SICK of eating the same tired old sandwich on your lunch break?

Bolton bakery giant Warburtons has carried out research into food trends for 2015 and has created 10 top tips to jazz up your butty or dinner plate this year.

According to the food experts, it is all about creativity, contrast and convenience to get taste buds tingling.

Foodie writer James Ramsden said: “The Warburtons 2015 food trends hot list reflects the shift away from ‘classical’ techniques and combinations and a move towards more modern progressive cooking — cooking that makes you sit up and take notice, cooking that surprises and delights.”

Warburtons' Top 10 food trends

1. Sweet and spicy mix up — Look out for the likes of jalapeno honey and ghost chilli honey topped on chicken-and-waffles, whipped into butter, mixed into salad dressings, snuck into sauce. It started with salted caramel but this year the idea of subtle clashes in food will become the norm.

2. A nation of grazers — Quick, portable and smaller portioned foods on the go are replacing traditional meal occasions with the continued popularity of street food testament to this trend.

3. Beneath the surface — Carrots are the new pork belly, cauliflower the new steak, winter kale the new burger. Vegetables, no longer the supporting players in restaurant meals, now have the starring roles. Watch out for parsnips making a comeback and kohlrabi, part of the cabbage family, rising in fame.

4. Creative sandwiching — Adventurous sandwiches will pick up pace in 2015 as consumers think outside the (lunch)box to add flair, not calories to their meal and enjoy food their way. Sandwich alternatives, such as thins, are hot property this year as they complement this growing trend offering consumers a versatile canvas to add exciting flavour fillings at 420 KJ / 100 Kcal per thin.

5. Breakfast evolution — Taken on-the-go during the week and ‘out-of-hours’ at the weekend, the most important meal of the day is either healthier, quicker and convenient or long and leisurely. Portable foods like yoghurts, breakfast sandwiches and fruit are in huge demand.

6. Search, eat, share — As generation Z , usually people born around the millennium who have never known a world without the internet, mobile phones or iPods, make themselves known, technology will become a core fixture of food occasions. Whether it's the restaurant experience, the ordering process or social sharing of food, a side of technology will be a must-have.

7. Manipulation — prepare for adjustments in restaurant environments and the way food is served, as foodies play with our senses and manipulate the way the brain tastes and interprets food. Drinks firm Diageo found that if you drink a glass of single malt in a room carpeted with real grass, accompanied by the sound of a lawnmower and birds chirping, the whisky tastes "grassier".

8. Noodles — the speed, ease, tastiness and value for money that noodle-based dishes offer will see the love of noodles continue in 2015.

9. Rising Stars — Just as dining is becoming less and less formal, so too do we look less to the old guard of cooking and look more to the young, exciting cooks. Shaping how and what we eat over the next few years will include Florence Knight and Marianne Lumb, who published a book this year and is pushing a number of boundaries in the kitchen.

10. Back to the future — Childhood food formats that are deliberately re-invented in an adult form – from milkshakes to fish finger sandwiches. Childhood food rituals are coming back.

RECIPES

Greens, Green, Greens

Calories: 199

Fat: 10.93g

Saturated Fat: 0.88g

Description:

Packed full of green goodness to keep you going until dinner, this appetising sandwich includes slices of avocado, crisp salad leaves and fresh peppery radishes. For juicy bursts of sweetness pomegranate seeds have been added along with pine nuts for a little crunch. Finish this sandwich with a creamy yet healthy yoghurt and chive dressing and enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 Warburtons Half & Half Sandwich Thin (420KJ / 100 Kcal)

Lettuce leaves

3 slices avocado

Small handful cress

Mint leaves

Pomegranate seeds

10 pine nuts

Finely sliced radishes

Dressing:

1 tablespoon 0% fat Greek style natural yoghurt

Small squeeze of lemon juice

A few chives

Method:

To make the yoghurt herb dressing mix together all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with a dash of salt and pepper.

Generously spread the dressing on one half of the Warburtons Half & Half Sandwich Thin. Add a layer of each ingredient - lettuce, then avocado, mint leaves, sliced radishes, cress, followed by a final sprinkling of the pomegranate seeds and pine nuts. Close the luscious layers of greens with the other half of the Thin and tuck in!

The Dagwood Thin

Calories: 288

Fat: 6.46g

Saturated Fat: 4.7g

Description:

A healthier version of a classic Dagwood sandwich which is known for its layers of meats, cheese and vegetables. The Dagwood Thin is a mouth-watering energy- boosting version packing in plenty of protein on a deliciously soft Warburtons Brown Sandwich Thin.

Ingredients:

1 Warburtons Brown Sandwich Thin (420KJ / 100 Kcal)

2 slices cooked turkey

1 slice cooked ham

1 slice Emmenthal cheese

1 dill pickle, sliced thinly lengthways

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon yellow (American style) mustard

1 tablespoon low fat mayonnaise

2 little gem lettuce leaves, shredded

Method:

Spread one half of the Warburtons Brown Sandwich Thin with low fat mayonnaise and the other half of the Thin with mustard. Carefully layer on the different toppings starting with the chicken followed by the turkey, spring onion, ham, cheese, dill pickle and lettuce. To help keep the towering Dagwood Thin standing upright, insert a skewer or a toothpick all the way into the centre and finish with an olive inserted into the skewer for decoration.

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Rootiful Salmon Thin

Total calories: 161

Fat: 2.18g

Saturated Fat: 0.4g

Description:

This sandwich recipe combines beetroot and smoked salmon working together to give your taste buds a mouth-watering treat. The capers add little bites of acidity to cut through the rich fish and earthy beetroot flavour.

Ingredients:

1 Warburtons Seeded Sandwich Thin (420KJ / 100 Kcal)

3 slices cooked beetroot

25g smoked salmon

1 teaspoon capers

1/2 teaspoon chopped dill

Dressing:

Squeeze lemon juice

1 tablespoon 0 % fat Greek yoghurt

Method:

Place the beetroot slices along one half of a Warburtons Seeded Sandwich Thin and then layer on the smoked salmon. Dot the filling with capers. Sprinkle over the dill and season with black pepper. In a bowl combine the greek yoghurt with a very small squeeze of lemon juice and mix well. Add the lemon yoghurt dressing to the other half of the Thin before placing on top of the ingredients and completing the Rootiful Salmon Thin. Serve with wedge of lemon for decoration.