Every year the competitive restaurant industry introduces new foods to dazzle diners with innovation, but this year’s new culinary trend is taking dining-out discoveries home for personal use. Increasing dining costs combined with an emphasis on healthy, low-fat meals has led 93 percent of millennial’s to now spend at least four nights a week cooking at home, according to a recent study by Better Homes & Gardens. Utilizing forgotten produce like jackfruit and cabbage in non-traditional ways are but two new food trends spawned in adventurous restaurants that are now making the leap to home menus.
Cabbage Is The New Cauliflower
The days of using never-changing cookbook recipes have been replaced by studying restaurants and high-end event food services like the Ryan Hibbert Riot Hospitality Group, who utilize sustainable and locally grown products that teach home cooks to think outside the box. A year ago, cauliflower became the trendy veggie that mimicked everything from mashed potatoes to pizza dough. This year, as Latin American flavors make a bigger impact on new restaurants, softly boiled cabbage leaves are replacing tortillas as a no-carb option for wrapping burritos and enchiladas, which is simple to replicate at home.
Also expect more fusion dishes using kimchi, a tart, but tasty Korean fermented cabbage, as a meat substitute in tacos and stir-fry dishes. Kimchi contains healthy gut-healing probiotics, and can be purchased at most stores or made at home. Simply soak chopped Napa cabbage in sea salt and water overnight, then add garlic, ginger, shallots, chili paste and fish sauce to ferment in a sealed mason jar.
Jackfruit Of All Trades
Plant based faux meats are becoming specialty restaurant staples, and jackfruit, native to Southeast Asia, is the trendiest new go-to meat substitute on menus. Jackfruit can be found ready-to-use in stores, and at home makes a deliciously healthy pulled pork alternative with a similar consistency and flavor when mixed with barbeque sauce and loaded onto a warm bun. “Jackfruit is a good source of iron, calcium and B vitamins,” says Dr. Bonnie Taub-Dix. “Using it as a meat replacement cuts calories and saturated fat from your diet.”
Home cooks are taking their cues from trendy restaurant recipes this year. Plant-based meat and carb-heavy alternatives like cabbage and jackfruit have emerged as stars of many home-cooked dishes. Restaurants will always lead the way with innovative ingredients and new cooking styles, but adventurous epicureans today are emulating those tricks at home for healthy dinners that won’t break the bank.