Ask anyone who has eaten Little Lad’s Herbal Corn and they’ll tell you — it’s addictive. There are numerous testimonies and five-star reviews in the blogosphere and oodles of articles published regaling the popped corn with an herbal twist, but it’s not addicting in a negative sense, assures owner and founder of Little Lad’s restaurants Larry Fleming.

“I tell people it’s an addiction to nutrition,” says Fleming. “Popcorn is just part of the ingredients. The other parts are herbs and nutrition.” Although he wouldn’t divulge the sought-after recipe, he explains that popcorn is a whole grain which provides the body with nutritionally beneficial fiber, and the herbs provide B vitamins which people tend to lack if they are eating lots of white rice, pasta and breads.

“The body is actually craving B vitamins and you get it from Herbal Corn in a good amount so people end up saying, ‘Wow, I want some more.’”

Fleming says that it’s just like the times when you’re sitting around mulling over what to have for dinner and you can’t shake the desire for a salad; your body wants vegetables and the nutrition they provide. You naturally crave what your body needs.

“Herbal Corn tends to give people something they are missing in their diet, so they like it,” he says.

Larry and his wife Maria have been providing good tasting — good for you — food for the past several decades. They have opened a plethora of vegan restaurants the world over, from Nigeria to Marseilles, London to Portugal.

“We’re trying to provide people with healthier alternatives,” says Fleming of his restaurants’ philosophy. “I’m not out there pointing my finger and screaming at people to eat this or don’t eat that. I like people to see that there are alternatives, and by giving them that opportunity they can make choices.”

Currently, they have U.S. restaurants in New York and, in Maine, on Congress Street in Portland. They also have a manufacturing location in Corinth where they make several different products including granola, crackers and the revered herbal popcorn.

The origin of Herbal Corn began when Fleming and his wife were trying to come up with an alternative side dish to serve with their sandwiches at the Maine restaurant — something that would be good for you and taste great. They began making popcorn, seasoning it with herbs and spices, and soon a following developed.

“People loved it and starting asking for popcorn to take with them,” laughs Fleming. “Pretty soon we had to start bagging it and delivering it.” Stores began calling next, requesting to sell the popcorn to quell customer demand, and Herbal Corn hit natural food stores across the state and throughout New England.

A true testament to the product itself, Fleming has never marketed it in big ad campaigns. The Herbal Corn craze grew simply from word of mouth, spreading like wildfire until natural food stores throughout Maine had to scramble to keep it on the shelves.

“We have many customers who come in for that one product,” says Joanne D’Unger, manager at Axis Natural Foods in Auburn. “We just got a delivery (Tuesday) of three cases of large, one case of medium and one case of small (bags) and I’m sure they’ll be gone by the weekend. It is incredibly popular. In our snack aisle it is definitely our best selling product.”

So what’s all the fuss about? It’s is a light, almost buttery popcorn with hints of dill and just the right amount of salt. It leaves a sweet, residue on your lips that makes it hard to stop going back for more.

Looking at it in the clear plastic bag, one can see green specks of herbs and a slight yellow hue on the puffy white morsels. The ingredients on the label read: Non-GMO (genetically modified organism) popcorn, herbs and spices, soybean oil and sea salt. However, Herbal Corn addicts swear that there’s some special ingredient, perhaps in the herbs and spices category, that has them constantly craving.

“There are some people that kind of whisper that (little Lad’s) must put in some sort of secret ingredient that addicts you to this popcorn,” says D’Unger. “We have some people here that think it may be nutritional yeast, dill weed and sea salt, but the people who deliver Little Lad’s just give us a sort of enigmatic smile as if to say, ‘Good guess.’ They won’t reveal the secret seasonings.”

Larry Fleming remains just as tight-lipped on the secret to his popular popcorn. “There are about five hundred different types of yeast, so that probably isn’t a very good description, but we have a combination of herbs and seasonings,” he says elusively. “I think people just want things that are good for them and they like.”

Herbal popcorn

Recipe courtesy of the Cornucopasetic Blog

mazirian.blogspot.com

First: Pop your corn according to your favorite method (my weapon of choice is a cast iron skillet). I assume below that you’ve popped 3/4 cup of unpopped corn, which is all my skillet can manage without blowing its lid off.

Second: Choose your fat. The Little Lad’s label says that they use soy bean oil, but you can do better than that. Try melting some Earth Balance (which, admittedly, is not really food), or just use some light vegetable oil (such as canola), or go one step further and make an oil infused with dill and garlic and pepper or something along those lines. Toss 2–4 tablespoons of your fat of choice with your popped corn.

Third: Toss your corn with 1/4 cup or more of nutritional yeast. It’s best to add the yeast a little bit at a time or else you end up with a mess. In fact, you’ll end up with a mess anyway as the yeast tends to fly away (which is one reason you need to coat the corn with the fat first).

Fourth: Add 1 teaspoon dried dill (or better yet, somewhat more than that amount of finely chopped fresh dill) and salt to taste; toss the corn well to mix it all in.

Charlotte’s spicy herbal popcorn

From Sparkrecipes.com

Ingredients:

12 cups popcorn (popped without oil)

1.5 tablespoon Smart Balance

1.5 tablespoon flax oil

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Dash of hot sauce

Dried: dill, parsley, cilantro, thyme, oregano, or whatever’s on hand (the more the merrier)

Dash of cumin

Garlic salt

Directions: Pop the popcorn. Melt the Smart Balance in the microwave with the dried herbs only (not the spices). Add the flax oil, hot sauce, nutritional yeast and cumin to the smart balance, mix and combine well. Toss with the popcorn and add garlic salt to taste. Makes 12 1-cup servings.

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