Would You Eat Pickle Pie? Minnesota’s New State Fair Foods Are Turning Heads

Photo from: https://www.mnstatefair.org/new/food

Would you eat a pie filled with pickles, cream cheese and ranch frosting?

The Minnesota State Fair is counting on plenty of adventurous fairgoers saying yes.

The Pickle Pie is one of the most eye-catching additions to the fair’s 2026 food lineup. Created by LuLu’s Public House, it features a traditional pie crust filled with chopped pickles, pickle juice and cream cheese. It is topped with savory whipped frosting made with ranch dressing and Cholula Hot Sauce, then finished with fresh dill and a tiny gherkin.

It is creamy, tangy, spicy and proof that nearly anything can become pie if you believe hard enough.

Photo from: https://www.mnstatefair.org/new/food

Pickles are also crashing the dessert table in the Dill With It, Cookie!, which mixes white chocolate chips, chopped dill pickles and fresh dill into a sweet-and-salty cookie.

But the pickle creations are only the beginning.

Photo from: https://www.mnstatefair.org/new/food

The Apple Donut Ham Grinder places cinnamon-sugar fried apple rings inside a toasted sandwich with sliced ham, arugula, hot honey and whipped ricotta. It is part doughnut, part deli sandwich and part beautiful food confusion.

T

he Sligo Slider Bites On-A-Stick turn a cheeseburger into a fried dumpling filled with beef, cheddar, onion and pickles, while the Longanisa Cheese Curd Lumpia wraps Filipino pork sausage and Wisconsin cheese curds inside a crispy lumpia shell. Cheese curds apparently saw the traditional basket and decided they were ready for a bigger career.

Other bold mashups include a Surf ’N’ Turf Burger topped with lobster, pepper jack cheese and chipotle mayonnaise, plus a Hmong Corndog made with pork sausage seasoned with ginger, garlic, chili and lemongrass.

Potatoes are getting the full-meal treatment too. Honey Brisket Battered Potatoes are topped with beef brisket, nacho cheese and hot honey, while Elote Tots combine crispy tater tots with roasted corn, Tajín, crema and cotija cheese.

Photo from: https://www.mnstatefair.org/new/food

Then there are the Cracklin’ Corn Ribs, featuring fried strips of corn topped with bacon ranch, green onions and candied jalapeños, all served over pork rinds.

Dessert is equally fearless. Fairgoers can try a Dubai Whoopie Pie, Strawberry Ube Sundae Tart, Pumpkin Bar Funnel Cake or Brandy Old Fashioned Cookie Dough served on a stick.

The Minnesota State Fair runs from August 27 through Labor Day, September 7, 2026. Pickle Pie may be grabbing the headlines, but the entire menu proves that fair food is now less about following recipes and more about introducing two unlikely foods near a deep fryer and watching sparks fly.

Pictures from Minnesota State Fair:

Find out more information on all these at: https://www.mnstatefair.org/new/food

The real question is: Which wonderfully weird creation would you try first?