“Eat your vegetables” — the command long met with groans and eye rolls from kids and adults alike — might finally be shaking off its bad rap as innovation turns leafy greens and other veggies into bona fide meal stars.
At the top of its food trend predictions for last year, organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market said that “the OGs of plant-based cuisine are making a comeback,” and they’re doing that by putting the plants back into plant-based.
“We’re seeing new and emerging protein-forward products with mushrooms (technically fungi, not a plant), walnuts, tempeh, and legumes in place of complex meat alternatives,” the retailer said. “Even plant-based milk alternatives are participating, with some brands simplifying labels to just two ingredients — perfect for the vegetarian purist.”
Specialty vegetables
Whole Foods’ prediction came amid other notable moments, including Time Magazine naming renowned chef Dan Barber’s new veggie hybrid, the Sweet Garleek, one of its top inventions of the year. The hybrid — garlic and leeks — which took ten years to develop, hit Whole Foods’ shelves, where it costs upwards of $6 a bunch.
“Garleek is not something anyone was asking for because no one knew the love child of garlic and leek was possible,” Barber said in a statement. The approximately 19-inch-long vegetable boasts a slender white bulb and flat green stems. According to Barber’s Row 7, which produces the vegetable, Garleek offers a less intense aroma compared to traditional garlic and delivers a buttery essence when cooked. The vegetable is versatile enough to be grilled, sautéed, or even consumed raw.
For the Michelin-starred chef, Sweet Garleek represents more than just another product; it is an opportunity to redefine food consumption, beginning with the produce aisle. That’s also the impetus behind California’s Babé Farms’ recent debut of a new collection of luxury vegetables. The launch includes a new variety of leafy greens called Baby Butter Cakes. These petite heads of butter lettuce are named because of their soft, buttery flavor and their cake-like shape.
“They are soft and luscious with ribboning leaves that hold onto all types of dressing,” Matt Hiltner, marketing coordinator for the Santa Maria, Calif.-based company, said in a statement. “Baby Butter Cakes contain three times more leaves than an average butterhead lettuce. Available in both green and red, they are great for all types of salad, sandwiches, burgers, poké and more.”
Babé is also debuting Ruby Ro-Minis — small heads of crisp lettuce that blend the qualities of iceberg and romaine. Hiltner notes that these are “cute and compact, with the crunch of iceberg and sweet flavor of romaine into one small, tightly enveloped head.” The company also offers Platinum Blonde Frisée, which is now available as a pre-washed, ready-to-eat salad.
Then, there’s the $20 strawberry, which you can find at — where else?! — Erewhon supermarkets in Los Angeles. The giant $20 strawberry isn’t just fruit — it’s a status symbol, a talking point, a punchline that’s only half a joke. Nestled in a pristine package with the reverence usually reserved for jewelry, this single, hand-selected Elly Amai Tochiaika berry is engineered for perfection. Influencers cradle it in manicured hands, and TikTokers debate whether it tastes like luxury (or just capitalism). Grown in vertical farms under ideal conditions, it’s sold not just as a berry, but as an experience.
A return to whole foods
So, why the fruit and vegetable renaissance?
In part, it’s due to “scrutiny of processing use in the food and drink industry is intensifying,” says Mintel. “Fuelled by discussions about highly, overly or ultra-processed food (UPF), feelings about processing will inspire consumers to look more closely at ingredients, nutrition and production methods.”
Mintel says consumers are becoming increasingly more aware of the different levels of processing — “‘ultraprocessing’ is the latest evolution of terms such as ‘junk food’ or ‘clean label.”
And it’s not just designer vegetables that are taking the spotlight.
According to Mintel’s reporting, 34 percent of U.S. adults say highly processed food is a top concern. And while “root to shoot” whole vegetable dishes — think roasted Brussels sprouts, carrots, or bok choy — have been on menus for years, the new concerns over ultra-processed foods are putting any and all vegetables back into the spotlight.
Nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. fruit or vegetable buyers surveyed by Mintel also say that “processed produce” — fruit cups and canned tomatoes — are a good substitute for fresh produce and still a better option than ultra-processed foods.
Some of that credit can go to Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones — five global hotspots where larger percentages of the population live past 100. The plant-forward Mediterranean Diet, which is consumed in two of the five Blue Zones, has been named the top diet by U.S. News & World Report for the last eight years in a row.
Eater recently reported that restaurants are cashing in on the trend, noting that the “era of the $44 salad” has also arrived. While this high ticket price often includes adding a protein (in Eater‘s case, that was skirt steak), the baseline price for common salads like the Caesar, has jumped significantly. Goop’s Kitchen, the delivery-only concept from Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle empire, also leans heavily into veg-forward, LA-appropriate meals, including a range of salads, bowls, and handhelds where leafy greens reign supreme. Whole Foods’ salad bar as well as those from Sweetgreen and Goop Kitchen can set you back more than $20 a pop, too.
“What’s behind the soaring prices for a simple salad? While there’s no clear explanation,” Robb Report explains, “restaurant prices have been rising across the board, thanks to factors like inflation and the more limited availability of certain ingredients due to supply-chain issues and climate-change-affected crops.”
Then there’s True Food Kitchen. The Andrew Weil and Oprah Winfrey-backed healthy chain now with 45 locations. It helped usher in the plant-forward menu, leaning heavily into fresh salads, whole vegetables, and homemade ingredients. The chain recently cut out all seed oils and announced a partnership with Grammy Award-winner SZA to relaunch a cult favorite: the Kale Caesar Salad. The salad, reimagined as the SZA CZA, came straight from the source: after the salad’s seasonal menu disappearance, SZA slid into the brand’s DMs asking for its return — and proposed they use the moment to spark something bigger.
With 20 percent of net proceeds going to Los Angeles-based nonprofit SÜPRMARKT, the salad offers more than flavor. “Not only should everyone have access to this delicious salad year-round, everyone should have access to organic meals and produce year-round,” SZA said in a statement. The partnership reflects True Food Kitchen’s mission to make real, nourishing food more accessible—and adds a layer of cultural clout to the health-driven chain’s evolving menu.
Mintel says over the next five years, enhanced transparency around food processing and increased interest in healthy ingredients will create “better-informed food and drink shoppers.” And, it says, minimally processed products that boast higher nutritional value and that are easy to use will “win over” more consumers.
“The demand for natural nutrition from familiar, less processed sources will also increase consumer acceptance of products that reuse nutritious ingredients and that might previously have been thrown away, such as misshapen vegetables,” Mintel says.
Barber simplifies the message: “Use the whole thing, tender greens and all,” he said in an Instagram post about the Sweet Garleek. “It’s proof of what’s possible when your recipe starts with the seed — not a novelty, but a new kitchen essential.”
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