It was a whole new gastronomic experience for me–now perhaps for you too! On a recent trip to colorful Oaxaca, Mexico, with a Mission Garden tour, my eyes and tastes were opened to traditions and to tantalizing potentials of grasshoppers!! Chapulines! (cha-poo-LEE-nays). Tia Marta here to share some fun ideas for trying chapulines creatively, AND some surprising facts about their nutrition.
Grasshoppers, when cooked like this with salt and lime, look a bit more palatable than in nature. Better still–They crunch pleasantly and have tasty snack flavors! Get curious–throw preconceived notions to the wind! After all, insects are the wave of our food-future. (Now I see that chapulines are available all over the internet–no need to travel, but Oaxaca IS a special place to visit for amazing foods!)
Step 1–Roasting or toasting already-cooked chapulines in a dry iron skillet makes them into crispy delicacies–and they’re much easier to grind into the Perfect Chapulin Spice Mix, full of flavor and NUTRITION too! Did you know they are high in protein, dietary fiber, rich in vitamins A,B,and C, have magnesium, calcium, zinc, and essential fatty acids? We might think of them as “recycled, concentrated vegetables.”
Step 2 for the Perfect Chapulin Spice Mix: collect and dry a few chiltepin peppers from your own bush before the birds get them–or find them at NativeSeedsSEARCH or Tucson’s Mission Garden. When pods are dry, you only need 2 or 3 tiny chiltepin pods to add to your spice mix.
Your chapulin–chiltepin spice mix will be more off-the-wall better than any other!
Step 3: Find good natural sea salt–available at many stores. To stay as Sonoran-Desert-local as possible for this project, I made a mix of local salt crystals, one from the Sea of Cortez gifted to me by ASDM ethnobotanist/explorer/educator Jesus Garcia, and another from Guerrero Negro actually made on the Pacific coast of Baja California by Mission Garden volunteer Gay Gilbert.
Step 4: You are ready to crush your ingredients with a hand mortar and pestle! RECIPE for the Perfect Chapulin Spice Mix: (This is a good ratio for any quantity): 1 Tbsp. toasted chapulines 1 tsp. sea salt crystals 2-3 tiny chiltepin pods (to desired “heat”) Mill to desired rough or fine texture.
1st idea: sprinkle on jicama slices w/lime!
2nd idea: Chapulin Spice Mix on homemade pizza or quesadillas! I sprinkled my mix for a fast delicious lunch on a tortilla with melted cheddar cheese and nopalitos–yum!
3rd idea: Dress up hash browns for a zippy Southwest palate-pleaser with your Chapulin Spice Mix!
4th idea: For a cool (and simple) buffet or hors d’oeuvre, sprinkle Chapulin Spice Mix on sliced cucumbers or other veggies. It adds a little kick!
Another super-healthy idea: Add Braggs’ Nutritional Yeast to your Chapulin Spice Mix and toss it with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds for a grand health-enhancing snack or energy-boosting trail-mix!
Tia Marta encouraging you–don’t hesitate to take on these delicious gifts of Nature–chapulines! yes, grasshoppers– and try your hand experimenting with your own ways of enjoying them! The next time there is a grasshopper outbreak, don’t swear and fret. Grab your butterfly net! Get out to the garden for a new and different harvest on the fly! Bake them, toast them, spice them up for treats! See what kept early Zapotec and Mixtec cultures thriving with these tiny but plentiful gifts of the insect world. You will be a pace-setter for a future with changing climate!
Savor the Southwest: 