These Are All The Most Viral Recipes Of 2023

12 mn read

From “Girl Dinner” To Everyone’s Favorite “Feel Better Soup,” These Are All The Most Viral Recipes Of 2023

There was no shortage of food trends in 2023 — even if you had no idea some of these even existed.

Sometimes it feels like just yesterday we were all sitting in our homes whipping up Dalgona coffee and feeding our sourdough starters. Then we blinked, it was suddenly almost 2024, and we’ve yet again wrapped up another year of new food trends. So in the spirit of reminiscing, we wanted to bring you all the foods and recipes that we believe defined 2023, whether you loved them, hated them, or have never even heard of them. With that being said, here’s what was all over our For You Pages this year — in no particular order:

1. Cottage Cheese (In Everything)

the author holding up a spoonful of cottage cheese ice cream

2. Lemon Possets

@nurhkasim / Via tiktok.com

Touted for being an easy dessert with minimal ingredients, lemon possets blew up over the spring and summer. Possets actually originated as an English drink often made with warmed milk, curdled with alcohol and spices.Today, we know them to be the fun custard dessert often served in aesthetically pleasing hollowed-out lemon shells. And if you want to make ’em yourself, all it takes is heavy cream, sugar, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Personally, I think it’d also be fun to try this with different types of citrus since it’s a great (and easy) way to be introduced to homemade custard.

 

3. Upside Down Puff Pastry Tarts

three upside down puff pastry tarts with nectarines and powdered sugar

4. Çilbir (Turkish Eggs)

@gilliehouston / Via tiktok.com

Though this simple Turkish dish has been around forever, it became the “it” egg dish and brunch recipe of choice in 2023. With a base of garlicky yogurt (or labneh), runny poached eggs, warmly spiced olive oil, and a smattering of fresh herbs, Turkish eggs made the rounds across social platforms in a truly inspiring way.If you haven’t yet tried Çilbir, this is your sign to do so — just serve with plenty of crusty bread for mopping up all that lusciously zingy yogurt.

5. Girl Dinner

@liviemaher / Via tiktok.com

Girl dinner has to be the most controversial, yet relatable, trend we’ve seen this year. The meals ranged from snack plates with a semi-charcuterie vibe to buttered noodles to just a simple bowl of popcorn. The trend started with creator Olivia Maher, who showed off her “girl dinner” of a glass of wine, a few grapes, bread, and a block of butter.From there, a trend (and VERY popular sound) was created. But it didn’t come without criticism. BuzzFeed writer Natasha Jokic spoke to a few dietitians who called out the potentially problematic messaging of showing seemingly low-nutrition foods and labeling them as “girl dinner.”

But some praised it for showing the realistic side of FoodTok when you don’t have the time or energy to cook. And, TBH, as a lunch hater, a loaded snack plate sounds kinda perfect.

6. Chopped Italian Sandwiches

author holding a sandwich on a toasted sub roll with various chopped Italian sandwich ingredients inside

7. French Yogurt Cake (Gateâu au Yaourt)

@condimentclaire / Via tiktok.com

Gateâu au yaourt is a classic French recipe and was popularized on TikTok by the one and only Condiment Claire. The beauty of this cake is that it uses the magic of ratios to measure everything out with whatever yogurt pot you have on hand. There’s no fancy method involved either: Everything gets dumped in one bowl (sometimes in no particular order) and mixed together.The result? A super moist snacking cake that’s as perfect for breakfast as it is for dessert. My mom (Claudia, here!) has been making this since I was a kid — she adds some orange zest which I’d highly recommend. It always comes out flawless.

8. Ice Cream Fruit Roll-Ups

9. Frozen Yogurt Bars

@kaylaskitchandfix / Via tiktok.com

There was just something about homemade frozen desserts during the summer that had everyone in a chokehold. The original version of these frozen yogurt bars came from @kaylaskitchandfix, who created one with a mix of yogurt, peanut butter, chocolate chips, protein powder, and a magic chocolate shell.Similar to the influx of cottage cheese desserts, the “protein-ified” aspect of it all appealed to a lot of people — 4 million to be exact. And once that video went viral, other home cooks were inclined to make their own. Some stuck to Kayla’s original peanut butter-chocolate combo, and others created fruit-filled versions.

10. Big Mac Smashed Tacos

author holding out tray of big mac tacos with cheese, mac sauce, and shredded lettuce

11. Diet Coke “Recipes”

@hauskris / Via tiktok.com

If you’re not crafting a personalized recipe to obtain the crispiest Diet Coke ever — and yes, crispy is the only adjective to use here — you’re doing it all wrong. We reached peak Diet Coke in 2023, mostly thanks to Diet Coke fanatic and TikToker @hauskris, who inspired countless others to settle for nothing less than the coldest, crispiest, most refreshing Diet Cokes every time they prepared for a DC break.The ingredients:

 Super cold can of Diet Coke

 Pellet ice

 Frozen glass

 Frozen limes

• packet of crystallized lime juice

• Glass straw

(Sorry, no substitutes here, folks! Thank you for understanding!)

 

12. WaterTok

various watertok posts on a TikTok search grid

13. Hwachae (Cold Korean Fruit Bowls)

@amyflamy1 / Via tiktok.com

The only food item that came close to chamoy pickles’ reign on the mukbang side of TikTok was hwachae, a milky Korean “punch” of sorts. Traditionally, it’s served in a bowl with vibrant mix-ins, from Sprite to fruit, and served over ice with a spoon for slurping it all up.TikToker @amyflamy1‘s video with over 16 million views is the TikTok that launched a thousand (very tasty!) imitations. In the video, shown above, she orders the cold fruit bowl after waking up “severely dehydrated,” and it didn’t take long before other creators followed in her footsteps. Spoiler alert: The bowls and spoons eventually became…comically large.

 

14. Potato Chip Omelets (from The Bear)

potato chip omelet on a plate, next to the same dish from a screenshot from The Bear

15. Chamoy Pickle Kits

@OrianaASMR / Via tiktok.com

If you’re not as neck-deep in all things #PickleTok as I am, this one will require some explanation. First: spicy pickles. Second: chamoy, which is a popular, sweet-and-spicy Mexican condiment that TikTokers cannot get enough of. Third, fourth, fifth, and so on: the toppings, which usually include a mixture of Takis, sour candy, Tajín, tamarind, and anything candy-adjacent you could dream up.TikTokers hollow out the core of the pickle with a spoon, stuff it to the brim with various toppings, occasionally even wrapping it in Fruit by the Foot, and crunch. Mukbang videos of people tasting them are fascinating, deliciously gruesome, and absolutely everywhere; like, the #chamoypickle hashtag on TikTok has over 1.5 billion views.

Anyway! Santa, if you’re reading this, I’m clearly hoping for a chamoy pickle kit in my Christmas stocking this year. 🤞 (This is Ross, BTW.)

 

16. Feta Eggs

feta eggs being cooked, and served in a tortilla

17. Grated Frozen Fruit

@littlefatboyfrankie / Via tiktok.com

In case you can’t tell, TikTok loves its easy desserts. This one involved freezing whole fruits and grating them for a kind of DIY sorbet. The simplest of recipes called for the frozen fruit of your choice, grated and mixed with lime or lemon juice. Others, like creator Frank Gaw, took to making their own shaved ice, adding toppings like condensed milk and nuts.Some more versions include a “peaches and cream” iteration and even a savory frozen tomato version served with a ball of burrata.

 

18. Two-Ingredient Watermelon Sorbet

author holding up a bowl of watermelon sorbet

19. Date Bark

@georginaburgess_ / Via tiktok.com

Originally created by @thathealthjunkie, date bark gained its popularity as a sort of “healthier” dessert, with many users comparing it to a Snickers bar. This isn’t the first time dates have had their moment of internet fame — past viral recipes include date caramel and the more classic stuffed dates.This new date trend recipe consisted of smashing dates on a parchment-lined tray, covering them with melted peanut butter, nuts, and chocolate, then freezing the whole thing for a take on chocolate bark.

 

20. Pastina

bowl of pastina with cheese, black pepper, and olive oil

21. Trying Natto

@sydwingold / Via tiktok.com

It was impossible to scroll through TikTok at the beginning of the year without stumbling upon a video of someone trying natto. For those who don’t know, natto is a Japanese dish that consists of fermented soybeans. In their videos, users would show themselves opening a styrofoam container, taking off a plastic film from the beans, pouring the accompanied sauces (usually soy sauce and mustard), and “frothing” the beans to create the signature sticky texture.While a lot of these videos were met with pretty visceral reactions, many creators, like @sanguyenn and @shannahmau, thankfully jumped on to educate TikTok on how they enjoy natto (usually served with a helping of rice, more sauces, and sometimes seaweed).

 

22. Brazilian Lemonade

author holding a glass of brazilian lemonade

23. Nature’s Gatorade

@clairethenutritionist / Via tiktok.com

“Nature’s Gatorade” (also called switchel or haymaker’s punch) isn’t necessarily new — it was often used by farmers to keep hydrated while working long hours in the heat. But, like many old recipes, this one made its rounds on TikTok and was especially praised by nutritionists for being packed with electrolytes.The ingredients are also pretty minimal: just maple syrup, ginger water (made by steeping ginger root in simmering water), apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. It definitely doesn’t taste like Gatorade, but it sure has received a lot of positive reviews.

 

24. Pizza Fries

@doraymie / Via tiktok.com

Although they saw short-lived fame at the beginning of the year, pizza fries were one of those food trends you were either horrified by or needed to try immediately. The original video seems to have come from @doraymie‘s “birthday pizza fries” which racked up 14.5 million views.Written recipes for this don’t really exist, but if I had to guess, I’d say all it takes is some frozen fries, cheese, and pepperoni. The cheesy topping gets baked separately from the fries and dumped on top to reveal what is probably every kid’s dream birthday dinner.

 

Are there any food trends you want to see more of (or maybe even less of) in 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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