LearningHerbs Blog: January 2009

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Since our herb of the month on HerbMentor.com this month is seaweed, I wanted to share my favorite seaweed salad recipe with all of you.

This recipe is adapted from the Sushi Salad recipe in Eleanor and John Lewallen’s book Sea Vegetable Gourmet Cookbook and Wildcrafter’s Guide.

We use Nori (Porphyra spp.) in the salad. The Lewallen’s note that “nori is by far the highest protein sea vegetable.”

Nori also contains many amino acids, calcium, iron, iodine, and phosphorus; and it is high in vitamins A, C, and B1.

They go on to say that, “there is almost no fat in nori, but it is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which have been shown to help regulate metabolism and prevent hardening of the arteries.”

It can also help lower cholesterol levels, and prevent gallstones. Most seaweeds are very nutrient rich and healing foods, well worth adding to your diet on a regular basis if you’re seeking optimum nutrition.

So, here’s one way to start - Nourishing Nori Salad.

The recipe in the book uses many summer vegetables, but I did not have them on hand this time of year so I made a more winter version this time.

To make it you will need:

1/2 to 1 cup flaked nori (You can get Nori here)
1 1/2 cup dry white basmati rice, cooked (simmered in 3 cups of water until all the water is absorbed) and cooled
2 grated carrots
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
4 Tablespoons diced red onion (or green onions if you have them)
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 Tablespoons tamari
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 Tablespoon parsley
1/2 green pepper, sliced thin

To make it...

Cook and cool the rice.

Grate the carrots and the ginger

Also...Peel and crush the garlic.

Dice the red onion.

Chop the parsley.

Slice the green pepper.

Toast the sesame seeds.

Cut up the nori with kitchen scissors if necessary (We harvested this nori ourselves, so this was an important step for us.)

Mix everything listed in the recipe except the parsley, green pepper and 1 or 2 Tablespoons of the nori (however, put most of the nori in) together with the rice.