Every time I come across a climate-friendly ingredient that’s new to me, I want to start cooking with it immediately. But in a world where just a few species dominate our food system, it can take some work to figure out how.
Of the thousands of edible species in the world, humans globally rely on just 15 of them for 90% of our calories. Some of those species are grown in environmentally destructive ways, and others may not be well-equipped to continue to serve as cornerstone foods as the planet warms – which is why many advocates and sustainability-minded chefs are calling for a shift toward foods that are more naturally climate-resilient and require fewer harmful inputs, like fossil fuel-based fertilizers.
So what if you, like me, want to embrace some of the alternative foods that experts say are better suited to our planet’s changing climate? Where can you buy them, how do you cook them, and what does it take to make their flavors shine?
Even if you know a food is better suited toward our changing climate, it can be hard to start eating it if you don’t know how to cook with it. As Joseph Yoon, a chef and edible insect ambassador, told me last year while serving up cicada stir-fry, there’s a learning curve with any ingredient. If someone encouraged you to try garlic for the first time and you didn’t know any better than to eat it raw, for example, you might hate it. But once you learned to work with it properly – roast it, sauté it and add a few cloves to savory meals – it might just become a kitchen staple.
To move toward a menu that can last on our warming planet, the same approach needs to be taken with climate-resilient foods. Think amaranth, a so-called “weed” that thrives in the face of drought; taro, a root vegetable that can weather heavy flooding; and kelp, the “tofu of the sea” that fights ocean acidification. Read on to hear from a restaurateur, a home chef and an expert forager for their tips on how to cook with these 21st-century-ready crops.
Amaranth: wilted greens, pancakes and chocolate bark
What it is: Most amaranth species are native to Mesoamerica, but they’re grown all over the world, from India and China to west Africa. The entire plant is edible: the seeds are consumed as a pseudo-cereal akin to quinoa or buckwheat in the Americas, while the leaves and stems are often eaten as a green vegetable in Asia and Africa.
The plant has proved its resilience time and again. When Spanish colonizers tried to ban the Aztecs and Maya from growing it, amaranth continued to grow as a “weed” and via seeds passed down from generation to generation.
Why you should eat it: Today, amaranth’s hardiness has continued to help it thrive: the crop is naturally drought-resistant, making it “a suitable crop for nutritional security in a rapidly changing world”, according to recent research.
Plus, according to Tama Matsuoka Wong, a professional forager based in New Jersey, amaranth is already growing in all kinds of places. “We just think it’s a weed, so we disregard it completely and we spray it and try to eradicate it,” she said.
Wong, who supplies foraged ingredients to Michelin-approved New York restaurants like Daniel and Oxalis, has seen examples of amaranth’s hardiness up close. Last year’s drought made it difficult for her neighbor, an organic farmer, to keep his corn adequately watered, she said. But even as the corn fields turned brown, the amaranth growing uncultivated nearby was doing just fine.
How to prepare it: Wong’s favorite way to eat it is to follow the lead of Chef Phet of the New York City-based Laotian restaurant Khe Yo, where leaves and stems of young amaranth plants are sautéed with ginger and fish sauce. From there you can stir in ground beef and corn and serve over rice for a full meal, she said, or add the wilted greens to eggs or ramen for a boost of fiber and vitamins. Amaranth just needs to be paired with “something a little stronger, because it has a really mild flavor”, she said.
Amaranth seeds can also be ground down into flour, which can be used as a gluten-free substitute in pancake mix, cookies and more, while the seeds can be cooked into a porridge and eaten like oatmeal, added as a thickener to stews and soups, or popped like popcorn and added to homemade chocolate bark. And if you’re not in the mood to cook, just grab some granola from a brand like Kind.
Where to get it: The best way to find amaranth greens in the US is to forage like Wong does – they’re not generally sold at grocery stores or farmers’ markets. But if that’s not possible, Wong notes, you can try talking to a farmer at a market and asking them to bring amaranth next week – there’s a good chance they may already have some growing on their property.
And if you can’t get your hands on the fresh greens to eat as a vegetable, you can always try amaranth seeds or flour, which are sold by grocery store brands like Bob’s Red Mill.
Kelp: the flavor of ‘beautiful clean ocean air’
What it is: Nicknamed the “tofu of the sea” for its versatility, kelp has long been grown as a food source in Japan and Korea, and some Native groups in what’s now called the US have had long relationships with kelp, too. But the crop has begun to take off more widely as an industry within North America in the last few decades as dwindling fish stocks and more intense storms render other forms of aquaculture more uncertain.
Why you should eat it: Kelp is appealing from a sustainability perspective because it doesn’t require fertilizer or pesticide. Plus, it provides a host of ecosystem services: the sea vegetable grows rapidly, drawing excess nitrogen and carbon dioxide from the water, battling the ocean acidification that threatens shellfish and other marine life.
How to prepare it: According to Emily Mingrone, the chef and restaurant owner behind New Haven, Connecticut, establishments like Tavern on State and Fair Haven Oyster Co, kelp is delightful to cook with. “You know when you sit on a beach and you smell beautiful clean ocean air? It’s like that, in flavor form,” she said. Plus, “it’s surprisingly forgiving and versatile” to work with – because it contains so much moisture, it’s almost impossible to overcook.
Though the forms of seaweed people might be most familiar with in a culinary setting – think Japanese nori – aren’t actually kelp, kelp can be served in many of the same ways. Mingrone recommends blanching and julienning fresh sugar kelp and mixing it with cucumber and snap peas for a crunchy salad, wrapping grilled fish in it to infuse the meat with a briny flavor, or adding it to soups and stocks for a hit of umami.
Where to get it: Mingrone is lucky enough to share a marina with a kelp farm, so she has no problem getting her hands on it, but she recommends asking any local fishmonger for recommendations if you’re having a hard time finding it fresh in grocery stores.
And even if you’re landlocked, you’ve still got plenty of options to choose from. Akua kelp burgers are stocked in the freezer section of many grocery stores nationwide, as are a variety of kelp condiments made by Barnacle Foods, which incorporates kelp into everything from BBQ sauce to pickles (my personal favorite is the kelp chilli crisp).
Taro: peel, cook, pound and ferment
What it is: While taro is new to some mainland Americans, it’s a part of everyday eating for many Hawaiians. According to Relle Lum, a Native Hawaiian, home cook and recent contestant on PBS’s The Great American Recipe, mashed taro – or kalo, as it’s called in Hawaii – is often the first solid food a baby is fed, and something Hawaiians of all ages will continue to eat throughout the rest of their lives.
The starchy root vegetable is native to south-east Asia, where it is still commonly grown and eaten, and is also enjoyed throughout Africa and the Caribbean.
Why you should eat it: Taro’s sustainability chops stem from the fact that the crop can produce a high yield with just a little bit of land, and it can be grown in either wet or dry fields, making it a good choice in areas with uneven rainfall or flooding (a taro corm – the part of the plant most commonly eaten – can survive for at least a week underwater).
How to prepare it: One challenge of cooking with taro is that it contains calcium oxalate, “which can cause a very irritating itch if you don’t cook it down well”, said Lum. But she doesn’t think that you should let that intimidate you. “Just don’t eat it raw,” she said, and the problem is solved. Her other tips include oiling your hands while working with mashed taro, since it can get quite sticky, and submerging peeled taro in water with a squeeze of lemon if you’re going to leave it out for a bit so it doesn’t oxidize and change color.
Lum’s favorite way to eat taro is one of the most common in Hawaii: peel, cook, pound and ferment it into a paste to make poi, which is a mild-tasting starchy side that can take the place of rice or mashed potatoes. She also likes adding taro leaves to beef luau stew and incorporating bright purple taro into homemade dinner rolls. For dessert, her favorite treat is fried mochi balls made with poi, or kulolo, a taro pudding, that she whips up in her Instant Pot.
Where to get it: Mainlanders can often find taro in Asian grocery stores, and Lum also recommends Taro Brand frozen poi, which can be shipped to the mainland, for people who don’t want to make their own. My family also loves Terra taro chips – like potato chips, but with a hint of sweetness – that are sold nationwide.
“It’s important to be able to find ways not only to nurture yourself, but the land, too,” said Lum. “So it would be great to put kalo on the map more so people can learn about it and realize how yummy it is.”
