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Algae has what I sometimes call the "hempseed problem": it tastes awful. Hempseeds are highly productive, nutritious, and smash almost every other whole plant f
by scythe 4y ago
Algae has what I sometimes call the "hempseed problem": it tastes awful. Hempseeds are highly productive, nutritious, and smash almost every other whole plant food on the crucial protein:fiber ratio, coming in at 12:1. The only problem is, you have to eat them.
Japan pretty much identified every kind of seaweed that you can eat without puking a thousand years ago and the list is not long. A tablespoon of spirulina is a great way to ruin a smoothie, never mind that it mostly comes from the disappearing Lake Chad.
So it's heavily processed, and it could certainly get into food products that way, but nobody will notice — or care — that they're eating algae-derived food products. If you doubt that, just look up where xanthan gum comes from, or consider that Aspergillus niger is the primary source of citric acid.
- dundarious 4y agoI eat shelled hemp seeds pretty much every day at this point, but even when first trying them I thought they tasted pretty innocuous, and very easily overpowered by the rest of the dish. I put it in quinoa salads and butternut squash stews all the time (at the point of consumption, I never cook them into the stew). Have never had anyone tell me there was a rank flavor in the mix either.
- scythe 4y agoMaybe my mistake was trying to cook them into the stew. But you have to eat quite a bit to get a significant amount of protein — about six tablespoons for 20 grams. So if you just put a spoonful into a salad I'm sure it's fine, but it's not functioning as a source of macronutrients. For comparison, poppyseeds are, in principle, a great source of calcium, but you can't use them that way.
- dundarious 4y agoI see now, I wouldn’t want the majority of a dish to be hemp seeds. I’m eating them for a topup of omegas in a nice balance. And not too much, just enough to cover the surface of the bowl, which is still a few tbsps. A salad for me is mostly quinoa and chickpeas so I’d rather get my protein from them. Somewhat similarly, lentils and other beans in a stew.
- allisdust 4y agoBtw, if you ever had Indian cuisine, you had hempseeds. Basically they can be integrated into any cuisine without being the main dish.