For sure! You should definitely consider eating more seaweed.
Both are delicious options, but that's only scratching the surface. There are thousands of species of seaweed, which is a type of algae, and of those a few dozen seaweeds have taken hold in human cuisines. There's nori, of course, but there's also sea lettuce, dulse,wakame, Irish moss,hijiki, sea spaghetti, and oarweed. Sea plants have been a popular part of diets in many places in the world, particularly places near the ocean—think of Japanese seaweed salad, for instance, or Korean seaweed soup. The gelling properties of algae have also earned seaweed a place in desserts around the world, often in the form of the seaweed extract agar,a vegetarian alternative to gelatin. Irish moss—also called carrageenan moss, and is actually not moss but algae—is whatthickens blancmange in Ireland.
That's not all, but yes—seaweed is great for you. I mean, it's a vegetable—of course it's good for you. But seaweed has been described as a "superfood" because ofhowgood it is. Exact amounts vary by type, but ocean plants tend to be rich in vitamins A, C, D, E, and B vitamins, plus minerals like calcium and magnesium.Omega-3s, antioxidants, the whole works.They're high in soluble fiber—which can lower bad cholesterol and make you feel more full as you eat it—and are a good source of vegetable proteins. In fact, a Dutch professor calculated that underwater seaweed cropland roughly the size of Washington State would be enough to satisfy the protein needsof the entire world.
Seaweed is good for the environment, too; last year the New Yorker called it"one of the world's most sustainable and nutritious crops."It requires no freshwater—which, we mentioned recently, is becoming increasingly precious as the globe warms and droughts become more frequent. It needs no land or fertilizer. It pulls dissolved carbon from the sea, meaning it actually helps counteract global warming.
In the Netherlands, seaweed advocates have formed theNorth Sea Farm Foundation, which has undertaken the task of creating seaweed farms off the country's northern coast. They envision it as a sustainable-agriculture project that also benefits the local economy. "It's really the beginning of this whole new way of looking at agriculture," says Lisette Kreischer, a writer and environmental activist who cowrote her new cookbook,Ocean Greens: Explore the World of Edible Seaweed and Sea Vegetables, with foundation chairman Marcel Schuttelaar. "It's sea-griculture, actually."
Well, you could try picking upOcean Greens. Kreischer, who's based in the Netherlands, became intrigued by seafood after learning about its sustainable potential. She'd previously known it as a primarily Asian ingredient. "I thought, I can't go to the Netherlands and say, 'We all need to eat sushi or we all need to eat Asian soups,'" she told me. Instead she wanted to figure out how seaweed could also be incorporated into Western dishes.
So her book runs the gamut: there are polenta fries with sea lettuce chips and asparagus, zucchini spaghetti with sea pesto, savory seaweed muffins, wakame and date tapenade, chocolate chip and seaweed cookies. Nori, Kreischer notes, pairs especially well with dark chocolate: "It's a crazy combination but it works," she said.Ocean Greens, which is also a vegan cookbook, comes at a time of rising interest in sustainable eating—and at a time of increased attention on the flavor umami, of which seaweeds are a potent provider. (Kreischer thinks the umami component is what makes the chocolate-nori combination so good. Try making her chocolate, raspberry, and seaweed cake to test that theory.)
Different kinds of seaweeds provide different flavors, as well as different degrees of oceanic intensity. For newbies, Kreischer suggests dulse: "It has this nutty, deep, warm flavor," she said. "It's a really easy seaweed." It's also readily available at natural foods stores, including Whole Foods. Try sprinkling dulse flakes over pasta, ormake like our friends atBon Appétitand fry it up in place of bacon for a DLT sandwich. There's also kombu, the plant that was the catalyst forthe discovery of umami itself—and which Kreischer likes to blend into this pesto. The recipe's a classical rendition—except for the fact that its main ingredient comes from the sea.
