The Top 10 Food Trends of 2024

At Allrecipes, staying on top of culinary trends is a way for us to see what home cooks are excited about. While some, like grandma-approved recipes and miniature foods, will never go out of style, every new year brings with it a fresh wave of must-try food and drinks and 2024 was no different.

This year, simplicity and versatility have dominated kitchens across the globe. People are embracing recipes that bring comfort, creativity, and ingenuity to the table, with a focus on stretching ingredients and thinking outside the box. From repurposing pantry staples like onions and rice paper to leaning into nostalgic flavors with a twist, the last 12 months have been full of delightful—and delicious—surprises.

Amid rising food costs, cheap eats and cost-conscious cooking have also emerged as big themes, whether through budget-friendly fast food deals or smart home-cooking hacks. Below, we break down 2024’s top 10 food and drink trends and explore how they’ve made our meals more interesting this year.

Onion Boils

The onion boil emerged as the fall’s budget-friendly, soul-soothing viral dish when TikTok creator Mimi Baretela shone a spotlight on the humble allium. Inspired by seafood boils, the recipe features whole onions doused in seasonings, then air fried (or roasted) until tender. The resulting meal is hearty, comforting, and surprisingly satisfying—interesting enough to serve as a party appetizer, but also easy enough to make as a solo girl dinner. It’s the perfect example that an ingredient as simple and affordable as an onion can go from sidekick to star.

Read more: How Did the Onion Become the “It” Ingredient of 2024?

Sweet Goes Savory

2024 has turned our dessert expectations upside down, with sweet-savory combinations lighting up the internet. Think savory s’mores made with melty cream cheese, crackers, and jam, or buttery rice cereal treats studded with herbs or furikake mix. Even cookies are crossing into savory territory with additions like miso, cheddar, bacon, and chili crisp.

Cucumber Salad

If you, too, ate a whole cucumber this year, it’s all thanks to Logan Moffitt, aka the Cucumber Guy. He made cucumber salads the “it” dish of the summer with his enthusiastic embrace of the underrated vegetable. Whether he was slicing cucumbers in his Ottawa kitchen or shaking up salads in the middle of a lake, Moffitt proved that cukes had seemingly endless potential.

Scrambled Everything

It turns out, scrambled eggs were just the beginning. As TikTok showed us this year, scrambling can be applied to a wide range of dishes, from oatmeal to pancakes to banana bread. It seemed gimmicky at first, but we were pleasantly surprised by the results. The method not only makes it quick and easy to whip up dishes that would typically require far more time and patience, but it’s also a fun way to shake up your cooking routine.

Dense Bean Salad

No 2024 trend recap would be complete without a mention of protein and one specific protein-packed meal in particular: Dense Bean Salad. From Mediterranean-inspired chickpea bowls to spicy black bean concoctions, these salads originally posted by TikToker Violet Witchel are as filling as they are flavorful. They’ve become a meal prep favorite and for good reason—they’re nutritious, easy to customize, and get better the longer they sit and marinate.

Dirty Soda

Dirty sodas, carbonated soft drinks mixed with flavored syrups and cream, have swept both social media and beverage menus. Embraced by Utah’s Mormon community, this indulgent drink has gone mainstream—so mainstream that you can now even buy it at grocery stores. With the non-alcoholic drink category continuing to grow, it’s no surprise dirty sodas became a huge hit.

Egg Flights

Craving deviled eggs, but don’t want the hassle of mixing up the yolk filling and piping it back into the whites? Consider making an egg flight instead. A creative twist on traditional deviled eggs, this approach—first demonstrated by Alice Choi (@hipfoodiemom1)—calls for adorning sliced hard-boiled eggs with a variety of toppings. Not only do you skip the whole filling part, but this method allows you to mix and match garnishes. If you need some ideas, just look to the comments for some inspiration.

Cracked Coffee

There has been no shortage of cool coffee drinks these last few years (remember when everyone was making Dalgona coffee?) and the latest one also involves some interesting textures. The viral beverage involves coating the interior of a plastic cup with melted chocolate, allowing it to harden, and then filling the cup with coffee and milk. Next comes the fun part: squeezing the cup so the chocolate breaks, producing the satisfying crack that gives this drink its name.

Rice Paper Bites

Rice paper had a major moment as cooks discovered its versatility beyond Vietnamese spring rolls. Creative cooks are using it to make crispy, bite-sized snacks, rolling it up into dim sum-style cheung fun, and even folding them into gluten-free croissants. With so many ways to utilize it, it’s clear that rice paper can cross over to ipantry staple status.

Fast Food Value Meals

Major fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Arby’s, and Burger King have upped their games in 2024 by offering revamped value meal options. With inflation pinching wallets, these deals deliver fast-food favorites on a budget through mix-and-match menus and limited-time offers, usually with some nostalgia thrown in.