As some of you may know I often talk about how wonderfully good seaweed is for you. So when one of my lovely local health food stores, Real Foods asked me to write a review about kombu seaweed (of the kelp family of seaweeds) I pretty much jumped for joy! What a wonderful opportunity to share some recipes with you and help others understand why I love the stuff so much! =)
Seaweed is incredibly good for you. It’s high in nutrients, low in calories, and a great all round food. 
Different types of seaweed have different levels of vitamins and minerals. Most have high levels of easily digestible calcium, iodine, folate, magnesium, vitamins A, C, and B.
Seaweed is also known to lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, and help cardiovascular problems. It also balances hormones, supports you through stressful times, helps with energy levels, helps fight cancer, aids weight loss, helps diabetes, prevents Alzheimer’s and is a strong detoxifier. Another great thing that seaweed does is help the digestibility of foods it’s eaten with, especially grains and pulses.
Seaweed can also be added to most of our day-t0-day meals and is really yummy in salads and, of course, sushi.
So here are my two favourite seaweed recipes, which work great with kombu seaweed.
Miso Soup:
Makes 2/3 servings
Ingredients
500 ml (17 oz) water
1/2 tablespoon miso soybean paste
2/3 strips of dried kombu
10 small squares of firm tofu
Direction
1. Put the water in a saucepan to a boil.
2. Remove from the heat.
3. Remove a little of the water and mix in miso paste and allow to dissolve, then return this to the pan of water.
4. Add the seaweed and tofu and allow to soak for 5 minutes.
5. Return the mixture to a low heat.
6. Stir the soup gently for a few minutes.
You can also add noodles, spinach/or other leafy greens and even things like avocado to this soup. Really almost anything that’s in your fridge works well with this beautiful, yet basic miso base.
Now serve and enjoy!
Carrot and kelp Stir-fry
This makes 2 servings
Ingredients
2/s strips of kombu kelp
1 carrot (sometimes I use baby sweetcorn as well)
1 white onion
1/4 teaspoon of chilli pepper
2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or I use tamari as this is yeast and wheat free)
Direction
1. Add the kombu in water until it’s soft.
2. Cut kombu into strips, then do the same with the carrot and baby sweetcorn (if using this).
3. Cut the onion into rings and then half these rings.
4. Pour oil in a frying pan and stir-fry all the other ingredients and cook until tender.
Serve and enjoy as either a main dish (with fried tofu, fish or meat), or as a side dish!
You can see from the above photo I like mine with fried tofu =)
Strips of kombu kelp work well as a pasta substitute in most dishes, so if the above recipes don’t work for you then try it like this in some of your favourite dishes.
Real Foods have a large selection of different seaweeds, but the kombu kelp seaweed and the organic seaweed shaker are my two favourite ones to use as they work so well in so many difference dishes.
