TOP 5 MOST SEARCHED FLAVOURS
WHAT’S TRENDING
At Hela Spice, we have taken steps to improve our understandings of how connectivity can assist us in becoming more efficient and at the same time, more innovative in creating food products that processors and consumers are demanding.
What we found is that consumers are overwhelming searching for information on five different flavours of products and our R&D team have taken this information and have created delicious and visually exciting products around those flavours . Come with us as we explore the most searched for or trending flavours in early 2022.
HARISSA
WHAT IS HARISSA?
Just like what people are searching for, what is a Harissa spice blend? Harissa is a paste, made from hot chili peppers and native to the Maghreb Region of Northwest Africa. It is a hot, spicy and aromatic flavour that adds a lot of colour, visuals and warmth to a range of products. It is a combination of roasted red peppers and garlic, caraway, coriander, cumin and olive oil. This warm and distinctive spice blend can add distinctiveness to many soup and stew dishes and meat products and the creative thinkers in the Hela R&D Team have come up with traditional, but also novel applications for this delicious flavour.
Harissa Rubbed Flattened Chicken
A more traditional approach where Harissa is created as a rub and tumbled on to the outside of a flattened chicken to add strong and distinctive visuals, plus robust flavours that come out in baking or even portioned on the grill.
Harissa Falafels
Spice up a traditional falafel with the addition of Harissa flavouring to the mix. A traditional side condiment in Morocco, why not incorporate it directly into the product so that the consumer can savour the flavour in every bite.
Harissa Infused Havarti Cheese
Spice up Havarti cheese with a distinctive and flavourful Harissa note. Havarti is a great rich and creamy base cheese, that lends itself to sharper flavours and the addition of some heat, never is out of place.
Harissa and Pimento Cheese Snack Seasoning
Classic Southern style Pimento cheese gets a kick of North African flavour in this delightfully non-traditional snack seasoning. Perfect for chips, nuts, popcorn, or pulse snacks
MEDITERRANEAN
ALWAYS POPULAR!
Consumers are still looking for information on Mediterranean flavours and spices. This flavour seems to have been explored to exhaustion, but most processors seem to focus specifically on the traditional mild and hot Italian seasonings. Hela Spice wants to explore this more and look at other areas like Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia and Crete. Come explore with us.
Lets look at popular foods from these regions and see what would be of interest to the North American consumer.
Mallorca
Sobrassada Style Sausage – a soft cured pork sausage traditionally made from pork loin, bacon, paprika, salt and black pepper with a pinch of cayenne to boost the warmth. Delicious and different.
Sicily
Arancini – a deep fried rice cone, stuffed with various types of blends, but traditionally a combination of a zesty meat sauce with peas, dried prosciutto, some mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and dried capers.
Sardinia
Culurgiones – a dumpling stuffed with a filling made from potatoes, mint, basil and onions. Usually served with a hearty tomato sauce. A great vegetarian entrée where we can help with the filling.
Crete
Apaki-usually made from pork and marinated in a red wine vinegar for a few days, then it is smoked with aromatic herbs and coated with a rub of herbs and spices. Can be served cold or with quickly warmed up in a pan. A very new way to serve pork!
THAI
A STYLE WITH STAYING POWER
Hela Spice knows Thai foods. We have developed many products over the years with traditional Thai and also more mainstream Thai influenced flavours. A flavour line that can be adapted to everything from breads, cheeses, seafoods, beef, pork and chicken. It can be hot, sweet or both. Fresh tasting or fermented. Thai inspired products can cover a wide range of flavour profiles that are now some of the most popular in the world.
We again are taking our abilities to adapt popular and complex dishes to allow them to be mass produced and offer similar eating experiences.
Pad See Eiw
Also known as the thick noodle dish. Traditionally made with noodles stir fried in a thickened soy sauce with chicken, pork or beef, but could easily be made with veggie meat analogues or tofu. Vegetables like broccoli or cabbage are added. Add more excitement with the addition of vinegar and chili flakes. We can help you make a version of this dish in high volume by creating the seasonings and flavours to add in a sauce base.
Guay Teow
Known as noodle soup, traditionally this hearty and popular soup is made from chicken, pork or beef stock with added noodles. Hearty and rich, it usually has meatballs or wontons added to it with various garnishes like chili peppers and lime juice. A complex flavour system that our R&D team can assist you in exploring.
Pad Phuk Tong
A stir fried pumpkin dish with a simple recipe of onions, ginger, soy sauce and lime juice. An excellent and different vegan entrée that we can assist in providing all of the flavours and technical support to help a company produce this flavourful entrée.
OF COURSE, SHAWARMA
Shawarma is one of the Middle East’s most popular street foods and is strongly growing in popularity in North America. Extremely popular due to its versatility, serving flexibility and its ability to be made using a wide range of meat products, though traditionally it was made from lamb or mutton. Hela Spice has been assisting processors in producing many types of different shawarma products and is ready and able to assist your company with creative ideas or technical solutions.
How about these ideas?
- Roasted chicken breast shawarma, with a mild kick of spice
- Spicy dark meat turkey version with tahini or amba mango sauce
- Beef shawarma, baked just right with a grilled prime rib seasoning
- Traditional lamb shawarma with a savoury garlic sauce
- Even a veggie version with slices of textured wheat or soy, shawarma seasoned with tahini on flatbread with tomatoes and lettuce
CURRY
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, CURRY SPICE
Where do you start with curried products? There is everything from curried rice, curried cauliflower, traditional curried chicken, and even curried ketchups. At Hela Spice we know curry, if your company wants to take a fresh look at your curry flavoured products and wants to go more traditional or explore exciting new ideas like curry bread from Japan, we can help.
These ideas may be of interest:
- Curried Bread – a Japanese favourite with Japanese curry wrapped in bread dough, coated with Panko breading and then fried crispy.
- Curried Lentils – a heart healthy vegan offering where the lentils are mixed with traditional curry flavour and a robust, economical dinner entry is created. Packed with protein and fibre.
- Curried Chicken – you can’t talk about curried products without this broad range of products. Additions can include everything from diced tomatoes to coconut or coconut milk.
- Go Caribbean where Curry is mostly used as a marinade for whole chicken pieces and the flavours are much stronger and other ingredients are added to create a very aromatic stew.
WHY SHOULD YOU WORK WITH HELA SPICE?
- R&D Team experienced in many different product categories
- Ability to create products based on customers’ ideas
- Ability to bring new product ideas and fully developed concepts for customer review
- Real plant production experience that enables Hela Spice Canada to create an easy to produce system of blends and raw materials including processing instructions, to make processing simple for companies
- We can adapt procedures to best utilize available plant processing equipment
Have a product idea? Tell us all about it and your search for the perfect ingredients. Find it all at Hela Spice. Let’s talk about your next best-seller.
