Go back to your roots

The ‘locavore and farm-to-table trends are big news right now, with patrons increasingly looking for organic, locally grown and sustainably produced fresh produce. You can meet this growing demand by experimenting with root vegetables as a base for creating hearty, filling salads that don’t sacrifice a thing when it comes to inspiration and flavour.

Their firm texture makes root vegetables a perfect for spiralising, another hot salad trend. Investing in a quality commercial grade spiraliser could be a great idea to add even more appetite appeal to your salad menu. After all, what’s not to love about a wholesome salad combining long ribbons of colourful, beautifully textured root veggies.

If you’re a believer in sustainable cooking, you may be experimenting with snout-to-tail cooking and using every part of a fish, for instance. For root vegetables, this translates as to root-to-stalk, with formerly discarded toppings being wilted or flash-fried to create a bit of crisp with their extremely nutrient rich leaves.

The underground scene- top trending root vegetables

Beetroot – Think beyond the traditional ‘purple death’ pickled salad beet! Fresh beets are a fantastic source of iron, folic acids and anti-oxidants. A great ingredient for salads incorporating roasted veggies, beetroot subtly enhances the delicate flavours of salads containing ostrich and smoked trout.

Horseradish – They’re rich in Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium with proven anti-viral properties but perhaps just as important from your perspective is the huge hit of piquant flavor horseradish bring to a summer salad, either as a fresh ingredient or grated and incorporated into a signature salad dressing, the more you add the more fiery things get – not surprisingly horseradish is delicious with salads incorporating beef fillet!

Turmeric – It may look like an ugly little cousin to the ginger root but there’s a whole lot more to fresh turmeric than meets the eye. Whether sliced grated or chopped fresh turmeric adds a spicy, sunny, peppery kick, with an almost Sichuan-style taste profile. It’s great chopped into potato and egg based salads for extra tang, grated as a salad topping or crushed into your signature dressing to compliment chicken salads too.

Sweet potato – Why not lighten up the traditional heavy potato-based salad by including sweet potato along with the usual white ones? Sweet potatoes contain twice the fibre of normal potatoes and they’re fresh herbs, pine or ground-nuts and delicious in roasted vegetable salads, especially when combined with salty tangy feta. Versatile and affordable, sweet potatoes combine well with beef, lamb and chicken in salads.

Trend 1 - Bring on the crunch!

Nuts

There is nothing like nuts! Affordable, healthy and delicious – there’s really nothing like nuts to add crunch in an inspired salad dish. More>>

Trend 2 - Go back to your roots

Roots

The strong robust flavours of root vegetables are taking the idea of a ‘salad as a meal’ into exciting new directions – while helping you cut kitchen costs too!

More>>

Connect to your trade partner

Go back to your roots

Trend 1 - Bring on the crunch!

Nuts

Trend 2 - Go back to your roots

Roots

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Connect to your trade partner

Go back to your roots

Trend 1 - Bring on the crunch!

Nuts

Trend 2 - Go back to your roots

Roots

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