Reddit’s New Year’s Cooking Resolutions: What Home Cooks Want for 2026
Every January comes with the same question: What do I want to do better this year? When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, home cooks on Reddit aren’t focused on trends or perfection.
When we asked r/cooking about their cooking goals for 2026, the responses felt grounded and refreshingly honest. Instead of big declarations or flashy ambitions, people talked about small, meaningful shifts: cooking with what they already have, paying closer attention to what works, and being more thoughtful about waste, time, and effort in the kitchen.
Taken together, these goals point to how people want to show up in their kitchens next year: a little slower, a little smarter, and more connected to the food they’re making.
Cooking With Intention
One of the loudest themes across these New Year’s cooking resolutions was resourcefulness. A lot of cooks admitted to a habit that feels almost universal: hanging onto ingredients because you don’t want to “waste” them, only to forget about them entirely. Half-used bags, specialty flours, jars pushed to the back of the pantry, all waiting for the right recipe or the right night that somehow never shows up:
“Use up the last of things 😳I have a habit of wanting to save ingredients for something great and then I just don't finish them. But that ends now!!!!”
Another commenter echoed the same goal even more simply:
“Not to let any food go to waste. Use everything up!”
That idea stretched beyond leftovers and into pantry clutter. Several people called out the mystery items shoved to the back of cabinets, the ones purchased with ambition and forgotten with guilt:
“Actually use the ‘why the heck did I ever buy this?’ things in my pantry that have taken up space for too long. I have no idea how I came into possession of that 5-lb bag of chickpea flour but I'm going to find a use for it in 2026!”
The takeaway here is clear. For many home cooks, the goal isn’t more ingredients, it’s better relationships with the ones they already have.
Making Room for More Veggies
Eating more vegetables came up often as a New Year’s food goal, but not in a rigid, all-or-nothing way. Instead of talking about cutting things out or forcing dramatic change, people focused on familiarity, exposure, and patience, especially when cooking for kids or hesitant eaters:
“Incorporating more veggies. Which is hard because my husband turns his nose up at most of them…But I want my 1 year old to like veggies!”
That simple intention sparked a thoughtful response from another user, who offered a mindset shift rather than a specific recipe or trick:
“For picky eaters and kids, putting something on the table 10–15 times makes it familiar, and they're more likely to try it.”
It’s a reminder that change in the kitchen doesn’t always come from a single breakthrough. Sometimes it’s repetition, consistency, and trusting that tastes can evolve over time.
Writing Things Down (So the Good Stuff Isn’t Lost)
Another theme that surfaced was documentation. Several people talked about wanting to stop relying on memory alone and start writing things down, not to be perfect, but to learn from themselves:
“I want to start a culinary journal. Nothing fancy, just a log of what I've been cooking with notes on what I did differently this time around. I'm getting tired of repeating mistakes and not being able to reproduce successes.”
That desire to capture what works took on more emotional weight when the conversation shifted to family recipes and legacy:
“I’d like to get recipes on paper. I won’t be around forever. I want my young adults to have them.”
Another Redditor echoed the same feeling:
“I want to compile old family recipes into a book for safe keeping.”
Food isn’t just fuel. It’s memory, history, and connection. For many cooks, 2026 is about making sure those stories don’t fade.
Committing to the Process
Many Redditors aren’t just chasing better results as part of their New Year’s resolutions for 2026, they’re committing to the work it takes to get there. A lot of these goals center on slowing down, practicing regularly, and sticking with something long enough to see real improvement. Bread, unsurprisingly, came up often, especially as a symbol of patience and repetition:
“I would like to start making really good homemade focaccia bread for paninis.”
Others set broader challenges, like committing fully to a cookbook rather than skimming a few favorites. One user compared it to a beauty trend called Project Pan, where people finish products entirely before buying new ones:
“I want to make full use of my cookbooks, not just select one or two recipes from them.”
Underneath it all is a shared mindset shift. Less jumping around, fewer shortcuts, and more confidence built through repetition and follow-through.
Cooking Beyond Comfort Zones
Alongside the desire to slow down, many Redditors also listed New Year’s resolutions centered on widening their perspective in the kitchen. For some, that means intentionally stepping outside their usual rotation and using food as a way to explore new cultures and flavors:
“Try to cook a dish from a random country every month.”
Others framed this curiosity closer to home by focusing on where their ingredients come from and how they source them:
“Getting better at using/sourcing fresh, local ingredients.”
Whether it’s learning a dish from a new country or building relationships with local producers, the common thread is intention. People want to cook with more awareness, ask more questions, and feel connected to what’s on their plate, not just fed.
Reading Between the Recipes
Taken together, Reddit’s New Year’s cooking resolutions for 2026 aren’t about perfection. They’re about care. About paying attention, using what you have, writing things down, and passing knowledge forward. Letting food be practical, but meaningful too.
There’s a clear shift away from chasing the next big thing and toward building habits that actually last. If these goals tell us anything, it’s that the future of home cooking isn’t flashy. It’s thoughtful, resourceful, and deeply personal.
Here’s to a year of finally using the bag of chickpea flour, baking the bread, saving the recipe, and remembering what worked so it can be made again. Cheers!