Finding seaweeds could be difficult for some just now and in our little town I have heard that the local co-op is sold out. Here are links to some on line companies that harvest and sell seaweed in various sizes from small one-ounce packages to bulk - one half to full pounds. I recommend a bulk purchase as it makes the use of it feel less precious and it is readily available to throw in a handful to the day’s meal pot.
Here are some links for on line sources:
Ocean Harvest http://oceanharvestseavegetables.foodoro.com/
Maine Coast Sea Vegetables https://www.seaveg.com/shop/
Mendocino Sea Vegetables http://www.seaweed.net/
Ryan Drum http://www.ryandrum.com/seaxpan1.html
Cooking idea: Put seaweed in anything you cook with water – stock, rice, beans, stews, soup, sauces, spaghetti. If you are using large pieces pull them out at the end of cooking. If using small pieces just mix them in and serve.
Flaked seaweed is ok to use and blends into dishes easily. Be careful of powdered seaweed though, as it smells very strong and can cause taste problems in your cooking. We don’t want to scare anyone off!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Bury it! Incorporating sea weeds into foods
This is a technique to introduce yourself and your loved ones to new foods that you may not like or think that you will not like! But a food can’t be good for you unless you eat it so creating good tasting and familiar meals is paramount.
Seaweed: also known as sea-vegetables, are the plants that grow around the continents of the earth and have been part of our diets through the ages.
An excellent way of introducing them to the diet is to add them to the cooking water and broths of many recipes such as spaghetti, soup and stew and when cooking beans, peas and lentils. In the later case seaweed has the ability to help with the digestibility of these foods while adding their rich source of minerals.
Here is a dynamite recipe for spaghetti – everyone will love it and never know what all they are eating!
Chop a whole onion and cook it in a heavy pan in coconut oil on a medium heat. While these are cooking chop a variety of vegetable to add to the cooking onions; carrots, shiitake mushrooms, parsley including the stems, garlic, peppers, etc.
An optional boost is to also add a teaspoon to tablespoon of ground turmeric to the pan and cook in the coconut oil. This herb will give your spaghetti a beautiful golden color while helping ward off conditions of inflammation and disease.
After the vegetables have begun to wilt add the ground meat of your choice; hamburger, ground turkey or chicken, etc. and break up and stir round to brown a bit. Then add your tomato base – fresh if you have it, which I seldom do – or cans of organic diced or crushed tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste. Heat this through and add your sea vegetable – this can be whole kombu fronds or small pieces of wakame, hiziki, fucus (bladderwrack) etc. These can be soaked and chopped before adding, but include the soaking water too. Add salt to taste and herbs such as rosemary, oregano or thyme and put on a simmer for about an hour.
Note: if you have used the whole kombu you will have great pieces of seaweed in your spaghetti when it is done which does not serve our purposes of hiding and burying the unfamiliar. To solve this and work magic on your sauce pull out the pieces and put them on a cutting board and cut up the now soft pieces into small pieces that will be undetectable in the final dish. Cut one way then across the other way until the frond is mush then put back into the dish and stir well.
Check for seasoning, and add more salt if necessary. Chop some cilantro and stir in just before serving so that it keeps its bright green color.
Serve over pasta. Some of the new whole-wheat pastas are much improved over the early versions and make the meal more hearty and filling with all the ingredients of the whole grain.
Seaweed: also known as sea-vegetables, are the plants that grow around the continents of the earth and have been part of our diets through the ages.
An excellent way of introducing them to the diet is to add them to the cooking water and broths of many recipes such as spaghetti, soup and stew and when cooking beans, peas and lentils. In the later case seaweed has the ability to help with the digestibility of these foods while adding their rich source of minerals.
Here is a dynamite recipe for spaghetti – everyone will love it and never know what all they are eating!
Chop a whole onion and cook it in a heavy pan in coconut oil on a medium heat. While these are cooking chop a variety of vegetable to add to the cooking onions; carrots, shiitake mushrooms, parsley including the stems, garlic, peppers, etc.
An optional boost is to also add a teaspoon to tablespoon of ground turmeric to the pan and cook in the coconut oil. This herb will give your spaghetti a beautiful golden color while helping ward off conditions of inflammation and disease.
After the vegetables have begun to wilt add the ground meat of your choice; hamburger, ground turkey or chicken, etc. and break up and stir round to brown a bit. Then add your tomato base – fresh if you have it, which I seldom do – or cans of organic diced or crushed tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste. Heat this through and add your sea vegetable – this can be whole kombu fronds or small pieces of wakame, hiziki, fucus (bladderwrack) etc. These can be soaked and chopped before adding, but include the soaking water too. Add salt to taste and herbs such as rosemary, oregano or thyme and put on a simmer for about an hour.
Note: if you have used the whole kombu you will have great pieces of seaweed in your spaghetti when it is done which does not serve our purposes of hiding and burying the unfamiliar. To solve this and work magic on your sauce pull out the pieces and put them on a cutting board and cut up the now soft pieces into small pieces that will be undetectable in the final dish. Cut one way then across the other way until the frond is mush then put back into the dish and stir well.
Check for seasoning, and add more salt if necessary. Chop some cilantro and stir in just before serving so that it keeps its bright green color.
Serve over pasta. Some of the new whole-wheat pastas are much improved over the early versions and make the meal more hearty and filling with all the ingredients of the whole grain.
Monday, March 14, 2011
More healthy eating! Miso soup
I do not believe there is any reason to fear the air we breathe or the water we drink - but sometimes we are thrown a curve ball when the world feels threatening as with the recent events in Japan. I plan to post articles here on foods that help protect the body from harm from external pollutants and recipes to go with them.
So, previously there was Low Tide soup using sea vegetables! and today I will extol the benefits of Miso soup for protection against ionizing radiation. Research has found that miso contains a compound, dipilocolonic acid, which chelates heavy metals and helps carry them out of the body. Animal studies and human anecdotal evidence points to the fact that exposure to radiation can be mitigated by these compounds in miso.
Miso soup - this soup can be as complex or as simple as you want. The essence is using miso to flavor and season the soup.
A simple version is to simmer a length of kombu seaweed in water for 20 minutes, remove the kombu and reserve for another use (more later) then add small pieces of wakame seaweed - this can usually be broken up in the fingers - small cubes of tofu if desired and cook for ten minutes or so. Then add miso to taste, about two tables spoons per serving. Add a small amount of soup stock to a bowl with miso and break it up with the back of a spoon then add to the soup pan and serve. Try not to boil the soup after adding miso to preserve its beneficial enzymes. Enjoy!
So, previously there was Low Tide soup using sea vegetables! and today I will extol the benefits of Miso soup for protection against ionizing radiation. Research has found that miso contains a compound, dipilocolonic acid, which chelates heavy metals and helps carry them out of the body. Animal studies and human anecdotal evidence points to the fact that exposure to radiation can be mitigated by these compounds in miso.
Miso soup - this soup can be as complex or as simple as you want. The essence is using miso to flavor and season the soup.
A simple version is to simmer a length of kombu seaweed in water for 20 minutes, remove the kombu and reserve for another use (more later) then add small pieces of wakame seaweed - this can usually be broken up in the fingers - small cubes of tofu if desired and cook for ten minutes or so. Then add miso to taste, about two tables spoons per serving. Add a small amount of soup stock to a bowl with miso and break it up with the back of a spoon then add to the soup pan and serve. Try not to boil the soup after adding miso to preserve its beneficial enzymes. Enjoy!
Healthy eating in a changing world
With the potential for radiation spreading in the atmosphere due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan I posted a recipe for a seaweed soup on FaceBook over the weekend and am now re posting it here.
This recipe is inspired by Susun Weed’s book Healing Wise. My kids would call it ‘low tide’ soup and it had a wonderful aroma of the beach at low tide! Something every child who grew up in the Islands carries with them no matter where they end up!
So, begin with basic soup making, saut̩ a chopped onion, grated or finely chopped carrots, plus other vegetables Рdaikon, napa cabbage, burdock (gobo), etc. till you have a nice pile in the pan. Use toasted sesame oil or coconut oil to saut̩ until the vegetables are wilted and starting to caramelize (no, not burn, but just before).
Mean while take a bunch of seaweeds – hiziki, wakame, bladderwack (fucus), kombu broken into small pieces and soak them in water while the vegetables cook. Do not use powdered seaweed! You want the ‘vegetables’ from the sea that are dried whole. If the pieces are large, take them from the water and cut them into smaller pieces on a cutting board – do not throw away the water.
When the vegetables are cooked a bit add the chopped seaweeds and their soaking water plus water to make enough soup to feed your crowd. Simmer for half hour to 45 minutes.
Just before serving add a couple of tablespoons of toasted sesame oil, good quality tamari and hot pepper oil to taste plus some chopped cilantro. Cilantro is another of the cleanser herbs and will also help protect from within.
This soup can smell very seaweedy but is delicious when the toasted oil, tamari and pepper oil is in balance. Yum. Have fun!
This recipe is inspired by Susun Weed’s book Healing Wise. My kids would call it ‘low tide’ soup and it had a wonderful aroma of the beach at low tide! Something every child who grew up in the Islands carries with them no matter where they end up!
So, begin with basic soup making, saut̩ a chopped onion, grated or finely chopped carrots, plus other vegetables Рdaikon, napa cabbage, burdock (gobo), etc. till you have a nice pile in the pan. Use toasted sesame oil or coconut oil to saut̩ until the vegetables are wilted and starting to caramelize (no, not burn, but just before).
Mean while take a bunch of seaweeds – hiziki, wakame, bladderwack (fucus), kombu broken into small pieces and soak them in water while the vegetables cook. Do not use powdered seaweed! You want the ‘vegetables’ from the sea that are dried whole. If the pieces are large, take them from the water and cut them into smaller pieces on a cutting board – do not throw away the water.
When the vegetables are cooked a bit add the chopped seaweeds and their soaking water plus water to make enough soup to feed your crowd. Simmer for half hour to 45 minutes.
Just before serving add a couple of tablespoons of toasted sesame oil, good quality tamari and hot pepper oil to taste plus some chopped cilantro. Cilantro is another of the cleanser herbs and will also help protect from within.
This soup can smell very seaweedy but is delicious when the toasted oil, tamari and pepper oil is in balance. Yum. Have fun!
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