It’s the time of year when we draw a long bow and try and predict what ingredients will trend for the next 11 months while labouring in the vain belief that you won’t remember we got it all wrong last year – that we should have predicted the boom in microwave quesadilla makers, chokos and neenish tarts in 2021. Taking the plunge, here are my jolly good ideas for 2022.

NACHO EVERYTHING
Expect the social media desire to load everything with melted cheese to explode in the everyday with nacho tater tots, nacho roast potatoes and nacho fries.

TARAMA SAUCE
We saw taramasalata dip everywhere pre-Covid, but it’s back in sauces for anything from pan-fried fish and scallops, to crunchy roasties or oven-warmed salt and vinegar chips.

ROSELLA
The crimson glow this flower adds to jams and drinks is only half the attraction. Known as hibiscus in the Caribbean and gongura in India, its floral lemony flavour will assure its success. Here’s hoping we see the leaves make an appearance, too – a gongura curry is one of the best reasons to visit Hyderabad.

AJVAR
This red capsicum dip, loaded with eggplant and garlic, is set to boom. Sitting between romesco and caponata, the Balkan beauty goes with snags, grilled meat, potato salad or warm bread.

PEPPERBERRY
Another ingredient that is increasingly popping up in our chef’s recipes, expect this eye-opening Indigenous joy to achieve far broader acceptance, and even love, this year.

INDIAN INGREDIENTS
Also going mainstream this year will be a whole host of ingredients more regularly seen in Indian cuisine, such as ghee for ‘buttering’ filo and frying, that fresh cheese paneer and nigella seeds used increasingly not just in bread but (wonderfully) with chicken.

NEW VINEGARS
Vinegar is the new citrus, but forget balsamics and aged sherry vinegars: now it’s all about kombucha, coconut and pandan vinegars, as well as expensive Japanese rice wine vinegars and vinegars flavoured with Indigenous ingredients.

ALL HAIL THE POTATO
Already used in a compostable plastic wrap alternative, thanks to Australian innovators Great Wrap, next up we can expect potatoes to star in a new milk alternative, set to challenge booming milks like oat and barley.

TOUM
Forget aioli, this egg-free cloud of garlicky goodness is set to grace our summer barbecues. It’s good with roast lamb, too!

URBAN PRODUCE
Greening our cities with vegie plots and roof gardens is something that cities like Sydney and Brooklyn are already dabbling in but – along with the subject of soil health – expect the debate to intensify and lead to more action.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS
Whether used as a butter or for texture, sunflower looks set to burst out from the shadow of pepita this year. Try my sunflower seed risotto to see why, at delicious.com.au

LAB MEAT AND FAKE MEAT
Long promised but still stumbling to make a major impact here, 2022 is the year! Expect to see everything from honey and dairy to even coffee grown this way.

YUZU
Once only available as a bottled product, this citrus, so loved in Japan and Korea, is increasingly found fresh. We are so sure it’s going to be a hit, it even features in the cheesecake on this month’s cover as well as in our recipe below.

JALAPENO
All hail the queen of chillies with its distinctly fruity fleshiness. Expect it to start eclipsing the more pedestrian long green chilli in home recipes and join other things ending in “o” (avocado, potato, tamarillo maybe) as favourites.

CRUNCHY RICE
Whether turmeric-golden and broken in a Laotian salad or last night’s leftover basmati – compressed and then fried – expect crunchy rice to be a cheap way to add texture and toastiness to everything. It’s all the joy of tadhig at the bottom of Persian chelo rice, or the socarrat of a properly cooked paella. See how it goes in this Korean-inspired snack.

Related food news: 23 things you should never do at a restaurant, according to Matt Preston