Sea vegetable – info & recipes

SEA VEGETABLES

Seaweeds are highly nutritious foods, containing large amounts of minerals and trace elements, including iron, calcium and iodine, as well as vitamins A, C and B complex.

Due to their dense mineral content sea veges are advantageous even when consumed in small quantities. Sea vegetables are beneficial for the thyroid, bones, teeth, hair, skin and nails, for lowering cholesterol and decreasing fat in the blood, for weight loss, for rejuvenating the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract, and for removing radioactive and toxic metals from the body, just to name a few. In addition to being some of the most nutrient-rich foods in the world seaweeds are also extremely low in kilojoules.
Sea vegetables are easy to use. Toss a handful of arame or wakame in salads, soups, stir-fries, cooked vegetables, grains or noodles. Add a small piece of sliced kombu when cooking brown rice or other grains, or when making stocks, stews and soups. Wrap leftover rice and vegetables in nori sheets to make sushi. Start with the mild tasting seaweeds, such as arame, and build up to the stronger flavours of kombu and hijiki.
Store sea veges in airtight containers in a dark, dry cupboard. Before cooking, rinse arame, wakame, kombu and hijiki well, then soak in just enough water to cover for 5 minutes. This improves the digestibility of the sea vegetables. Keep the soaking water for use in soups, casseroles, etc.

RECIPES
SOBA NOODLE AND SALMON BROTH
• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 10cm piece wakame
• 300g organic soba noodles
• 2 large salmon or ocean trout fillets (approx 200g each)
• ¼ cup sesame seeds
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 6 cups vegetable or fish stock
• 1tbsp finely chopped ginger
• 1 handful snowpeas, trimmed and halved diagonally
• ½ bunch bok choy, sliced
• ¼ cup tamari
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 4 shallots, finely sliced diagonally
• 1 sheet nori, cut with scissors into matchsticks

Soak the mushrooms in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Rinse wakame, soak for 5 minutes in just enough water to cover, drain, saving soaking water, and cut into small pieces.
Put noodles in a pot of boiling water, stir, and as soon as they come back to the boil add 1 cup of cold water. Repeat this process twice more, then simmer noodles until tender. Drain and rinse well with cold water. Set noodles aside.
Press the salmon into the sesame seeds until it is covered all over. Heat the sesame oil in a frypan and cook salmon for 4 minutes each side. Set salmon aside.
Bring stock to a simmer, add wakame, it’s soaking water, and mushrooms, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add ginger, snow peas, bok choy, tamari and mirin, and cook for 2 minutes.
Slice salmon fillets across into 2cm pieces. Rinse the noodles under hot water, then divide them between 4 bowls, add stock mixture, then salmon, and sprinkle over shallots and nori. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
This recipe can be varied by substituting the salmon for tofu, eggs, or chicken thighs, or by replacing the soba noodles with somen or udon noodles.

VEGETABLE, LENTIL AND ARAME SOUP
• ¼ cup arame
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup pumpkin diced into 1cm pieces
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed well
• 3 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp basil, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• ¼ cup tamari
• ¼ cup mirin
Rinse arame, soak in just enough water to cover, then drain saving soaking liquid.
Heat olive oil in a large pan, add onion and cook gently until very soft. Stir in garlic, pumpkin, carrots, stock, lentils, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add herbs, tamari, arame, soaking water, and mirin. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
Serves 4.

NUT DELIGHT
• 1/3 cup arame
• ½ cup almonds, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup pepitas
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds
• ¼ cup sesame seeds
• ¼ cup linseeds
• 1 cup brown rice syrup
• ½ cup almond butter
• ¼ cup tahini
• ¼ cup dried apricots, chopped
• 2 cups puffed brown rice
• 1 cup puffed amaranth (or any puffed cereal)
• 1 cup sugar-free spelt flakes (or corn flakes)
Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Rinse arame, cover with water and soak for 5 minutes, drain, then chop. Dry roast the almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and linseeds in a non stick frypan until golden and fragrant. Put the brown rice syrup, almond butter and tahini in a large saucepan over a low heat and stir until combined. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in arame, apricots, roasted nuts and seeds, the puffed cereals and spelt flakes. Mix well and pour into a lightly oiled baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then cool and cut into small squares.

SUMMER SMOOTHIE
• 1 large mango, peeled and chopped
• 1 large banana, peeled and chopped
• leaves from 2 sprigs of mint
• ½ cup organic rice milk (or substitute with your favourite milk)
• 2 tsp spirulina powder
• 2 tsp ground flaxseeds (or flaxseed oil)
• 2 heaped tbsp goat’s or sheep’s milk yoghurt
• 6 ice cubes

Blend all the ingredients together for a healthy start to the day. Drink immediately. Any leftovers can be frozen in small iceblock moulds as a wholesome snack for children.
Serves 2.