Pasta Alternatives
Of course, we know that eating vegetables is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Vegetables have a variety of health benefits that may help prevent chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease, stroke and dementia. Dried plant-based pastas made from chickpeas and lentils are not new to the market, but they are quickly becoming a popular option. We can expect to see fresh noodles made from spaghetti squash, hearts of palm and even green bananas in the upcoming year.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a food that will more than likely never go out of style. Portobellos, shiitake and crimini mushrooms have long been popular. Moving forward, we can expect to see oyster mushrooms continue to be a favourite for their “meaty” texture and trumpet mushrooms will be making their mark on many menus.
Kelp
While Irish and Jamaican sea moss have become more mainstream over the last few years due to their health benefits, kelp is certainly gaining popularity quite quickly. Kelp varieties such as dulse and nori have been a staple food in Japanese cuisine for a very long time but it’s not something that seems to be utilised in other cuisines. That will more than likely change in 2023, with kelp chips and kelp noodles, gaining traction in the mainstream food market.
Dates
Dates have been around for thousands of years, but we’re now seeing them rise in popularity in many different forms. You can expect to see date products in a variety of different products like date syrup, date paste and even dehydrated dates sweeping the market, as an alternative sweetener. You may even begin to find them in unexpected places like barbeque sauces!
Swicy Food
Not sure about you, but I was today years old when I heard about this term. Swicy is a trend that will take rise in the upcoming year as a sweet and spicy flavour combo. We can thank the ingenuity of Korean cuisine for this collision of flavours! The term “swicy” generally refers to this flavour combination in a single entree, dessert or side but we will definitely see the swicy trend becoming popular in the sauce department, as well. Move over, sweet chilli sauce!
Regenerative Food
This is a welcome trend, as we hopefully move towards more sustainable agriculture practices that consider biodiversity and soil regeneration over profit margins. I believe consumers are becoming more concerned about where their food comes from and how it is produced, so this will have a positive impact on how we choose to interact with our food systems in the coming years.
