog itself has been run since 2011, so there’s plenty of recipes in the archives for you to put to the test.
The blog is an award winner too, having won Readers’ Choice Best Cooking Blog by Saveur Magazine in 2014 and a Saveur’ Editor’s Choice award in 2016.
If you want to find a recipe, the site makes it easy to do so. You can search via season, holiday, special diets, meal types, and more.
Smitten Kitchen
This blog comes from New York based writer Deb Perelman, and it’s an excellent blog for those who are just learning to cook. She makes a point of only using commonly used ingredients, so you won’t be searching high and low for a specific ingredient that you’ll need to make that one dish.
There are lots of tutorials here too, so you can find out how to poach an egg or make the best tart doughs. Whatever you want to learn, it’s going to be here for you.
You can easily search through the site’s recipes here using the easy-to-use search engine, so you’ll always find something that looks tasty.
101 Cookbooks
This blog was created when writer Heidi Swanson looked through her huge collection of cookbooks and decided it was time to start trying out the recipes in there. The blog is an exploration of the books in her collection, trying out recipes and perfecting them.
Thanks to her collection, she now has over 700 recipes on the blog for you to check out. These can be searched by category, season, or ingredients. These days, she focuses on recipes that she has devised herself and posts about her travels and interests. It makes a fascinating read as you see her journey.
Thanks to the vast amount of recipes here, you’re always going to find something that suits your tastes and diet on this blog.
Closet Cooking
Do you live in a home with a tiny kitchen? That doesn’t mean that you have to go without tasty meals, as blogger Kevin Lynch proves here. He started his blog to create more interesting meals, even with a small amount of equipment to hand.
There’s no denying that he hasn’t put his heart into it. Right now, there are over 2600 recipes on the blog, which is incredible. If you feel somewhat overwhelmed, though, don’t worry. He’s listed his 100 favorite recipes, so you can start there if you want to try something out.
This blog proves you don’t need to have a huge kitchen and all the latest gadgets to create the best meals around. You can get cooking, even if you only have a small space to do it in.
Serious Eats
Are you looking for resources to teach you the basics of cooking? Then Serious Eats is where you need to be. Their blog is dedicated to taking a serious and thoughtful approach to cooking. To that end, they’ve created a whole section dedicated to tutorials and how-to guides. If you want to know how to grill food or perfect your eggs, this is the place to be.
Of course, there are so many recipes you can check out too. They’re organized by category into Chicken, Pizza, Pasta, Cocktails, Burgers, Sandwiches, Desserts, and Salad. Whatever you’re looking for, it’s probably here waiting for you.
On top of this, you can check out their features section. This has in-depth posts on topics like food history and ingredients, so they’re well worth a read.
Damn Delicious
Damn Delicious is one of the best food blogs around and another blog that’s perfect for the up-and-coming cook. A whole team of cooks work to upload the very best recipes here, giving you inspiration for meals every day. They’re headed up by blog founder Chungah Rhee, who writes on the blog and shares pictures of her beloved Corgi Butters.
As well as the recipes, you’ll find step-by-step guides which are perfect for those just getting started and need a little extra help. You can also find videos here too, which are brilliant for those who learn better by watching a cook make a meal.
Two Peas and Their Pod
Looking for meal ideas for the whole family? Then you’ll love this blog, run by married couple Maria and Josh Lichty. They have a focus on creating simple, healthy meals that everyone in the family will love. You can find pretty much any meal you can think of here, from main meals to desserts, special occasion recipes, and more.
One of the highlights of the site is the cookie section. There are over 200 recipes for cookies alone here, so if you want to enjoy a home-baked cookie, you’re in the right place.
If you want more, you can sign up to the Sweet Peas Meals section. This is a paid-for service that creates meal plans for the week, complete with ingredient shopping lists and guides for making the meals. If you’ve ever wanted to try something new and don’t know where to start, this will be the place to be.
Green Kitchen Stories
Green Kitchen Stories was developed to help bring more sustainable meals to people reading the blog. Writers David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl include recipes that are vegetarian and organic, and they use whole foods wherever possible.
You don’t have to worry about being an expert cook, either. They aim to create meals that are simple to recreate in your very own kitchen. It makes it very easy to start cooking more healthily, and use foods and ingredients that are better for you and the earth.
They split up their recipes into some exhaustive categories so that you can find sweet recipes, breakfast, drinks, and even more. It’s very simple to find just what you’re looking for here.
Food52
As a blog, Food52 is as interactive as it gets. The site is designed to help beginners in the kitchen and give them the answers they’re looking for when they’re starting to cook. If you have any questions, you can browse the ‘Hotline’ section. This acts as a magazine write-in feature. Readers ask questions, and other readers jump in with the answers where they can.
There are more community features too, where you can vote for recipes that readers themselves submit. There’s a real sense of coming together and creating excellent recipes as a community, which is great to see.
Thanks to this community, there’s a huge range of recipes to check out. You can browse through all the entries and find something that you’ll love here.
The Recipe Rebel
Do you find using recipes too restrictive? For some, it’s hard to follow recipes as they feel too constricting, and it’s very reminiscent of being at school and having to follow the rules. The Recipe Rebel does away with all that, advocating for cooks to use their senses to get an idea of what they should add to their meals.
It’s also designed for busy parents that just don’t have time to follow intricate instructions. Instead, all the fuss has been cut out, leaving just the basics for you to build on.
Wrapping it up
There are so many food blogs out there that help their readers start cooking and creating healthy, delicious meals. Use this guide on the best food blogs to help inspire you to start a food blog of your own!
Until next time,
Edwin, DoSixFigures.com
This is wonderful advice for anybody running a business or professional practice.