People Really Are Preparing To Cook With Cicadas In Illinois

We're on the cusp of Cicadapocalypse and some folks are using it to get in the kitchen.

We warned you about this in the fall. There will be a ton of cicadas in our area this summer. A once-in-a-lifetime double brood emergence will create billions of cicadas. And the emergence is expected to start next month.

Getting In The Kitchen

People are dreading the amount of cicadas. They're loud, there will probably be a lot of them to sweep up, it's just a lot. I guess we just decide to cook when we're stressed (see: sourdough starters we all made in 2020) and that must be why people are sharing cicada-based recipes online.

That is a cicada salad, which is a green salad with apple, almonds, blueberry vinaigrette and roasted cicadas. It was topped with fried cicada nymphs with a mixture of creole mustard and soy sauce. NBC Chicago says that this particular salad is from a New Orleans restaurant.

Bloggers and companies are sharing other cicada-based recipes, including tempura cicadas. It's probably not bad if it's in a yummy breading with sriracha aioli. Protein?

You can Google (or TikTok search) 'cicada recipes' and find most anything. There's spicy popcorn cicadas.

Don't Knock It Till You Try It

One journalist is defending the delicacy, calling cicadas "shrimp of the dirt".

There is a right way to cook these things. They have a nutty flavor and a crunch.

Are you willing to try cicadas this summer? Tell us in our app!