The Top 10 Trending Recipes on Google in 2020
This year was nothing like any other year in so many ways, including in the kitchen. Without the crutch of restaurant dining, many people spent way more time cooking — and in turn, searching for recipes. And which recipes they sought out tells us a lot about the year. Google compiled their list of top trending recipes over the course of the year, and some of what they searched for is obvious, but other popular searches are more surprising and show just what people really missed.
The searches compiled in the list are not necessarily the most popular, but the ones that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2020 as compared to 2019. In other words, this list highlights what changed since last year — not the most popular overall.
That is why some of the pandemic favorites that everyone spent so much of spring on make the list — the great sourdough bread wave, the whipped (Dalgona) coffee trend, and the banana bread movement. Although, it should be noted that what people looked for more this year was more precisely “healthy banana bread.” The baking madness also extended to hamburger buns, a surprising entry on the list.
Other searches were less predictable, but spoke to the foods that used to be acquired through travel — and that, without travel, people sought to make at home: the Disney churro, Dole whip, and DoubleTree cookie. And, perhaps, the IKEA meatball falls in that category — since fewer people traveled to stores, too.
The remaining two items seem to have less of an explanation beyond just being what people want to eat while they’re stuck at home: egg salad sandwiches and chaffles (waffles made of cheese). And who can blame them? Now that I know they exist, I, too, want a chaffle. Here’s the complete list, in order.
How many of these did you make in 2020? Let us know in the comments!