Sea Vegetables

Sea vegetables are largely ignored in the American diet, which is a pity since they are not only delicious, but, according to Rebecca Wood, "the most singularly nutritious food." Quoted directly from her wonderful book, The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia:

     Land plants absorb nutrients from the soil, and so their nutritional content reflects their immediate environment. A carrot grown in deficient soil is nutritionally deficient. One grown in good soil is nutritionally superior.

     Sea vegetables, on the other hand, are continuously bathed in the mineral-rich sea brine. They are a direct transformation of seawater and their mineral content is from 7 to 38 percent of their dry weight.

The list of benefits to eating seaweed is long and includes the ability to reduce blood cholesterol and strengthen bones, teeth, nerve transmission, and digestion. Not only that, but according to some, sea vegetables contribute to beautiful skin and hair. 

Sea vegetables are used in soups and beans as well as in vegetable side dishes and can be roasted and sprinkled over grains. I was introduced to sea vegetables by Japanese teachers who used mostly Japanese varieties; arame, hijiki, kombu and wakame. I still use those, but I also like to use American sea vegetables that I order from Larch Hanson, "The Seaweed Man". His website offers a wealth of information about all the sea vegetables he harvests, including easy recipes.

If you're just introducing sea vegetables to your diet and are not sure what kind to start with, consider ordering Digitata Kelp to begin with. You'll use it when cooking beans, and can cook it with vegetables several times a week. Here's what Larch says about Digitata Kelp:

If I had to choose one variety of kelp for my kitchen, I would choose digitata kelp. This may be substituted into any recipe calling for kombu, for digitata’s cooking qualities are much the same. Reconstituted and cooked for fifteen minutes, digitata behaves like a vegetable and becomes softer. Cooked for an hour or more, digitata dissolves and creates a delicious creamy soup stock that the Japanese would call dashi. Just add ginger and tamari. The alginates that are released from the digitata through long cooking are able to bind (chelate) with the large molecules of heavy metals and radioactive isotopes and remove them from the body. Moreover, digitata contains iodine which nourishes and protects the thyroid so that it will not absorb radioactive iodine. My skin always gets softer when I handle digitata which is oozing with slippery alginates. Its softening effects on the body are obvious.

Carrots and Kelp

3 carrots, cut in diagonal slices

2 5" strips of kelp, soaked for 5 minutes

Sesame oil

1/2 t. shoyu

1/2 t. brown rice vinegar

1. Slice soaked kelp in 1" pieces. 

2. Heat sesame oil in a skillet and add kelp. Stir to coat with oil, then add chopped carrots. Stir.

3. Add 1/4 cup water, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Season with shoyu and brown rice vinegar, mix and remove from the flame.