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Solving world hunger with miracle berry

posted by charles on 13 Apr 2010 in miracle berry

13

April

Executive chef of Moto restaurant in Chicago and the visionary behind a new TV show called “Future Foods“, Homaro Cantu shares how he is solving world hunger using miracle berry / miracle fruit Synsepalum dulcificum in today’s episode.

Having been homeless as a child, this episode deals with hunger, a very personal issue for Omar. This episode explores Omar’s idea of how to open the door to ending world hunger through the use of Miracle Fruit, a berry that when eaten does not allow the taste buds to taste sour and bitter.

At MOTO, the team comes up with several dishes to try out on the diners, using plants, cactus, flowers and weeds that are never eaten because of their bitter components. Later, they hold an event at the beautiful Garfield Conservatory where Omar shares his ideas for using Miracle Fruit to end world hunger.

Creeping Thyme Soup

For those of you who are adventurous and have some cooking skills here is a recipe for delicious Creeping Thyme Soup that was on the show.

Omar’s recipe for Creeping Thyme Soup is not only a meal, but hopefully a miracle invention, too.

Ingredients:
1 pound rinsed, cleaned, and trimmed “Creeping Thyme”
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons salt, (plus more for final seasoning)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Optional:
lemon zest
1/2 cup cubed feta cheese

Procedure:
In a pot, combine water and 1/2 pound of creeping thyme. Cover and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat, allow to sit and infuse for 30 minutes.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and chill water in the refrigerator.
Once water is cooled, transfer it to a blender.
Add an additional 1/4 pound of creeping thyme to the creeping thyme-flavored water.
Add olive oil, salt and sugar.
Blend for approximately 2 minutes until smooth.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
Taste the soup, add additional salt, sugar or olive oil to taste.
To serve, warm soup and add lemon juice at the last moment before serving.
Serve in a bowl and garnish with lemon zest and feta cheese cubes.

Editor’s Note: When using any wild plant, (whether store-bought or found), make sure to rinse it very well to cleanse them of any dirt or whatever else may be there.

This recipe was featured in the Miracle Food episode of Future Food

interested_observer

it would have been helpful to include some nutritional analysis of the prepared foods.

June

I am ALL for ending world hunger, but isn't it true that we have an aversion to eating some foods because they are NOT good for us? And as someone who has dabbled in herbs for food and medicine for most of my life, there are a whole LOT of plants we shouldn't be eating regularly for food, or only using certain parts of. There's a lot of knowledge there not always passed down. Yes, you may be able to eat foods off your lawn if you live in the suburbs (although I wouldn't, given the amount of Tru Green used around here), but there's a lot of plants/foods you shouldn't just eat without knowing what they can do. Some are downright poisonous. Even something we see as mundane such as nutmeg can be poisonous in large quantities. Celery in quantities lowers bloodpressure. Spinach leaches calcium from us. Many of these foods have certain qualities because they're meant to be eaten in a variety which provides balance, not alone or just because they're plentiful. There's going to have to be some form of warning or education for people who don't have the knowledge of their surrounding indigneous plants not to eat just whatever they find growing. I think it's a great catalyst as someone posted above, but the mass public tends to jump on bandwagons quickly without giving it much thought. However if it can raise money to help with the other core issues someone mentioned above, clean and available water, re-teaching indigenous farming methods and sustainability, microloans, etc....then great.

kathleenlgc

I am 2 weeks late but here goes anyway.
While I do agree people need to know what plants to stay away from. I also believe that looking at food this way gives us a completly new doorway into it. For instance People want to have mangos in the winter and they live in Chicago. What if our indigenous root vegetables tasted like fruit? The money and resources saved there can be used to promote an international food and safety mandate for all.
I believes the cause of hunger is lack of awareness and where there is awareness the blockage is fear. We can change the lack of awareness and decrease fear by banning together for miracles of food for all. feeding people should not have to take a miracle but it does.

chico

While I applaud chef Cantus initiative and desire to eradicate world hunger, the solution is not the 'Miracle Berry' in my opinion, as the issue with global famine is not that there is no rain to produce crops, not that people are refusing to eat plants because they do not taste nice. Perhaps using the proceeds of sales derived through selling and promoting the miracle berry via the restaurant is a better way to assist with ending world hunger.
Kudos to Moto for at least trying

Charles

I believe the idea of the "Miracle Food" episode was to challenge the traditional way of thinking about what could be food as well as present one possible solution for hunger relief using sustainable principles.

I agree what you're saying about using miracle berries as a catalyst to call attention to the problem of world hunger and we're currently working with several grassroots projects to address hunger in their local communities through food banks.

But as a society what we're currently doing to address world hunger isn't working. The basic cause of global hunger is not underproduction; it is the gross inequalities in distribution and local production. We will continue to treat food as a commodity so we need to empower people to feed themselves by raising their own food and one extreme example is being able to "eat your front lawn".

Every time we buy products from companies that use GMO in their ingredients we support the same agribusinesses that help perpetuate the problem. I invite you to join in the fight and help us work towards solving world hunger.

Thanks Chico

-Charles