Hello, and welcome back to the lab where we take your questions and turn them into experiments.
My name is Mitch - and I'm Greg, and a lot of you been asking us about the next big superfood
Which is kelp, and you know we're very skeptical superfood claims, but this one could be a miraculous
Solution for climate change, and it's super healthy. There's only one issue
- which is that -
It's really slimy and very gross and American markets are not interested in eating it, so we decided to team up with one of our -
favorite chefs, the lovely Hannah Hart, to see if we could make kelp taste good
Hello!
[Hannah] What is it? [Mitch] What is it, Greg?
This is kelp. It's seaweed.
It's grown in Maine.
Alright, so this is the dried kelp.
Yeah, so this is before they put the water in -
- so it'll be salty, and it's actually the saltwater of the ocean.
[?] on your carpet.
Oh, no!
[Greg] To making kelp taste good. [Hannah] To some good old fashion [?]
Agriculture accounts for one-third of greenhouse gas admissions
But kelp has a negative footprint as it absorbs dissolved nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon dioxide.
We use 40% of Earth's land and three-fourths of the freshwater for land agriculture.
But the production of seaweed doesn't require any land to grow on, any freshwater, or the use of fertilizers and pesticides. It's like the Tesla of food.
Recipe number one is the KLT. It's supposed to be a BLT, but we're replacing bacon with this kelp.
And then, lettuce, L; T, tomato... [Hannah] And D, delicious.
Wait, so, there are different types of kelp? [Greg] Yeah, this is dulse.
There's about thirty kinds of kelp that people are working with, but yeah, this one is particularly known for tasting like bacon.
Try it now - it won't taste like bacon yet - I don't think.
It smells heavily of foot.
So how do we turn kelp in the bacon? [Greg] We can just straight up fry this.
Kelp contains iodine, magnesium -
selenium, fiber, and it's rich in protein, Vitamin B12 and even omega-3 fatty acids.
There's a lot of good stuff in there. One study even found that the alginates in brown seaweed may inhibit the uptake of fat.
[Hannah] That was so fast - I would say two minutes? [Greg] Yeah, that was very easy. [Mitch] Quick, easy. Let's give it a try.
I'm in! Sold! Yeah!
[All] Mmmm!
Not gonna lie. I'm convinced - this is totally a substitute for bacon. If you stop eating bacon and start eating kelp -
You may also lose weight. [Mitch] True! [Hannah] Just in general.
[Hannah] Just in general. [Mitch] Double whammy!
You're probably already consuming kelp without realizing it.
This is because seaweed actually has much less rigid cell walls than land plants -
and they're rich in sugars that help them to bend and sway during the swells of the ocean. These sugars are known as -
Alginates, carrageenans, and agars, and they are used to help bind and thicken things like toothpaste, shampoo, skin cream...
They're also used in industrial foods like ice cream, and also can make the head of your beer even better.
Number two is our kelp and beans, which is a play on for pork and beans.
So we have our kelp that's been soaking to make it a bit easier to work with
and we are just going to chop it up into lots of tiny pieces, so -
Do we have a knife?
[All] Oooh, wow.
This is good. [All, harmonizing]
That doesn't look like dog food at all!
[Hannah] There we go!
You know what? This looks delicious.
[Hannah] Here's your kelp and beans.
[Greg] You can taste, like, the fishy flavor. [Mitch] The more like [?]
Nothing says a natural combination like sweet salty beans -
[Hannah and Mitch] And fish.
I would say that, like, the taste is much better than the smell.
[Mitch] Yeah. [Greg] It's not bad, though.
What if we put a little bit of the crunchy stuff on top? I just can't kelp myself.
Well, it's more kelp-y.
Yeah, it just tastes like more kelp.
I had a moment where I was like, "Am I going to gag?"
[Hannah] I don't think it's good. [Greg] We've gone too far.
I'm gonna go ahead and say a hard no to kelp and beans. [Greg and Mitch] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Near many major cities, there's a big issue because there's too many nutrients in the water and actually negatively affect the ecosystem.
But kelp needs these nutrients to grow so they actually grew kelp near the Bronx in New York City, where there's obviously like -
Probably not, like, the safest, cleanest water, and it didn't take in any heavy metals or toxins or PCBs.
It was able to grow and flourish there - actually grow faster because there was more nutrients.
So, you could grow this kelp down the street in New York City
And then you could just eat it and it'd be great for the environment.
Recipe number three is candied kelp - now that's a catchy little phrase.
So, all you'd really do is - you take your kelp
You have to soak this one, too, so we're gonna soak it in here -
Oh, how long do you soak it for?
Uh, it says it can be anywhere from an hour to twelve hours - so, it's up to you.
You just take it, cut it up, and then you mix it in with half a cup of water, half a cup of honey -
For about an hour. Then you have to bake it for 30 minutes at 390 degrees. So, it takes a little bit of a process.
That's... un-bear-liable.
Okay, so we have our final product - which is the candied kelp for us to try.
You know what?
[Greg] It's not that sweet. [Hannah] I think this is the best one so far.
[Mitch] Really? [Hannah] This is my favorite.
And I feel like it would - not fill you up, but you don't need a lot of it. My sweet tooth is being, like - [Mitch] - satisfied.
[Hannah] I'm satisfied. I'm done.
I'm happy we were able to at least make some kelp yummy foods that we did like. It's awesome to know that it has like -
A good environmental effects as well.
Kelp, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Let's do it, guys, let's open a food truck.
Thank you guys so much for watching. We want to make sure that you know we made another video on Hannah's channel.
It was about the science of love. [Greg] Yeah. [Mitch] Science of love.
Make sure to check our her channel. We'll leave a link for her video.
Otherwise, thank you so much for watching. We hope you try out these recipes. [Greg and Hannah] Thank you!
Yeah, I'm really happy. I'm very, very full of kelp.
We'll see you soon.
[Greg and Mitch] Peace.