It’s abundant, it’s nutritious, and growing it is actually good for the environment, but chances are you aren’t incorporating seaweed into your diet.
Apart from the occasional sushi, seaweed just doesn’t make it into most of our meals. But that doesn’t need to be the case. It’s surprisingly easy to add different seaweeds and seaweed products into your usual recipes.
Whether you’re adding umami kombu strips to skewers of grilled chicken or swapping your gelatin for vegetarian agar agar, the next time you make dessert, these are the seaweeds you should know to make your cooking more nutritious, sustainable and, of course, delicious.
Wakame
Usually bought dried, this slightly sweet seaweed can be found in miso soup and seaweed salad.
Nori
Nori might be the seaweed you’re most familiar with. This dried seaweed is used to wrap sushi.
Furikake
Furikake is made by blending dry seaweed and other ingredients. Try it in this flavorful guacamole.
Seaweed snacks
Brushed with olive oil, salted and roasted, these nutritious snacks are a tasty way to try seaweed.
Dulse flakes
Dulse is a seaweed that tastes mysteriously like bacon. Try it in a DLT.
Agar agar
Derived from sea algae, agar agar is the vegetarian’s answer to gelatin. Try it in panna cotta.
Kelp noodles
Chewy, neutral-tasting kelp noodles are a fat-free, gluten-free, nutrient-rich pasta alternative.
Seaweed butter
Seaweed adds a briny umami to butter, perfect on potatoes or melted onto steak.
Kombu
Kombu is popular in soup — adding it to a pot of dried beans can reduce gas, and it adds flavor to meat.
Dried arame
Popular in Japanese and Korean cuisine, rehydrated arame is great in grain salads and baked goods.
Leave a Comment