Another year has come and gone, and while a lot went down in 2024, there is something that stayed the same: we spent a ton of time looking for new recipes on TikTok, and thankfully, creators delivered. Thanks to some of these viral recipes, we tried foods we’d never even heard of before. Some made it into our regular rotation (looking at you, cucumber salads and Turkish pasta), while others were worth trying once but not necessarily something we’d want to have again. But what these viral TikTok recipes all have in common is that they got us into the kitchen to try something new, which is always a plus in our books.
From new ways to cook staple vegetables, meal prep options that never get boring, high-protein snacks, and intriguing chocolate treats, these foods had us drooling over our phones all year. Take a look at some of our favorite viral TikTok recipes of 2024 below, and brace yourself for the urge to start cooking.
Onion Boil
The viral onion boil isn’t actually boiled, but it does get seasoned with the same spices you might find in a shrimp boil. It’s a whole, slightly hollowed out onion stuffed with butter and sprinkled with a bevy of seasonings before being wrapped in foil and baked for an hour until tender. Some folks then top it with seasoned garlic butter. Eat it alone, with toasted sourdough, over rice, or as a side dish…but only if you really, really like onions.
Cucumber Salad
TikTok user Logagm went viral for his cucumber salads that show you how to eat an entire cucumber, and he shared recipes ranging from a copycat Din Tai Fung cucumber salad to a California roll-inspired cucumber salad (that video got more than 40 million views!). We were so inspired, we even made a cucumber salad recipe roundup for everyone going gaga over his recipes.
Olympic Chocolate Muffins
Athletes at this year’s summer Olympics were treated to a new sweet in the Olympic Village — decadent chocolate muffins. They became so popular (Olympian Henrik Christiansen posted a whole series of TikToks devoted to the chocolate muffins) that copy cat recipes started popping up on TikTok almost immediately.
Dubai Chocolate
The Dubai Chocolate Bar from Nuts Factory in NYC captured chocolate-lovers’ imaginations on TikTok this summer, thanks to its unique texture and flavor combination. The bars feature Belgian milk chocolate that’s stuffed with imported pistachio cream mixed with crispy kataifi phyllo dough “noodles,” offering a blend of creamy, crispy, and melt-in-your-mouth textures.
Tini’s Mac & Cheese
Once the weather turned cold, everyone’s mind turned to comfort food. Case in point? TikToker Tini (tinekeyounger) shared a super creamy mac and cheese recipe that went wildly viral. Her video had more than 132 million views and 13 million likes, and we saw so many people sharing their experience of making the recipe for Thanksgiving in their own videos. Want to make it for yourself? You can find the run-down of the recipe here.
Dense Bean Salads
We’re always looking for nutritious but genuinely delicious meals we can meal prep on the weekend, and TikToker Violet Witchel (violet.cooks) hit the mark with her series on Dense Bean Salads. These salads are loaded with beans, vegetables, whole grains, flavorful meats, and get tossed with satisfying dressings. They hold up in the fridge for days, and are loaded with protein and fiber to keep you full and energized. You can find some dense bean salad recipes to try for yourself here.
Bone Broth Hot Chocolate
There are some TikTok food trends that go viral that we don’t necessarily want to try for ourselves, but lots of people swore that the viral bone broth hot chocolate was the best of both worlds — a soothing, collagen and protein-packed drink that has the nostalgic holiday hot cocoa flavor we all grew up loving.
Round Swamp Chicken Salad
Bethenny Frankel made the Round Swamp Chicken Salad go viral. It’s from a shop in the Hamptons, and she praised its moist but “mushed up” texture. This summer, lots of TikTokers hopped on the band-wagon, sharing copy cat recipes for those of us who can’t get to the Hamptons or afford $16 chicken salad.
Buttered Noodles
How can something so simple go so viral? Well, it turns out that pretty much everyone has a soft spot for buttered noodles, and recipes on TikTok sharing ways to amp up the flavor of this nostalgic classic had us running to the kitchen to whip up an easy, comforting buttered noodle dinner. The key is boiling the pasta in butter and broth so that it picks up extra flavor as it cooks, and so that the pasta starch mixes with the broth and butter to make a creamy, emulsified butter sauce.
Turkish Pasta
We had never heard of Turkish pasta before, but the weeknight meal potential of this savory recipe made it go totally viral. Ground beef is seasoned with a touch of curry powder and cooked until crispy and brown, then tops off a bowl of pasta along with a garlicky Greek yogurt sauce, a paprika butter sauce, and a fresh topping of parsley and chopped tomatoes.
Cottage Cheese Everything
Cottage cheese got a bad rap for years, thought of as diet food or grandma food or both. But this year, it soared in popularity on TikTok, mostly thanks to its versatility when making high-protein recipes. Some you can try include these high protein cottage cheese wraps, cottage cheese chicken dip, and crispy cottage cheese crackers.
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