- That is a delightful taco, Merle.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
- I don't know anything in nature
that looks like this.
(upbeat music)
- Hello everybody, what's going on?
My name is Merle and I am here today
to offer you another cool vegan substitute.
Today, we're gonna be veering off
the normal course of things I do.
I've done banana peel.
- I've got peel?
Like the trash?
- I've done vegan eggs.
- It's so cute!
- Isn't it so cute?
Some of you may know, I am a true and tried plant lady.
I am obsessed with plants.
Look at all these babies!
Wow, they're really cute.
Oh my goodness, they're so cute.
So today, we're gonna do something different.
We're gonna cook with flowers.
Specifically, a hibiscus flower.
Why, you're wondering.
Well, hibiscus is actually incredibly nutritious.
It is full of antioxidants,
you probably know it because
maybe you use it for tea,
but you can actually eat the flowers
and they're supposed to have this nice,
soft kind of meaty consistency.
That's what we're gonna find out today.
So, I'm gonna make taco meat with hibiscus flowers
and then I'm gonna try it,
and then I'm gonna feed it to my co-workers.
Let's do it.
This is dried hibiscus flower.
It smells like a dream,
it smells like plums or
I don't know.
It smells like dried fruit, it smells good.
So, the first thing we wanna do is
to rinse this out, so I'm gonna go rinse this
with a strainer like,
(chuckling) where did I put it?
Oh, here it is.
I'm gonna take two cups of my dried hibiscus
and then I'm gonna rinse it until the water
comes out kind of a pink color.
So, I'm gonna go do that and I'll be right back.
Alright, so these are all rinsed and ready to go,
and now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna boil these
for about 10 minutes.
Hibiscus is very, very, very sweet,
so a little pro tip,
I'm gonna add a couple aromatics to this
to kind of try to neutralize the sweetness.
These aromatics will be some garlic and some onion.
Just gonna pop it right in there.
Alright, so we're gonna let this boil and then
I'm gonna let it sit for about two hours.
Then we can have our fun with it.
(upbeat music)
I'm gonna go strain this and then we can go
and make our tacos.
Yee-haw!
I'm just going with the basics, I'm going with what I know.
But you can do this however you want to season it.
A little bit of onion powder, some garlic powder,
got some cumin, some dried oregano, chili powder.
Whoa, that is a lot.
Red pepper flakes, and then of course
some black pepper and some salt.
Alright, let's see what we can do here.
Check that out.
Oh yeah, sizzle it up baby.
This is really easy.
This is like a super quick recipe.
I'm gonna make myself a taco, I'm gonna try it,
and then I'm gonna go feed it to my friends.
We've got our finished hibiscus taco meat!
Ooh, aah, you look so good!
You look like, you look like--
- [Camera Man] Korean barbecue.
- Korean Barbecue.
It's really got a nice like,
pulled pork kind of thing going on.
You know, this kind of reminds me of like,
spare rib meat that I used to eat
in the middle of the night back when I was a carnivore.
I would like wake up in the middle of the night,
eat it, not heat it up, you know the fat
like congealed onto the spare rib.
That was my (beep).
Anyway, not anymore.
Wow!
It's got a nice chewy, kind of a meaty texture to it.
This is yummy.
It's got a little kind of a tart,
tart aftertaste to it, but it's not too sweet,
which is what I was worried about.
Ooh yeah, come to mama.
Oh my god.
Yes, this is so good!
I'm actually really excited to present this
to my friends.
I think they're all gonna be onboard with this one.
This one's a winner.
Let's do it.
(upbeat music)
Come on down, partner.
- Wow!
- Yeah, would ya look at that.
- It looks like a taco.
- It is a taco.
You can explore it anyway you want.
- See, when you say I should explore
it is when that gets tricky.
This is how I know it's some, hmm.
- It's just a nice thing to do for a friend.
Make them some food, offer it to them.
- Okay, it's a little, it's got thumbprints on it.
- (laughing) That's just my personal touch.
- Literally.
- Mm!
- Yeah?
- Yeah!
- Oh, there's avocado in there.
Healthy fats.
- Astute.
- Yeah. (laughing)
- This looks like pulled pork.
- Hey.
- It tastes like jerky a little bit.
I had that for breakfast.
- Jerky?
- It has a pretty meaty texture.
- That is a delightful taco, Merle.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
- What are we working with I wonder?
- You want me to guess what's in that?
- It looks like pulled pork, which is like
shredded beef.
- Lime, cilantro.
- (laughing) Sorry, yes, yep.
- Tastes like meat that was marinaded in like
a fruit juice.
- What is this?
- I don't know what this is though.
- I can't wait to find out.
- You know what it is.
- Well yeah, I'd hope so.
- Olives?
- Um.
- I'm guessing it's beets.
- Nope, it sure isn't.
- Damn, it's not beets.
I don't know what to say.
- Okay, give me the first letter it starts with.
- No, you have to make one guess!
- I said olives.
- Okay, terrible guess.
- Carne asada?
(chuckling)
- No?
- Cranberries?
- I don't know anything in nature
that looks like this.
(chuckling)
- Give me the first letter.
- H.
- That doesn't help me at all.
Humboldts?
- (laughing) What the hell is that?
Is that some sort of tool?
- It's a university.
(laughing)
- You know, I have no idea.
- Hibiscus flower.
- I still don't even have no idea.
What is that?
- I would have never have got that at all.
- That's crazy.
- Oh, it's a flower, that's great.
- Okay, great it's a hibiscus flower, delicious.
- Honestly, this is probably the closest looking
to some real meat that you can possibly get.
This is not even like no bull, this is pretty good.
- Yeah, you could fool me.
This just looks like meat.
- This is definitely meaty, like this looks
like real meat and it tastes really good.
Yeah, I like this.
- Solid taco.
- Alright!
High five.
Thank you.
- Thank you!
(upbeat music)