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Hot Herb Trends: Herbs & “Spice”

This summer’s “hot” herb trend is indeed smoking hot!  Herbs & chilies are popping up all over summer menus, in salads, rubs, glazes, desserts and even in refreshing cool drinks.  There is this old wise tale that some countries eat spicy hot foods as a method of cooling and although it would be a “cool” idea, the real reason is because where it’s hot, food spoils and when you add spice it tastes better and you will forget you’re eating a bit of spoiled food!  The good news is, the trend of hot spicy foods on steamy summer days is here and is being applied to non-spoiled foods.  Chefs all over the world are spicing things up with their fresh cooling herbs and spicy hot peppers.  Here are a few of the SPICY ideas we are seeing out there this summer:

SPICY HERB PESTOS:  A mixture of pesto and spice, these ingredients make normal pesto seem bland.  Try spicy mint chili pesto on grilled lamb, or a Middle Eastern cilantro parsley pesto with red chilies, lemon zest, garlic, cumin and olive oil, or grilled duck breast with cherry sage black pepper pesto glaze.

SALADS:  As you can imagine the possibilities are sky high here.   We are seeing wonderful vegetable salads like grilled zucchini with mint and chilies, cold pasta salads with herb and chili dressings, or spicy herb potato salads and slaws.

RUBS:  One favorite herb idea out there today is fresh herb rubs with fresh chilies.  This inventive combination enhances the flavor of grilled meats and fish and makes for a more creative and tastier BBQ. Try a Mediterranean steak rub, which combines olive oil, lavender, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, thyme with chilies and lemon; rub it on and grill!  Or simple summer savory and chilies on fresh grilled, fish.  The natural saltiness of savory blends well with the fish.

DESSERTS:  Sweet strawberry basil habanero pepper glaze on cheesecake or ice cream is a decadent twist on a classic idea, or how about, lemon mint chili sorbet?  Some other lovely dishes we are seeing is apricot tarts with chili thyme cream drizzle.

DRINKS:  An all time pleasure of this trend is spicy cool herbal drinks.  We are seeing jalapeno tequila and cilantro drinks, strawberry chili mint mojitos, basil chili martinis along with a slew of others.

Experiment with the latest HOT HERB TRENDS!