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  • 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.

Hello, and welcome back to the lab where we take your questions and turn them into experiments.

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