New Foods and Trends

I got to try some of these at the Idea City Conference where the Ontario Science Centre and Entomo Farms teamed up to share these insect proteins to the knowledge-hungry audience at Idea City.

Now if you grew up on Disney like I did, you probably would think of Timon and Pumbaa from the Lion King, when they sing “Hakuna Matata” and explain the concept of eating insects to Simba.

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If you are squeamish and the thought of consuming insects grosses you out, one of the easiest ways to try them is in powdered form. I received a sample to try from Entomo Farms. My initial impression was it resembled cocoa powder. A deep brown colour, except the taste was similar to that of mushrooms.

As someone who does enjoy baking, I decided to make cricket banana bread.
As a dietitian, I am always trying to tweak recipes to make them healthier. Here is my version:

¾ c all purpose flour
½ c whole wheat flour
1 tbsp wheat germ
¼ c Entomo Farms Protein 2050 cricket powder (cricket flour)
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1/2 cup organic granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
¼ cup plain yogurt
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 medium ripe mashed bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F, 9×5 loaf pan. Grease pan with coconut oil.
2. In a bowl sift together cricket powder, flours, wheat germ, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl blend sugar, egg, egg white, yogurt, oil and vanilla. Blend in the bananas. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
4. Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing.

Makes 1 loaf.
Adapted from Entomo Farms Banana Cricket Bread

*Nutrition Tip*

To make the banana bread whole grain, I added ½ cup of whole wheat flour and 1 tbsp of wheat germ. Adding whole wheat flour and the germ back into the grain makes it a whole grain. The cake did not rise as much as with only white flour, but it still had a great flavour and consistency. The reason why I do not substitute all of the white flour for whole wheat is because the whole wheat flour would make the end product too dense.

Overall, I felt like the cricket powder gave the banana bread a greater depth of flavour with added protein over regular banana bread. If you would like to try consuming insects, cricket powder added to your traditional recipes in small amounts is a great way to try it!