Forget avocado on toast: according to Nigella Lawson, next year’s all about pandan

Just when you thought avocado would never go out of fashion, Nigella Lawson has called time on the creamy fruit, saying that there’s a new green food we’re all soon to be obsessed with.

According to Lawson, we’ll soon be running out to Waitrose to buy pandan: a herbaceous tropical plant that grows in Southeast-Asia.

A sweet and aromatic plant, pandan leaves are used to flavour desserts and cakes in a similar way to vanilla essence.

The cook said that she believed the ingredient is already catching on in America, and that it’s only a matter of time before it catches on over here in the UK.

“I think it’s going to be the new matcha,” she told The Times, referring to the powdered green tea that’s become popular with foodies and Instagrammers.

“I may be wrong, but we seem to be interested in that. It’s not in Waitrose. I don’t know where it is in the country yet. But I notice more and more people in America baking with pandan essence. Which comes from the leaf.”

Known as “sweet plant” in Chinese, the pandan leaf is commonly used in Southeast-east Asia to flavour stick rice and sweeten up puddings.

The relatively unknown ingredient is already popular in Leeds, where the Grill Ov Club sells a pandan-flavoured ice cream.

Lawson, who has previously been known to call the ‘next big thing’ in food trends, famously sent the sales of avocado rocketing by 30 per cent after she was featured smashing the soft fruit onto toast.

One things for sure: it won’t be long before you’re seeing pandan on your Instagram feed.