2017’s hottest foodie trends

Say good-bye to matcha and hello to 2017’s hottest foodie trends.

The new year is officially here. You’ve welcomed all the New Year’s resolution newbies into the gym, and it’s now time to welcome the newbie food trends into 2017. Wave goodbye to matcha and kale – there’s a fresh new list of ingredients expected to become our favourites over the coming months.

Frida Harju, nutritionist at health app Lifesum, has given us a forecast of what we can expect to be munching on in 2017.

Food trends

Ube and Filipino cuisine

No, it’s not a taxi firm and no we cannot offer you £15 off your first ride. This is ube – a root vegetable common in the Philippines. It is set to be the new flavour (and shade) of the year (it’s got a cool purple hue). New York has already served up ‘ube bae’ doughnuts with ube-flavoured frosting, lava cakes that ooze purple ube filling were soon to follow and now ube ice cream. The vegetable along with Filipino cuisine have caused a stir in the US and we can soon expect the trend to hit the UK. London already has Luzon, a pop-up restaurant serving Filipino cuisine, and Hawksmoor is offering a Philippines-inspired burger.

Aubergine

Aided by the ube trend, purple foods look set to become the next big thing. In keeping with the power of purple, the aubergine looks like it will have a major resurgence in the next year. Aubergine skin is high in phytonutrients and chlorogenic acid, and as part of the Mediterranean diet is believed to be very good for the heart.

Vegetable cereal bowls

Breakfast bowls made up of granola, fruit and yoghurt have long been the popular breakfast food, but now we can expect to see this morph into a vegetable cereal trend. Already big in Australia, the idea is that since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it provides the perfect opportunity to get your five a day of greens. By combining veg with grains and yoghurt or milk on top ensures that you are getting a day’s fuel in one bowl.

Poke bowls

Pronounced ‘po-kay’, this is essentially chunks of raw fish in a marinade (sort of deconstructed sushi), originating in Hawaii. In June, London got its first Poke bar, Ahi Poké, and now Pret a Manger is set to begin producing its own version using marinated mushrooms and pickled cabbage.

Grass fed

We’ve started to pay much more attention to not only what we eat, but also what the animals we eat are being fed. Grass fed is no longer just a buzz word, and will become more mainstream in 2017.

Drinks trends

Milk

While recent years have seen the decline of milk consumption as people have opted for dairy-free and less fattening drinks, research indicates that milk could soon be back on trend amid a sharp upturn in the global dairy market. Recent studies have suggested that consumption of whole-fat dairy is decreasing risk of type 2 diabetes as well as the risk of cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. Small milk bottles are now being sold among the ‘grab and go’ sections of supermarkets, competing with fizzy drinks and bottled water. Within this return to milk, we might also see the beginning of a new type of milk on trend: cockroach milk. Reported to be the next superfood, scientists have found that the structure of milk protein crystals within cockroaches is highly nutritious. The complicated way of extracting cockroach milk means that it is unlikely to be marketed like regular milk, it may well become a popular new ingredient for protein drinks or within supplements.

Souping

‘Souping’ uses vegetables rather than pressed fruit or vegetable fruit, meaning that it has a lot more fibre than juice drinks and can therefore be said to help your good gut bacteria thrive by providing a fuel source. Vegetable soups are normally low in calories and cheap to make, additionally they contain lower amounts of fructose than juice drinks, which is an added health bonus as high fructose levels in juices can lead to sugar crashes and sugar cravings. In keeping with the souping trend is the recent popularity of broths as a great health-boosting liquid. Said to protect joints, help support your immune system as well as your gut, broth has become very popular this year and is likely to continue alongside the souping trend.

Plant water

A popular choice recently has been birch sap water, which, like coconut water, is said to be a very good drink due to its high levels of antioxidants, natural minerals and xylitol (a natural sugar). Additionally, cactus plant water may be the new go-to choice. In particular ‘prickly pear’, which has an impressive list of health benefits such as helping fight high cholesterol levels and curing hangovers.