That’s your trigger warning, and it’s all you’re getting, except this: if you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas.
I’m here to clarify things and dispute misinformation on websites written by people who have no first-hand experience (or possibly robots), where they talk about one cicada stage and then give a recipe for a different stage.
Starting with the 2004 Brood X periodical cicada emergence in Washington, DC, and continuing 17 years later with the 2021 emergence, I have harvested, cooked, and eaten cicadas in two of their stages: nymph (in the shell, brown, shiny, just as they are coming out of the ground) and teneral (newly emerged, wings not descended yet, whitish color, soft, look like shrimp). I have not eaten adults and don’t plan to, but I’ll let you know if I do. I like cicadas savory – let somebody else have the chocolate and cinnamon ones. Also, I think they are delicious, a flavor not to be disguised with a lot of spices or extras.
NYMPHS: ROASTED, CRUNCHY AND NUTTY
Harvest and Preparation
If you’ve had grasshoppers, these are similar but bigger and more flavorful. If you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas.
I’ve found nymphs coming out of the ground at all times of day, but your best bet is early morning or late night. By late morning, most of them have emerged from the shells and are drying out. Take a paper bag and put them in there. They’ll climb, but it’s hard for them to latch on to your bag. They will shrink, so get more than you think you want.
When you get home, put them in a bowl and wash them in several rinses of water until there is no dirt coming off in the bowl. Like carrots, they live in the ground and are dirty. Massage their legs and get any dirt out from under there. This honestly has taken me 7-8 rinses.
Dry them off on a paper towel.
Put them in a container in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (a very low temperature for slow roasting) with the pan inside. Take out the pan and throw the nymphs on. I dry roasted them without oil or seasoning. Leave them in for about an hour and 15 minutes – ovens are different, so you may want to taste one after an hour or leave them in longer. You’re looking for a uniform crispiness, close to the texture of a pretzel, with nothing gooey on the inside.
Remove the legs if you want – I haven’t found them to be problematic, but some people don’t like them. You can grind them into powder and throw them into anything for a little extra protein.
CICADA TENERALS: PROTEIN-PACKED MUSHROOMS
Harvest and Preparation
If you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas.
You can find tenerals – newly emerged “softshell” cicadas that haven’t hardened yet – in the late night or early morning, but if you wait too long, the birds will beat you to it. Any teneral stage before they turn black and harden is fine, from the upside-down ones perpendicular to the tree as they are emerging, to the ones hanging on their shells with their wings fully formed but not hard yet. Put them in a paper bag. If you’re going to be out more than a couple of hours, take an ice pack, because they will start to harden. Get more than you think, because they will shrink with cooking. Here are some photos of tenerals:
When you get home, put on a pot of boiling water. Rinse your tenerals to remove dirt or grass. When the water is at a full boil, throw in the tenerals and boil for 3 minutes, then drain. Then they will keep in the fridge for a week or so, or in the freezer for a year (just pack them tight to avoid freezer burn), so you don’t have to use them immediately.
Alternatively, stick them straight into the freezer without boiling. I prefer boiling because it kills them immediately and deals with any (very rarely encountered) bacteria that they may have picked up.
Now you can do anything you would do with mushrooms, because they have a similar texture. To me, they smell like boiled peanuts (best food ever?) and taste like an asparagus-laced mushroom. Here are a few things I’ve tried.
CICADA TENERAL SCAMPI Serves 3
If you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas.
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp or more butter
1 pint of mushrooms of your choice, sliced (optional)
40 or so cicada tenerals (see method above)
chopped garlic, half a head to a whole head, depending on your taste
2-3 bunches of green onions (greens only), cut into ½-inch pieces
¼ cup white wine
pasta of your choice, cooked according to package
grated parmesan or romano cheese to top (optional)
Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, and sauté over high heat until you see a little browning on one side. Add cicadas and sauté until you see a little browning. Start your pasta cooking. Add garlic and green onions and sauté for a minute on high heat, then turn the heat down to the lowest setting and put the lid on. Check in 2 minutes to make sure it’s not too dry and burning; if it is, add a splash of water. When the garlic is soft (or brown if you like it that way), turn it back to high briefly and add the wine, which will bubble up. When it settles down, take it off the heat and add everything to your pasta. Add more butter at the end if you want. Serve and eat. Looks like this:
CICADA TENERAL STIR-FRY Serves 4
If you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas. This is based on the kind of stir-fry you get at a Japanese steakhouse, and it’s similar to the first cicada recipe I made in 2004.
1 Tbsp peanut/canola oil or other neutral oil with high burn point
1 medium onion, diced small
2 zucchinis or summer squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pint mushrooms of your choice, sliced
40 cicada tenerals (see preparation method above)
2-3 bunches green onions, greens only, cut into ½-inch pieces
5 or more cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. pureed ginger (bought in a jar) – experienced cooks can use fresh ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce or commercial teriyaki sauce, or more/less to taste
Toasted sesame oil to taste (optional)
Unsalted roasted peanuts for topping (optional)
Toasted sesame seeds for topping (optional)
Get the wok or skillet hot and add the oil. On the highest temperature, add the first 7 ingredients (before the vinegar) one at a time and cook each for 1-2 minutes before adding the next (i. e. until each one starts to brown). This is hands-on – stir constantly to prevent burning and sticking. When everything is pretty well cooked, add vinegar, which will bubble and sizzle. After about half a minute, turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Serve over rice.
CICADA TENERAL OMELET/FRITTATA Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side
If you have a shellfish allergy, do not eat cicadas. If you don’t like my method, just prepare a spinach and mushroom omelet like you usually do, but use cicada tenerals instead of mushrooms. Most of these ingredients are optional – you can just use cicadas if you want – this is a sort of Florentine spin. Add ham or cooked bacon if you want.
5 eggs
½ cup whole milk
1 tsp salt or to taste
2 oz. cubed or crumbled cheese: feta, fontina, parmesan, gruyere all work well
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter to coat the skillet for cooking
half a bunch of spinach
20-30 cicada tenerals (see preparation method above)
½ cup sundried tomatoes from an oil-packed jar, julienned
1 cup white beans, cooked
Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and add the milk, beat together with a fork until there are no large sections of just yolk or just white visible (but you don’t have to beat it forever). Add salt and cheese to the egg mixture.
Experienced cooks can combine these steps to tighten up the timing, but everything needs close supervision because it’s pretty quick/hot cooking.
In a nonstick skillet with a lid, sauté cicada tenerals in olive oil until they’re getting brown on both sides. Set aside. In the same skillet, add the spinach and a splash of water, cover, and let it wilt. When it’s cooked, add sundried tomatoes and beans to warm them. Add a bit of salt if you like, keeping in mind that the cheese may be salty enough for the whole dish. Take off heat.
Over medium heat, coat a small nonstick oven-safe skillet (8-inch would work well) with olive oil or butter, and let it get uniformly hot. Add the egg mixture to the skillet and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 3-4 minutes and preheat the oven broiler to 500. When the egg mixture is getting cooked on the bottom, put the skillet in the oven with the light on and keep a close eye on it. (It will not be here long – just long enough to get the top cooked – I usually don’t even get the skillet handle hot, but every oven is different, so make sure you have an oven mitt to remove it.) When it’s cooked thoroughly on the top and bottom, transfer it to a plate and add cicada tenerals, spinach, and all the other toppings. You can put them on half and fold it over or just put them all on top pizza-style. Optionally, top with cooked bacon or ham.
