JARIYA: Summer Tomato: Surviving the Apocalypse with Veronica Belmont (+ Recipe!)

Monday, June 3, 2013

Summer Tomato: Surviving the Apocalypse with Veronica Belmont (+ Recipe!)

Surviving the Apocalypse with Veronica Belmont (+ Recipe!)

Posted: 03 Jun 2013 10:47 AM PDT

I get asked a lot of strange questions here at Summer Tomato, but last week the folks over at Fact or Fictional took the healthy eating questions to a whole new level by asking me to help them stay nourished in a post-apocalyptic world.

Fact or Fictional is a show hosted by Veronica Belmont in which she consults experts to prove or debunk myths from movies, TV and video games. In this episode she wanted to know if the apocalypse would leave us doomed to a life of Twinkies and malnutrition, and asked if I’d help her cook an apocalypse survival meal.

To start our meal planning we needed to make a few assumptions. First, we reasoned that there would be little fresh food available, since there would be no electricity and therefore no refrigeration. We also assumed we’d have only minimal cookware, and just a fire on which to cook anything.

Our most likely sources for ingredients would be abandoned pantries and grocery stores, where dried and maybe some canned goods could have survived. We also assumed that we could forage for some sturdier plants and weeds, and even potentially a few robust critters.

One of my primary concerns was making sure we got enough protein from our meal. I also wanted to ensure we’d get some trace vitamins and minerals that would be present in fresh plants.

The first things I grabbed were some lentils and quinoa, which together provide a decent source of complementary amino acids. Quinoa also thrives in barren environments, so the seeds could potentially be replanted as a renewable source of nutrition (both the seeds and leaves can be eaten).

I also looked for vegetables where the entire plant could be used. I chose radishes and turnips, since both the roots and the leaves are edible (and delicious).

One benefit of choosing root vegetables is that they are a more discrete food source. Since the main edible component grows underground they aren’t as immediately recognizable as food, like a strawberry might be. This could help if other apocalypse survivors raid your camp looking for food––they’d have to be garden savvy enough to recognize the plants from their leaves alone.

Edible weeds like dandelions, miner’s lettuce and purslane can be used as a source of viable nutrition as well, and are also likely to be overlooked by potential raiders.

Finally, insects are incredibly robust and are as likely to survive the apocalypse as you are––probably more so. They are an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals, so collect as many as you can. For this dish I sourced some crickets and wax moth larvae. Huge thanks to Don Bugito for making this possible.

If you’re lucky enough to encounter any pigeons or squirrels, these would be a wonderful delicacy as well.

Keep in mind that you’re unlikely to have the luxury of measuring utensils and other fancy kitchen wares, so this is meant more as a template than a rigid recipe. Use whatever you can find, especially your imagination.