Today I’m reminding myself (and sharing with you) why I try to eat sea vegetables more often.
They’re a fantastic source of minerals, and are a food group that tends to get neglected in North America.
Now, I don’t really enjoy the taste of seaweed. I’ve never liked fish, and I hate the fishy smell in lakes and oceans.
So I find it a bit challenging to find ways to enjoy eating sea vegetables, but I keep trying because I know they offer a different variety of nutrients from land vegetables.
I find nori to be one of the easiest to incorporate. People are familiar with it from sushi, it’s pretty easy to find and it has a fairly mild flavor.
A week or two ago I posted a video of a salad where I cut some nori to put on top.
Another idea is to make a mashed chickpea salad with some crumbled nori to give it a slight flavor of the sea reminiscent of tuna salad.
Later this week I’ll be posting another video using nori to make some snack rolls.
Kelp is a helpful addition to sea salt, to mimic the iodine content of iodized table salt. Iodine is a crucial nutrient for our thyroid glands, and without sea vegetables you might not be getting enough.
VeganHealth.org has a great article about iodine if you want more info on how much you need and why it’s important.
I have occasionally gotten kelp noodles, which I like but they’re not for everyone. I like them best with a salty, savory, Asian-flavored sauce. I tried them with tomato sauce once and I really didn’t enjoy it.
I love putting a small piece of kombu in the water while I cook beans or soups. It can boost the mineral content, and is supposed to make beans more easily digested.
Agar (which is a white powder or flake) is so handy to gel things like lemon squares and cranberry sauce. It works just like gelatin, but is fully plant-based rather than made of animal bones, and has lots of nutrients like calcium and iron.
Those are the main ones I use on a (semi) regular basis, but there are lots more and lots of things you can do with them.
One of my favorite cookbooks is Blissful Bites, which includes an entire chapter of recipes with sea vegetables. Christy is one of the best at coming up with tasty ways to enjoy them.
Check out her wakame tofu ‘bacon’ quiche and fantastic video about sea vegetables.
Do you eat sea vegetables? Let me know your favorite ways to have them below 🙂
