I Tried NYT Cooking’s Most Popular Recipe of 2025—Is This Ground Beef Worth the Hype?

When I’m running low on ideas for meals, one of my go-to sources for inspiration is the NYT Cooking app. With a catalog of more than 22,000 recipes, it’s hard not to be inspired! The editors recently shared their most popular recipes of 2025, and Zaynab Issa’s Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt took the top spot.

With more than 6,000 ratings, this five-star recipe certainly hit the spot with the NYT community of home cooks. Reviewers rave about how quick it is (20 minutes) and call the dish "delicious," "scrumptious," and an "all-time favorite."

In describing the recipe in her Substack newsletter, Issa says, “I love Persian koobideh kebob and would eat it 3x a week if I could." This recipe is a seasoned ground beef mixture seared until brown and crispy atop a cool, refreshing cucumber yogurt and drizzled with pomegranate molasses. Just warm up some pita bread, and dinner's ready.

How To Make Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt

The first step is to make the cucumber yogurt. Issa stirs grated cucumber, chopped mint, and finely grated garlic into plain Greek yogurt, which she then covers and chills until ready to serve. 

Next, she combines the ground beef with grated onion, turmeric, salt, and black pepper, then divides it into large chunks and sears the seasoned meat in a hot skillet. It can be tough to wait for meat to crisp in a skillet, but I urge you to let it cook and crisp up. It's an important step to get the right texture for this dish.

After crisping on the underside, the beef is flipped over and broken into smaller pieces. Issa adds walnuts and raisins to the skillet and cooks until the beef is cooked through and the walnuts are toasted.

To serve, she seasons the chilled yogurt with salt, then spreads it onto a serving platter and tops it with the crispy meat. Then, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and a garnish of fresh mint leaves complete the dish, which can be served with warm pita or rice.

What I Thought of the Recipe

With so many glowing reviews, I was excited to give this recipe a try. Though I was initially intimidated by the long list of ingredients, the prep was simple to follow, and everything came together quite easily. 

Since we are a family of three, I did deviate from the instructions slightly. Instead of serving the beef on a single platter, I plated individual portions. That's the only change I made, though—this smashed kebab recipe is well-seasoned and textured. I found it truly delicious, and I would definitely make this recipe again. 

This recipe reminded me that I need to step out of my cooking comfort zone now and again and add new flavors and ingredients to our weekly routine. Because we don’t live in a city with many options for global cuisine, if we want to try something different, we have to make it at home. I’ve already put Issa’s cookbook, Third Culture Cooking: Classic Recipes for a New Generation, on hold at my local library, and I’m excited to try more of her recipes.

Tips for Making Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt

• Chill the onion. Chilling the onion before grating helps to reduce the enzyme activity that causes eye irritation. No time to chill? Onion goggles might look silly, but they really do work.  
• Make ingredient substitutions when needed. Readers mention success with substituting ground lamb or turkey for the ground beef and using dried cherries, dried apricots, or chopped dates in place of the raisins. Balsamic glaze (concentrated balsamic vinegar) can also be used in place of the pomegranate molasses.
• Make your own pomegranate molasses. It can be hard to source ingredients like pomegranate molasses where I live. Luckily, I can easily find pomegranate juice, so I made my own pomegranate molasses at home.