I first tried euglena in a biscuit at my hotel on Ishigaki, an island in Okinawa. I had no idea what it was. When I found a bag of the powder for sale, I bought it to bring home.
The package had a yogurt recipe on it, so that’s where I started. Mix the powder into yogurt, add some fruit and granola, and you have a green parfait. I’m calling it a yogo parfait. It takes about five minutes.
Ingredients
The base
- 1 cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp euglena powder
Optional toppings
- Honey or maple syrup, to taste
- Fresh blueberries or sliced strawberries
- Granola or toasted almonds
Let’s make it
Mix the base. Stir the euglena powder into the yogurt until the color is even. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to catch any pockets of powder.
Add toppings. Spoon the yogurt into a bowl or glass. Add fruit, granola or almonds, and a little honey or maple syrup if you want it sweeter. Layer it if you’re feeling fancy. Otherwise, just eat it.
So what is euglena?
This is the part I went down a rabbit hole on. Euglena is a single-celled organism with some characteristics of both plants and animals. It can photosynthesize, but it also swims using a little whip-like structure called a flagellum. The Japanese name is ミドリムシ (midorimushi), or “green bug.” It isn’t an insect.
Euglena Co.’s explainer covers the biology and how they grow it on Ishigaki. The company also uses euglena oil as an ingredient in biofuel. I was just trying to figure out what was in my hotel biscuit, and somehow ended up reading about fuel for planes.
Why I brought it home
You’ll see euglena sold as a superfood, with plenty of claims about its nutrients. I have no idea whether a teaspoon in my yogurt does anything for me. I bought it because I was curious, and the recipe on the bag gave me an easy way to try it.
That’s what I like about bringing ingredients home from a trip. I tried something on Ishigaki, got curious about it, and now I can make breakfast with it in Chicago.