× This is an archived campaign website. Please do not use the forms and direct all enquiries regarding BUGS the film to Rosforth Films

How to dry-roast mealworms

These nutritious little larvae are bred in bulk for pet food and fish bait, and they make good snacks for humans too. It’s possible to buy dead, dehydrated mealworms online – you can eat them or cook with them straight out of the packet.

But these little larvae are pretty easy to grow at home too. If you manage to source some fresh mealworms, dry-roasting is a good ‘intro’ recipe – it’s easy and leaves you with a nutritious snack.

Roasted mealworms straight from the oven

Roasted mealworms straight from the oven. Photo: Little Herds, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Preparation

Some people suggest purging the larvae first - as you would do with some seafood or snails. This just means you don’t let them eat for two days, to ensure they’ve no food left in their systems.

Before cooking, put them in an airtight container in the freezer. Fifteen minutes will put them to sleep; 24 hours will kill them. Either is ok, it just depends on whether you want them re-animating before they’re cooked. For reasons of ethics and/or yuck factor, you might want them ‘properly’ dead.

Another stage for the extra-cautious is to boil the worms after freezing, for three minutes. This ensures they’re absolutely clean.

Cooking

Now, the larvae are ready for cooking You could deep-fry, stir-fry, or go experimental with ceviche – but here we’ll stick to the basics: dry-roasting. Just spread the larvae out on greaseproof paper and bake at 80 deg for a couple of hours.

They’re ready when browned and crunchy. Sprinkle with salt and eat hot!

More on Home cooking

A complex sandwich with... termites!

“There’s wings everywhere!” What happens when you make a toasted termite sandwich in Kenya… More →

More on Home cooking

Baking with crickets: cookies, loaf, icing

Baking with insects: Chelsea Margaux is sharing her recipes for cricket cookies, cricket banana loaf, and cricket icing. More →

More on Home cooking Snacks

Chapulines – Mexican Grasshoppers

Grasshopper tacos are making their way into the trendier eating spots of the US, as is the way with any ‘unusual’ food - sushi was once the same! More →

More on Home cooking Mealworms

'Buggis' for Burns Nicht – haggis with mealworms

As all Scottish followers will know, tonight is Burns Nicht. Yesterday, we were wondering on Twitter if someone had made haggis, the Scottish national dish, from insects yet. Today, we came across the answer and are sharing it with kind permission of the wonderful Bugs for Life project. Here's Craig MacFarlane and the bug haggis – or 'buggis'. More →

More on Mealworms

Fact check: Are insects better for you than meat?

There’s a big hype around edible insects: low in fat and high in nutrients, they're going to revolutionise food on a global scale! Is it true? BUGSfeed went fact–finding. More →

More on Snacks

Termite crackers

In Kenya, Nordic Food Lab’s lead researcher for “Deliciousness as an argument for edible insects”, Josh Evans, came up with a cracking idea for a termite dish… More →


Be the first to comment

Please check your e-mail for a link to activate your account.