Gwyneth Paltrow has walked back a cooking tip that drew backlash after she suggested using arugula as a dairy substitute, saying in a new TikTok video that she misspoke during the original segment.
During a May appearance on the Today Show, the 53-year-old Goop founder was demonstrating a recipe for turkey meatballs when she offered the tip that confused viewers. "If you want to avoid dairy, one trick that I do is I dice up arugula, and I put it in," Paltrow said at the time. "It sounds weird, but it kind of adds a nice texture to it. And it's delicious."
Fans reacted with confusion to the suggestion, with some calling it "disgusting."
Paltrow's TikTok correction
Paltrow addressed the confusion in a TikTok video showing her watching back the Today Show clip. "You know what, I said dairy instead of parmesan cheese, so this was my mistake," she admitted.
She went on to explain what she had actually meant to say. "What I meant to say is, this is a great trick if you're dairy-free, if you're making meatballs and you don't want to put parmesan cheese in them, you dice up arugula and put it in, it gives it this extra dimension of flavor," Paltrow said.
She joked that she wasn't sure why she had said "dairy" instead of "parmesan" in the first place. "I said dairy, and the internet collapsed," she said.
Mixed reaction in the comments
Despite the clarification, many commenters on the TikTok video said her explanation still didn't add up. "For the record, arugula does not compare to parmesan cheese either," one person wrote. Another commented, "Girl, it still doesn't make sense, the flavors are not even close and the texture isn't either."
A third commenter said, "I don't think people were stuck on dairy, it was arugula." Others were more forgiving, with one joking, "Gwyneth, this has been eating me alive since thank you so much for clearing it up," and another writing, "Thank you girl because we been wondering lmao."
Another controversy addressed
The arugula clarification is not the only recent controversy Paltrow has revisited. During an appearance on Benny Blanco's podcast alongside co-hosts Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco, Paltrow gave more detail on the origins of her viral "This Smells Like My Vagina" candle.
She said the provocative name started as a joke made while working with perfumer Douglas Little on an "earthy" fragrance, sorting through ingredients like tomato leaves and seaweed. "I have a very bawdy sense of humor, and nobody really knows that side of me," Paltrow said. "And I said to him, 'Well, this one smells like my vagina.' As a joke."
She said Little thought she was serious and thought the idea was "brilliant," going on to create a candle with that name, which her team then purchased. "I thought I was joking and, anyway, the rest is history," she added, clarifying that the candle "definitely did not smell like" what its name suggested.
Paltrow is an Oscar-winning actress who founded the wellness and lifestyle brand Goop in 2008. In 2020, Goop released the candle in partnership with the fragrance company Heretic, made with notes of bergamot, geranium, Damask rose, cedar absolutes and ambrette seed. The $75 product sold out immediately upon release.
Paltrow said Goop discontinued the candle after three years because of the attention it drew. "It became such a big thing that we actually stopped selling it because it was distracting people from what we were doing," she said.
