From Mofongo with pasta to creating it from scratch, incorporating chickpea flour, sixth to eighth grade children cooking this Saturday with a view to including the first Puerto Rican dish in the recipe book of the laboratory of the “Space Food Systems“Of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, in English).
The winning dish of the NASA Hunch Astronaut Culinary Challengewhich gave Puerto Rican students the opportunity to develop cooking recipes designed for astronauts of the International Space StationIt was a chickpea paste prepared by three students of the Miguel Meléndez Muñoz school, in Bayamónwho accompanied her with spinach, tomato, peppers and other vegetables.
The leader of the group “Astrobites”, Sophia AugustHe stressed that his “Garden Chickpea Pasta” was based on “a lot of work” over the last weeks by being carried away by all nutritional requirements.
For its part, the group of “The Gourmet Galactic”, composed of eighth grade students of the Second Bayamoncito Unit, of Good watersprepared an integral paste mixed with mofongo of banana of the country bathed in a creamy sauce based on Greek yogurt.
“We liked the idea of giving it the Puerto Rican touch, the touch of the island. We decided to choose the mofongo because it is a very famous meal in Puerto Rico ”he said Evan Román From the American Military Academy dining room, in Guaynabowhere the event was held.
While machucaba the bananas, Yadier Omar Sierra Sotothe leader of his team, He described the opportunity as “unique in life.” He said he likes the kitchen and that he had “the best team.”
1 /19 | From mofongo to chickpea paste: students prepare Puerto Rican dishes for astronauts in space. Children between sixth and eighth grade cooking this Saturday with a view to including the first Puerto Rican dish to the NASA Space Food Systems Laboratory Book. – Pablo Martínez Rodríguez
This is the first time that the culinary contest in Puerto Rico is celebrated and this year’s theme was “Dish pasta”. The five groups, composed of students, had to manage to create an original recipe from 200 to 400 calories, with less than 10 grams of fat, less than 300 milligrams of sodium, among other requirements.
“They learned about nutritional requirements in environments without gravity, because astronauts cannot consume any sodium. The challenge is to create dishes that have good flavor in space “explained the doctor Gerardo Morelldirector of NASA Puerto Rico Space Grant.
While, Bob ZeekManager of the NASA HunchHe stressed that “we have students competing and making real food for astronauts with all nutritional value.” “The winning plant will travel the space station,” he said.
Zeek will send the winning recipe for the “Garden Chickpea Pasta” to the Food Laboratory of the NASA Johnson Space Centerin Texas, to be prosecuted and then sent to astronauts in missions.
The sixth grade group of the San Juan Sports School prepared the “Jíbara Pasta”, which included yellow. “It is a demonstration of Puerto Rico and seems to us an interesting experience,” said the student Nathalia Santana, Next to his four teammates.
From the same municipal school, they presented themselves Nicolás Díaz and Yaviel Parrillaof eighth grade, with a paste bathed in Puerto Rican Sofrito, which they also considered would give a unique touch to food in space.
The leader of the “Stellar Chefs” team, Haylie RiveraHe explained that they cooked a paste based on chickpea flour “Homemade”, which stood out is one of the masses that has more protein that helps astronauts. The six students of the Rosa-Bell School in Guaynabo, shared that they prepared for weeks with data on how the human body works in space.
“We couldn’t use salt, so we had to look for substitutes that were approved by NASA’s regulations,” he said Anya Terónmember of the “Stellar Chefs”.
As part of the jury, Zeek explained that they brought Puerto Rican chefs as Ventura Vivoni, Joanna Riestra and Betsy Echevarríaamong other members of different sectors, to evaluate the creative dishes.
“It seems unique to me to learn from these processes and think that these dishes can be presented to astronauts. The science they use in the kitchen helps them develop interest in more careers in science ”Echevarría said.
Riestra emphasized, on the other hand, that “the kitchen is science, so it seems very enriching that they live what the kitchen is in space.”
Before starting the presentations, Zeek showed a video of Suni Williamsone of NASA’s two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station – which hopes to return to the Earth at the end of March After nine months in space-, for children to know what their day to day is.
“We are inspiring the next generations. They can then include it in their summary, which competed in 2025 preparing food for astronauts. We try to give children opportunities, ”Zeek emphasized, in a separate The new day.