Sea vegetables, anyone?

[JaneV2.0]

I just made a large pot of enhanced crack slaw*, trying to include as many nutrient-dense ingredients as possible--kale, spinach, carrots, four different colors of peppers, turmeric, LOTS of garlic--when I rediscovered a dusty little bag of hiziki (hijiki) in a corner of the pantry. I soaked it as per instructions, and added it with sambal oelek as a garnish. It blended right into the slaw and gave me a little boost of iodine. I have another kind of sea vegetable around here (dulse?) that I've never tried. Anyone else use sea vegetables?



http://www.food.com/recipe/crack-slaw-low-carb-434863

[lessisbest]

Thanks for the link to the recipe. It almost looks like a spring tonic in a bowl ;).

I followed the Macrobiotic Diet for awhile back in the 1980's and that's when I was introduced to sea vegetables, and still use many of them today. Kelp is the one I use most often (https://www.seaveg.com/shop/) because it comes in a handy shaker and it's easy to sprinkle on food and looks like black pepper, so no one is the wiser. I also use kombu, wakame or dulse in soup stocks - whichever one I happen to have on hand. I add kombu to beans. Since I don't use iodized salt, and haven't for over 30-years, this is our main source for iodine, and it's also a better source than iodized salt.

[Sulevia]

I love sea vegetables too! I have a yummy recipe for a vegetarian version of 'bouillabaisse' with kombu, hijiki and wakame, tofu, and chopped tomatoes. To die for!

Dulse is beautiful and very delicate, I use it simply washed and revived in water, then strained in rice or pasta salads.

I try not to eat seaweed too often though, as I remember reading / being told somewhere that having too much iodine can be really bad for you - did you ever hear this? I'm not sure if it's true.

[JaneV2.0]

I've read the opposite--that especially in non-coastal people, or people who shun seafood (like me)--deficiencies, particularly subclinical ones, are common. Supposedly you can tell if you're deficient by painting iodine solution on your arm--if it disappears quickly, you're deficient. (Wikipedia) But you can get professionally tested to be sure.

[KayLR]

I have used hijiki and wakame... I liked them, but for some reason it is really hard to find it here. Even at Uwajimaya there was only one kind. I should say, this comment is about fresh or frozen. I can find lots of dried seaweed.

[SteveinMN]

I like roasted seaweed as a snack. It's sold in packages (with entirely too much packaging) at Asian grocery stores and sometimes comes in flavors like wasabi (horseradish). Nice crunch, salty, and good for you. I've never eaten dulse (that I'm aware of); I have eaten wakame as a salad and seaweed (laver) as a wrap for sushi.

I read an article recently that described sea vegetables as one of the "hot new things" in restaurants this year. I'm looking forward to it, especially if its used outside of an Asian paradigm with which I'm already familiar.

[Sulevia]

Thanks JanetV2.0 - Yes I too had always heard that you should make sure to get enough iodine, and then the opposite.... I've managed to track down the study I think I had been told
about, it was published in 2011 (so things may have changed about 5 times since ;)) in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; you can read the abstract here (http://American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that study participants taking relatively higher doses of supplemental iodine -- 400 micrograms a day and more – paradoxically began developing subclinical hypothyroidism.)

It is a bit like everything, I guess, not overdoing it, I still enjoy my sea vegs...

SteveinMN, for seaweed outside of Asian paradigm: laverbread, a Welsh delicacy (they call it bara lafwr is Welsh) - I was given some in a tin by a welsh colleague as a joke for the 'secret Santa' in my last job but it turned out I just loved it... According to Wikipedia, Richard Burton would have called it the Welsh man's caviar.... :)

[SteveinMN]

SteveinMN, for seaweed outside of Asian paradigm: laverbread, a Welsh delicacy (they call it bara lafwr is Welsh)
Thanks, Sulevia! I'm just going to have to try to find some of that. I'll bet someone sells it on-line...

[iris lilies]

Such a coincidence, today I ate seaweed at a Chinese buffet place. I thought it was probably seaweed when I put it on my plate, but wasn't sure as I was eating it. It was prepared in long noodle-like forms. It was salty and had been spiced up. I liked it a lot, even though neither DH nor I were sure if it was animal or mineral.

[Blackdog Lin]

We stayed at a Japanese-businessman's-oriented hotel while in Los Angeles 2 years ago. Breakfast was included in the daily rate, you could choose the American-style or Japanese-style, and we availed ourselves of it our last morning. I was in an adventuresome mood so I had the Japanese-style, which included (if memory serves) 4 different types of sea vegetables.

I loved 3 of the 4, to the point that I asked the waitress to explain to me what I was enjoying. She very nicely tried to explain/give names to the stuff, none of which information I was able to understand or retain. :)

DH took one look at my platter, and beyond the tasty-looking rice and fried fish, said "blech!"

[pinkytoe]

The little Japanese takeout place near our house has seaweed salad which is quite tasty. Kind of vinegary. When I was concerned about iodine some years ago, I found a product from the Maine coast which was powdered seaweed to shake on your food instead of salt.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm discovering that reconstituted hijiki, at least, blends seamlessly into any savory meal with several ingredients--mixed green salad, for instance.

[JaneV2.0]

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm including a link about arsenic in sea vegetables. They don't recommend hijiki because it has the highest levels of toxicity. :(

[KayLR]

Hmm, maybe that's why I can't find it anyplace, Jane.

[Weston]

The little Japanese takeout place near our house has seaweed salad which is quite tasty. Kind of vinegary. When I was concerned about iodine some years ago, I found a product from the Maine coast which was powdered seaweed to shake on your food instead of salt.

My vegetarian daughter used to eat seaweed salad voraciously until I pointed out the ingredients on the label to her. She went quite pale when she realized that part of the reason it may have been so delicious was because it was made with jellyfish (a common ingredient in many but not all seaweed salads.)

[IshbelRobertson]

I used to spend a lot of time as a child on the NE coast of Scotland where dulse was added to the pan after frying bacon for breakfast, and also added to tattie scones to add a 'vegetable' to a Scottish fried breakfast.

[JaneV2.0]

You can get some sea vegetables that grow off the Maine coast that are labeled "organic" Don't know how they certify that. I'll take my chances with the hijiki I have. If i suddenly stop posting...rrrrr

[SteveinMN]

We stayed at a Japanese-businessman's-oriented hotel while in Los Angeles 2 years ago. Breakfast was included in the daily rate, you could choose the American-style or Japanese-style, and we availed ourselves of it our last morning. I was in an adventuresome mood so I had the Japanese-style, which included (if memory serves) 4 different types of sea vegetables.
Many years ago, XW and I traveled to Japan and stayed in a "serusuman hoteru" (businessman's hotel). We were on our own for breakfast, so we ended up at the Japan Railways station on our way elsewhere in Tokyo. I had the Japanese breakfast, which was congee -- a kind of rice porridge -- with (cooked) fish and, presumably, some sea vegetables, though I don't recall them now. Not bad, though I didn't expect any more than I would from a kiosk at Grand Central Station.

XW had the "American" breakfast. The wax replica looked like a fairly standard eggs sunny-side-up, toast, and bacon. The eggs were cooked, but they were pulled out of the refrigerator and plopped on her plate (who knew they were to be served hot?). The "bacon" was something highly processed, like Sizzlean. And the "toast" was half a hot-dog bun, with nary a scorch mark in sight.

I'd say I got the better of that breakfast! I can only imagine, though, what a Japanese traveler in the U.S. would encounter if (s)he insisted on eating natively during his/her visit. I can just hear the short-order cook at Denny's now... :)

[kally]

how relevant. i take an 11 month online vegan nutrition course, and today it was about sea vegetables. A lot to learn. The instructor did say that she tends to stay away from the stuff unless it comes from a well known or reputable dealer. Some of it is pretty bad as you don't know where it was harvested or the conditions in the area.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I remember when I was in college there was a Korean guy two doors down from me in the dorms that ate seaweed - dried and thin out of a plastic wrapped package. I was curious once and asked him if I could try it and it wasn't bad at all! I was surprised. I now live not too far away from an Asian market and there are all kinds of seaweed available there. I have thought of trying some as I have a copy of Asian Health Secrets by Letha Hadady and something she recommends is incorporating some of these seaweeds into your diet.

The one thing that holds me back is that I worry about how polluted the oceans are worldwide now. So here's my question - is that a valid concern or should I just buy the seaweed if I want to try it out? What do you'all think? Rob

[Tammy]

I am no more concerned about the effects of polluted ocean waters on seaweed, than I am about the effects of polluted farmland on food.

It's everywhere.

[sssun]

I remember when I was in college there was a Korean guy two doors down from me in the dorms that ate seaweed - dried and thin out of a plastic wrapped package. I was curious once and asked him if I could try it and it wasn't bad at all!

I love eating dried seaweed, especially the flavored variety. I think it's a healthy snack alternative to chips (I love those too...>8)). Thinking of sea veg, however, I found this pretty blog post (http://www.milkwood.net/2015/01/22/foraging-seaweed-home-garden-use/) about seaweed foraging that someone might find inspirational. I don't live next to the ocean, unfortunately, otherwise I would be out foraging too.

[JaneV2.0]

I eat seaweed snacks, but I realized when I first tasted them that I had been unfairly blaming seafood for its flavor, when in fact it was the sea. I'm in it for the nutrients though, so down the hatch!