Top 10 Best-Selling Ingredients of 2023 🏆
Here's an exclusive insight into our ten most popular ingredients of the year!
10. Parsley
This bright green store cupboard essential has a peppery taste with a touch of earthiness, making it a great all-rounder in the kitchen!
Suggested Use: Parsley compliments almost any savoury dish but works particularly well with egg, cheese, and fish recipes. Sprinkle into stews, stuffing, sauces, salads, and soups or make your own everyday herb mix by adding chervil, tarragon, and chives!
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9. Coriander Seeds
We’re so excited to introduce you to our versatile Coriander Seeds! You’ll fall in love with their mild sweet taste and citrusy flavours that work well in both sweet AND savoury recipes.
Suggested Use: Add to curries, soups, stews, and tagines, use to compliment pork, chicken and vegetables, crush and sprinkle over sweet potatoes prior to roasting and sprinkle into rice and grain dishes such as couscous. Coriander can also be added to bread, puddings, biscuits, cakes, and dumpling recipes. Try mixing coriander seeds, allspice berries and peppercorns and pop into your peppermill for an aromatic seasoning with a difference. These popular seeds can also be used to flavour oils such as walnut oil. All you have to do is lightly crush the seed and add to the oil along with thinly pared orange rind and a single cinnamon stick. Our personal favourite way to use our Coriander seeds is in dressings and marinades… YUM!
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8. Ground Cumin
Thanks to its robust, earthy, peppery, and warming flavours, our Ground Cumin will add a tasty aromatic flavour to a range of your homemade dishes. Did you know this spice is a key ingredient in many spice blends and is extremely popular in Mexican, Thai, Mediterranean, Indian, North Africa and Latin American cuisines?
Suggested Use: Add to spicy tagines, chilli, curry, falafel, soups, stews, and sprinkle on to roast chicken with a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of honey for a roast with a difference. Cumin also works well with vegetables just sprinkle on to carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash before roasting. Why not try adding to savoury rice dishes and hummus for a warming spicy twist?
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7. Ground Star Anise
Thanks to our Ground Star Anise it’s never been easier to incorporate the famous mild, sweet, and fragrant liquorice flavours that star anise has to offer into your sweet and savoury recipes. If this spice currently isn’t in your home, then you’re doing convenient cooking, and baking all wrong!
Suggested Use: Sprinkle on to meat and veg prior to roasting or add to sauces, soups, marinades, and salad dressing or use as a dry marinade for prawns, white fish, chicken, duck, beef, pork, and veg. Stir into rice recipes (especially stir fries) or use to flavour fruit salads, pickles, and chutneys. Did you know, Star Anise is one of the key ingredients in Chinese five-spice?
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6. Angelica Root Cut
These long, twisted, thick and fleshy rootlets have a spicy, slightly bitter taste.
Suggested Use: Did you know that Angelic Root is prized for its aromatic properties which is why its oh so popular in the perfumery industry?! (And incense too…) It’s also one of the ingredients used to create several French liquors including absinthe but most importantly it’s gin o’clock! That’s right, Angelica Root can be used as a substitute for juniper berries when making gin! If you’re not feeling boozy, pop into potpourri blends as a fixative.
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5. Beetroot Powder
What’s not to love about our Beetroot Powder?! This bold powder has a mildly sweet flavour, all the benefits of beautiful beets and a powerfully pink natural colour!
Suggested Use: Beetroot Powder is the perfect natural colouring for baking, beverages, and cooking (don’t get us started on powerfully pink pasta, pizza dough and beetroot lattes!) Why not try adding to soups, marinades, sauces, salad dressings, ice creams, custards? Psst…1 teaspoon of beetroot powder is the equivalent of 1 whole fresh beetroot.
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4. Arrowroot
This very fine white powder has excellent thickening abilities (similar to cornstarch). It also has no pronounced flavour and does not add opacity to sauces which makes it the perfect companion in the kitchen! If you’re avoiding corn, Arrowroot is a great substitute for a thickening agent.
Suggested Use: Use this white powder as a thickening agent for sauces, soups and gravies, biscuits, puddings, jellies, and cakes! Arrowroot Powder can even prevent ice crystals forming in homemade ice cream and will not make fruit gel glazes go cloudy like corn flour… Woohoo! Note that arrowroot thickens at much lower temperatures than those needed by corn flour. (We think it has a much better flavour too!) Use two teaspoons of Arrowroot in a recipe for every 1 tablespoon of corn flour. Fun Fact: Arrowroot biscuits were eaten by people with unsettled stomach in the 19th century.
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3. Kelp Powder
Our olive-green nutrient-dense Kelp Powder is a type of seaweed that ranges from sweet to nutty in flavour with a salt, ocean-like taste.
Suggested Use: Stir into vegetable stocks and soups in place of salt or use where a bacon-like flavour is required in vegan and vegetarian dishes! Add extra oomph to your morning smoothies, lunchtime salads and make yourself a healthy herbal kelp cuppa…
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2. Bilberry Powder
Did you know bilberries are smaller and darker than blueberries, appearing to be almost black with a hint of blue? This popular powder is made from non-irradiated. GMO free, dried bilberries (hence the deep purple shade that makes an excellent natural dye!)
Suggested Use: Why not try obtaining a blue/black dye for textiles and cosmetics with this natural colouring agent? Our customers have even used our Bilberry Powder in homemade ink! Pack into homemade capsules for a healthy superfood supplement.
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1. Juniper Berries
Where do we start with Juniper Berries? They're one of our most popular ingredients and it could very well have something to do with the fact that these small berries make one of the most popular spirits in the world! It's always gin o'clock when Juniper Berries are involved… These favoured berries have a tart, sharp taste, and a piney flavour with a hint of citrus.
Suggested Use: An ideal ingredient to add to rich gamey dishes containing venison, duck, and pheasant. They also work well with pork and lamb and are excellent when added to dishes such as potato gratin, sauerkraut, and pickles. The berries can also be used to make sweet syrups to poach fruit in or to use as a base for a fruit salad. To get the best results, lightly crush juniper berries before adding to a dish to help release their flavour.
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Honourable mentions… Turmeric, Green Cardamom Pods, Oregano, Orris Root Powder, Smoked Paprika, Garlic Powder, Mint and Coconut Oil!