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Buffalo Worms

crispy vermicelli noodle salad with yellow bean, lime and buffalo worm sauce

recipe information

01 First, whizz the buffalo worms and yellow bean sauce in a food processor to make a paste. Set aside.

02 Next, heat about 150ml/5fl oz/⅔ cup oil in a wok or large frying pan over a high heat.Once hot, add the sliced shallots and fry for a few minutes until they being to go golden brown. next, add the buffalo worm and yellow bean paste and continue to fry until it begins to darken and smell nutty. Add the sugar then lower the heat and, bit by bit, add some of the hot mixture to the beaten eggs in a heatproof bowl. Whisk constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs. Keep doing this until you have added half of the hot sauce to the eggs. 

03 Now pour the egg sauce back into the rest of the hot mixture in the wok and continue to cook over a low heat for another 2-3 minutes until thick. Take off the heat and add the juice from the can of pickled garlic, the lime juice and the mandarin juice, then keep warm.

04 Meanwhile, deep-fry the vermicelli noodles. Heat the measured oil in a deep pan to 180°C/350°F, or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Once hot, place the dried noodles in small handfuls into the hot oil and deep-fry for 20-30 seconds. They will become larger straight away.Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

05 To finish, put all the ingredients into a large bowl, including the chives, beansprouts, coriander and chilli, and mix together.

Serve immediately. if left too long the noodles will become sodden with sauce. Serves 2 - 3.

Ingredients

  • 50g/1¼ oz buffalo worms
  • 100g/3½ yellow bean sauce (soybean sauce)
  • 1 litre/1¾ pints/4 cups rapeseed (canola) oil to fry the noodles, plus a further 150ml/5fl oz/⅔ cup to cook the sauce
  • 80g/3oz banana shallots, thinly sliced
  • 100g/3½oz/½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 80g/3oz canned pickled garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 100ml/3½fl oz/scant½ cup lime juice
  • 50ml/1¾fl oz/scant ¼ cup freshly squeezed mandarin juice
  • 300g/10½oz vermicelli noodles
  • 10g/⅓oz Chinese or ordinary chives, chopped
  • 10g/⅓oz beansprouts
  • 1 tsp coriander (cilantro) leaves
  • Long red chilli, to taste. Deseeded

Eat Grub are stirring things up in the kitchen, adding edible insects to your favourite dishes! Today we present our crispy vermicelli noodle salad with yellow bean, lime and buffalo worm sauce. Zingy, healthy and bound to impress edible insects are the perfect substitute for prawns Buffalo worms are not only delicious they are also packed full of high quality nutrients. Buffalo worms are an excellent source of protein, fibre, Omegas 3 & 6, iron, calcium, Vit B12 plus many more micronutrients. This will elevate the nutritional good stuff in any plant-based dish.

Now this is a slightly difficult dish to pull off – but if you’re careful not to scramble to eggs when making the sauce, you should be fine. It’s a really exciting Thai-inspired combination of ingredients, and they can all be found in a good asian supermarket.

That’s not all. The nutrients in edible insects are completely sustainable. Insects require a fraction of the land, resources and energy compared to traditional livestock. However, you get the same nutritional benefits.

Our favourite thing about this dish is it’s so simple and very quick. So making healthier choices with a busy schedule even easier. We think this is a dish for two, but hey who’s judging? You can eat the whole lot, completely guilt free. Or keep some for lunch the next day.

Serves 2-3

We will be adding plenty more of our videos and recipes to keep things fresh, for you. We have created recipes using each of our Eat Grub edible insects. So you can try a dish for grasshoppers, buffalo worms, mealworms, crickets and cricket powder. We believe that adding edible insects to familiar dishes will make insects a staple in your diet. Once you taste how delicious insects are, and reap the nutritional rewards you will never go back. For more inspiration check out our other insect recipes.

Now that you love cooking with edible insects, help us spread the grub love further. Show your friends and family! You can give them our discount code – grublove for 15% of their order to get them started.