The popularity of ethnic dishes is yielding a new trend of combining sweet and spicy flavors.
Spice Up Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes and pumpkin have natural sweetness. When paired with spices such as chiles or jalapeno, the resulting flavor is amazing. The balance of sweet and spicy is only matched by the complexity of the flavors. The best spices to pair with sweet potatoes and pumpkin are cumin, cinnamon, curry powder, paprika, cayenne and chile. Ad a splash of spice to sweet potato fries by seasoning them with paprika and chile powder. Try roasted sweet potatoes with Latin Spice Mix or baked cinnamon-spiced sweet potato fries with apple date butter dipping sauce. Instead of vegan butter or maple syrup, top your baked sweet potatoes with a spicy kick such as sriracha cashew cheese sauce. Chipotle chile powder and maple syrup come together with sweet potatoes to make chipotle maple sweet potato burgers,One Green Planet reported.
Fire Up Fruit
Fresh fruits, especially tropical and citrus fruits, are sweet, juicy and perfectly delicious on their own but paired with spice and heat, they are even more perfect. Chile peppers are tropical themselves and pairing them with fruit helps to bring out their tropical side. Fruit also helps to calm the heat which is why lemon and lime are often served with spicy food. Create a sweet and hot sauce to saute tofu and veggies in that combines fresh juice with sweet Chinese barbecue sauce and spicy hot sauce. Use whatever fruit juices you like but they should be balanced so choose one sweet fruit like mango and one more acidic fruit like pineapple.
Add some sweetness to your spicy salsa by adding fruit. A great tip is to cook with oranges to use their sweetness to balance spicy flavors. Sweet and sour dishes usually have some kind of fruit juice in them to balance the heat, One Green Planet reported.
A Spoonful of Sugar
Of course, another way to sweeten up a spicy dish is to add some type of sugar or sweetener. There are a lot of choices—sugar, brown sugar, and healthy alternatives to white sugar such as maple syrup, agave nectar, coconut sugar, and vegan honey. In Jamaican Jerk seasoning, brown sugar balances the chiles and peppers. Brown sugar is the sweet note to the sriracha and to chile sauce.
It may be a hot trend right now but people have been mixing sweet and spicy flavors since ancient times explains Rhea Parsons of One Green Planet. When something works, it becomes timeless. If you’re a fan of sweet or spicy food, try them together for exciting dishes that will make all your taste buds happy.
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