Sacha Inchi seeds
What is it?
The dark, oval-shaped seeds inside the fruits produced by the Sacha Inchi plant, also known as the Inca peanut. The hairy-leaved perennial is native to the Amazon rainforest, where it has been cultivated by indigenous people for centuries for its high protein content and oil-rich seeds.
The Sacha Inchi plant produces star-shaped green fruit -- capsules up to five centimetres wide with four to seven points -- that ripen to brownish black. Inside, the oval seeds are dark brown.
They look, smell and pretty much taste like nuts, but the "cocoa-kissed" (70 per cent cocoa) morsels marketed as SaviSeed are actually chocolate-coated Sacha Inchi seeds. They're not as sweet as more familiar chocolate-coated nuts, and have a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Sacha Inchi seed oil is said to be the richest vegetable source of essential fatty acids. Some sources claim that, ounce for ounce, the little seeds contain 13 times more Omega 3 than wild salmon and are packed with more protein.
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