Yesterday I took my first serious foray into cooking with insects. It was a success!

Instead of extolling the virtues of cooking with insects (for your health and for the environment), I will point you to a few blogs and websites:

Girl Meets Bug, Don Bugito, Small Stock Foods,  Insects are Food, The Bug Chicks, The Bug Chef

And here is what I did. I read a few websites on how to handle crickets, and then devised my own recipe for chocolate cricket protein bars. I think they turned out delicious, and you can’t tell there are crickets involved at all.

Except for the one I left on the plate…

Chocolate cricket protein bars

36 (or more) live crickets
3 tbsp coconut flour
3 tbsp almond flour
1 tbsp chia seed
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
2 tbsp cocoa powder
10 dates
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup almond butter (or peanut butter)
1/3 cup coconut oil

Preparing crickets: Try to get medium size, live crickets without wings. Freeze to kill them, then put into boiling water for two minutes to clean them. Place on a baking sheet, put in at 200F for 45 minutes. You can use as many crickets as you would like, next time I will use at least 50. After they have baked, roll each one between your fingers to break off the legs and antennae. Place the cricket bodies in a food processor until finely broken down. You can take them out and crush them with a rolling pin if any bits are still too big.

Then add your walnuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts to a food processor until they are a fine meal. You can add the remaining ingredients to the food processor, or transfer to a larger blender. Process everything together until it is a sticky, consistent texture.

Press into a baking dish or pan, and put in the fridge to cool. Later cut into bars to eat!

My description of the amount of each ingredient is approximate. And there are lots of ways you could adjust this recipe to suit your dietary (or taste) needs. I am excited to sneak crickets and waxworms into even more recipes!