I really do have a thing for insects. I’ve reviewed a handful of protein bars that are made with cricket flour, I’ve even made some cricket tacos, I’ve made some cricket noatmeal and I was even in an insect recipe competition with this spaghetti squash recipe. Everyone seems to be talking about crickets though, recently they’ve been in the news for how great they are for your gut health.
So I started wondering why are crickets getting all the attention? Then I remembered that crickets have a sort of big brother: grasshoppers. After doing some research I found out that grasshoppers are eaten all over the world like a bunch of other insects, but more specifically grasshoppers (chapulines) are very popular in Mexico. So I decided to reach out to one main supplier for grasshoppers in Mexico called Merci Mercado. They were more than willing to help me out with this recipe and sent me some ground grasshoppers and whole grasshoppers.
Now I was thinking about what would be a good recipe to make with grasshoppers and what came to mind was how in the Bible, John the Baptist, was known for eating a diet of “locusts and honey”. My kids, and even myself, have always found this idea intriguing that this nomad dude lived off of such a strange diet. So I thought why not try to build off this idea and make some Locusts (Grasshopper) and Honey bars. Now I know I’m not using actual locusts for this recipe, but according to wikipedia “Locusts are certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase”. So nevertheless, locusts can be considered a type of grasshopper, therefore these bars shall be called locusts and honey bars!
I looked around for a few recipes that were similar to Larabars and RXBARs and I came across this recipe. I used this recipe as a guide but made some tweaks with the nuts and protein source. I believe this came out as a great protein bar and hopefully you’ll feel the same. My kids sure do have no problem eating them! Enjoy!
Get all your ingredients together
Throw in the almonds and macadamia nuts
Grind them up to a french press coffee ground consistency like in the photo
Throw in the dates
Raw honey
Ground Grasshoppers
Cacao powder
After it’s all ground up add a little water to give it some moisture
Pour the mixture into the pyrex dish and then press in the whole grasshoppers
It should look something like this
Place them in the fridge for at least an hour, then after an hour take them out and cut them into however many bars you want
Get em on a plate
Enjoy!
1 cup raw or toasted almonds
1 cup raw or roasted macadamia nuts
1/2 cup ground grasshoppers
1 1/2 cups dates
2 tablespoons raw honey
1/2 cup cacao powder
2–4 tablespoons water
Handful of whole roasted grasshoppers for topping
Pour the almonds and macadamia nuts in a food processor. Pulse until they’re ground up pretty good.
After the nuts are ground up, add the dates, honey, ground grasshopper and cacao powder. Pulse until they’re all mixed well together.
Add in some tablespoons of water until the texture seems moist enough to press into a pyrex dish.
After the texture is good line a square pyrex dish with parchment paper and press the mixture into the dish until distributed evenly. Then take the whole grasshoppers and evenly spread them out on top and slightly press them into the mixture.
Refrigerate for about an hour then when you’re ready to eat take them out and cut into as many squares as you like. Keep refrigerated and enjoy!
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