Recipes with Wakame seaweed

The wakame seaweed is a brown alga, very similar to kombu. When dried, people confuse them. The wakame is thinner and green when soaking. It is native to the waters of Japan, growing in fast-moving streams, like kombu.

Eaten often combined with ground vegetables. It is very tasty sautéed with onions, or soaked and served with cucumber and lemon juice, or a summer salad dressed with vinegar. Slightly roasted in the oven and crushed into powder, then using it as a condiment for rice. It also combines well with soups, especially miso. For its mild flavor, is most often used in the West, and the third in order of popularity in Japan.

It is very similar nutritionally to kombu, particularly rich in calcium and vitamin groups B and C. As the kombu, it has the ability to soften the fibers of the food with which it is cooked.

Nutritional Information about Wakame

• 13g of protein
• approximately 50g of carbohydrate
• Provides vitamins A, B1 , B2 and C
• It is especially rich in Potassium, Sodium , Calcium, Phosphorus and Magnesium
• Its iodine content makes it a snap inadvisable in cases of altered thyroid

Rice with Seaweed

Recipe ingredients:

• 1 cup of brown rice
• 1 onion
• 3 tablespoons of wakame seaweed
• 2 cups of water

Preparation of the recipe:

1. Soak for 10 minutes wakame seaweed in half a glass of water.
2. After casting, sauté with finely chopped onion over low heat.
3. We wash the rice and add it, stirring often so the rice is toasted and onion without sticking.
4. Besides heat the water and add the rice to boil leaving for five minutes.
5. After that, lower the heat to low and cover our pot without stirring until the rice has absorbed all the water.

Soups with wakame

The miso soup, wakame is one of the most common dishes in everyday Japanese food. There are several ways of preparing soups with wakame. One version is to cook the chopped dried wakame broth with water, fried onions and miso. Another variation is to cut thin leaves of wakame flakes - five square inches per side - soak for half an hour and add the miso soup.

Oishi, invasive seaweed soup

Recipe ingredients:

• A liter of light vegetable broth
• Three tablespoons of semolina
• A round and / or two or three green onions
• Two cloves of garlic
• Oil for frying
• salt
• Paprika or chili powder
• A quarter cup of wakame without harsh , dry milled parts

Preparation of the recipe:

1. Soak the dried wakame for a quarter of an hour.
2. Prepare light vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and sprinkle the semolina. Cook for a few minutes, stirring.
3. Fry the finely chopped onion in oil until translucent and slightly browned. Add some spicy paprika or chili powder. Fry the finely chopped garlic in oil until brown.
4. Over each serving of soup: half tablespoon of round onion and / or chopped green onion and fried in oil with salt, half a teaspoon of fried garlic chopped fine and one tablespoon of wakame soaked and coarsely chopped.

This soup served to accompany other foods such as hot tea, Japanese style . However, if it is to be used as a standalone dish or light meal would have to accompany it with homemade bread or a serving of rice and / or a piece of cheese, for example.

Cucumber and wakame salad

This recipe is an example of the many uses that gives the wakame in Japan.

Recipe ingredients:

• Two or three fresh cucumbers
• Two or three tablespoons of soy sauce
• Four tablespoons of rice vinegar (or apple)
• Two teaspoons of sugar
• A quarter cup of dried wakame
• Sesame seeds

Preparation of the recipe:

1. Soak wakame fifteen minutes and chop fine.
2. Stir over fire soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Then cool them in the fridge.
3. Cut the peeled cucumber into slices not too thin. Mix with wakame. Garnish with cold sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Paella of Wakame and Seitan

Recipe ingredients:

• 1 cup of medium grain rice
• 1 chopped onion into squares
• 2 carrots cut into squares
• 1 chopped garlic
• 250 gr. of seitan (wheat gluten)
• ½ cup of green peas
• 2 strips of Wakame
• 1 pepper red, washed and cut into strips
• saffron
• Fresh rosemary ( if possible )
• sea salt
• Olive oil

Preparation of the recipe:

1. Wash the rice, place in a saucepan with 2 cups of water, saffron to taste sprig of rosemary and a pinch of sea salt.
2. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 35 minutes.
3. Fry in a large, wide pot garlic with a little olive oil. Immediately add the onion and a pinch of sea salt.
4. Sauté for 10 minutes. Add the seitan and carrots , sauté 5 minutes.
5. Boil green peas for 5-7 minutes.
6. Soak the Wakame 3-4 minutes, cut it into pieces with scissors and add to sautéed along with the cooked rice, mix gently.
7. Garnish with green peas and red pepper. Serve.