1. Root to Leaf
The New Year brings some exciting new food trends, our favourite the Root to Leaf (or root to shoot) – which minimises food waste by eating every edible part of the vegetable offering cooking techniques, as well as new textures and flavours.
This is our guide to show you which vegetables you can get more out of in your healthy recipes and which parts to save from going into the compost.
- Vegetable peelings from potatoes, carrots and parsnips can be roasted to make vegetable crisps, just be sure to wash them before cooking. Carrot peelings can also be used to add flavour to a homemade vegetable stock.
- When using cauliflower, thinly slice the leaves and stir-fry or roasted, see our beef skewers with cauli mash recipe.
- Green carrot tops, radish leaves and celery leaves can be chopped and added to salads or blitzed in a blender to make a vitamin-packed tasty pesto.
- Don’t let your stems from cauliflower or broccoli go to waste, simply dice, grate or blitz in the food processor and stir-fry for a few minutes to make a fibre-rich side to your meal or your could add to soups and stews.
- Use the flavour-packed stalks from fresh parsley and coriander, by finely chopping and cooking in a little oil for a minute or two to soften, for a punchy addition to soups, stews, curries and stir-fries. See our yellow thai tofu curry which uses coriander stalks, as well as the leaves, in this creamy aromatic plant-based curry.
- Reserve the seeds from your pumpkin or squash and make these into a tasty nutrient-rich snack.
2. Seaweed
is being hailed as a remarkable superfood, and rightly so, as it contains the highest number of vitamins and minerals than any other food group. Certain types of seaweed can be used as thickeners in soups and stews as well as a very healthy replacement to spaghetti. The rich salty flavour of seaweed complements fish beautifully and we sprinkle a mix of dried seaweed including nori, dulse and sea greens as a garnish on baked salmon with asparagus and a poached egg in this recipe here.
We’ll be including more variety in our dishes this year, introducing our customers to the wide range of health benefits and flavours that seaweed has to offer. Here’s co-founders Myles and Giles on a recent trip to visit our suppliers, The Cornish Seaweed Company.
3.Vibrant colours and floral flavours
Adding in floral flavours such as rose and hibiscus are on the rise, but it’s not just sweet desserts and teas that these flavours work well in, dried hibiscus flowers can be fried with other vegetables and enjoyed in savoury Mexican tacos.
It’s also becoming very popular to add vibrancy to dishes in the form of natural colours and superfoods. In our cookbook, Mindful Chef; Eat Well, Live Better, we have a delicious cookie recipe using Matcha (made of finely ground green tea leaves) which adds a vibrant green colour, as well as a powerful boost of antioxidants to these sweet treats.
4.Plant-based eating
Finally, plant-based eating is unsurprisingly still on the rise, with many people taking part in Veganuary this month. We’re here to make cooking vegan delicious, easy and nutritious. We’re always trying to keep our recipes imaginative, introducing our customers to delicious plant-based alternatives to meat, such as coconut yoghurt, tempeh and jackfruit amongst many others. Try out some of our exciting vegan recipes here, or order a box from £4.50.