From carrot and courgette to pumpkin and sweet potato, there was no vegetable that couldn’t be shredded to ribbons.
Sugar became the enemy, processed food was the work of the devil and everyone seemed to be carrying a flask or fancy water bottle. So what can we look forward to in 2017?
Here we take an irreverent peek at the food and drink that could be creeping into our kitchens very soon . . .
Scandanavia Mania
First came their TV dramas, then their chunky knitwear and finally — thanks to the popularity of Hygge (the Danish art of cosy living) — comes the food and drink.
Salt block cooking was introduced to the UK two years ago but now, due to the Hygge craze, salted and cured fish and meat is expected to take off.
The salt, mined in the Himalayas, comes in one huge, heavy block like a tombstone. Highly versatile, it’s used to grill, sear and cook food and is resistant to extreme heat and cold.
One of the most popular salt block methods is to buy two of them and cure fish such as salmon or tuna between the blocks for up to three days . . . just don’t drop it on your foot when taking it out of the fridge.
We may think of salt as unhealthy, but due to the low porosity of the blocks, the salt that comes through into the cooking is subtle and evenly distributed. When placed in an oven or over a flame, the block will heat as a surface to cook the food upon, but will not melt.
Smorging Parties
When it comes to large party entertaining things are about to get much more sophisticated. The smorgasbord, or smorrebrod, as it’s called in Denmark (a large sharing platter) is the way forward. When it comes to dinner parties, formal, three-course sit-downs are old hat.
‘Smorging’, as it’s known, will be popping up at dinner parties in 2017. A good board should have plenty of salted and pickled fish, with a variety of hard and soft cheeses, cured meats, salads and pickles.
Meals in a Mug
Not having time to cook from scratch can never again be an excuse in 2017. A trend for cooking entire meals by microwaving ingredients in a mug proves that you can prepare a home-cooked meal during a TV advert break.
The craze for mug cooking started when a recipe for a molten chocolate cake took the internet by storm.
With 97 per cent of households owning a microwave, recipes have been developed and expanded to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The chef Theo Michaels, a MasterChef semi-finalist in 2014, has published a book of 50 microwave meals featuring everything from spaghetti bolognese to stuffed chicken breasts. Prepare, place in the oven and wait for the ping.
Seaweed Spagehetti
It used to be that the only time we encountered seaweed was when it wrapped itself around our legs on a beach holiday.
Next year we could all be eating it for dinner. Already familiar as a salad or deep-fried as part of a Chinese takeaway, the market is expanding with seaweed tipped to become the big thing.
Seaweed crisps are available as an alternative to the fattier varieties and seaweed granules and flakes offer a healthier way of flavouring food than salt.
Low in calories, vegan and high in calcium and iron, seaweed is expected to be 2017’s most popular superfood.
Vegetable Yoghurts
The trend for healthy eating is expected to continue and in 2017 you may be swapping your strawberry yoghurt for one flavoured with beetroot.
Flavours featuring the sweeter-tasting vegetables such as carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin and beetroot have proved popular in the U.S. and Australia.
But don’t have them with your morning coffee — vegetable yoghurts are served as an accompaniment to spicy savoury meals such as curry.
Cottage Cheese revival
Naturally low in fat and high in protein, cottage cheese was the food of choice for every calorie-counting, dieting woman in the Seventies and Eighties.
Then suddenly, it went horribly out of fashion. Put off by the texture and bland taste, the public kicked cottage cheese to the kerb and embraced yoghurt instead.
But with the growing appetite for low-carb, high protein foods, cottage cheese is back with a new image. The taste is creamier, the texture less gloopy and flavours more appealing.
Pick up some Poke
So over sushi? Then Hawaiian poke (pronounced poh-keh) is the fish that may be floating your boat in 2017.
Similar in colour and texture to tuna, it is marinated in soy and lime and served raw. Poke bowls (fish mixed with salads and proteins) are already fashionable in the U.S. and Poke bowl restaurants are popping up around the country
Aubergine Bun fight
Fuelled by the influence of clean-eating celebs, gluten-free food has soared in demand over the past two years.
Building on that, we can expect an increase in ‘meaty’ vegetables being used as alternatives to less fashionable carbohydrates such as pasta, fries and bread.
Vegetable crisps and sweet potato French fries are already available in supermarkets.
Leading the way in 2017 will be the aubergine. Expect to see aubergines replacing burger buns and pasta sheets in lasagne.
Wacky Water
Forget hugging trees, in 2017 we could end up drinking them. Described as tasting ‘like a breath of fresh air’, birch sap is naturally sweet and high in antioxidants. Added to spring water, it makes for a healthy, thirst-quenching drink.
Cactus water is also predicted to spike in the coming months. Extracted from prickly pears, it is also packed full of immune-boosting antioxidants and minerals. Also tipped for success is cold-pressed watermelon juice.
The singer Beyonce recently bought a large stake in a company called WTRMLN WTR, saying: ‘It’s the future of clean, natural hydration.’
Sweet, low- calorie and high in potassium, watermelon water and juice is predicted to be as big as coconut water.