A Quickie with the Dense Bean Salad Girl

TikTok's princess of protein Violet Witchel had a blast in Miami

It is a strange time indeed when two of the coolest things in pop culture right now are mahjong and bean salads. And while we can’t really pinpoint what an Asian tile game became all the rage, a big reason why bean salads went bigtime is Violet Witchel. Don’t recognize that name? You might know her as Dense Bean Salad Girl, and if you’ve eaten a bean salad in the last year chances are you’ve had one of her recipes.

Witchel started her legume empire while she was in culinary school.

“I was like, why don’t I just try and sell a few of these? See if anyone shows up. I posted a Google sheet signup link and I was like, okay, sign up and I’ll make you a salad. I thought it would be 20 people. It was like hundreds, I did it outta my house and there was a line around the block.”

Since then she’s amassed 2.8 million followers on TikTok, appearing on The Today Show and other national programs. This year, she’s launched a national tour where she’s bringing her bean salads to the masses. We caught u…