Well, I sent some seaweed as a Christmas stocking stuffer, and now I’m realizing that I need to follow up my love of seaweed salad with a recipe! 

This is so easy and tasty it is amazing that most people never adventure to try it.  You will find it a quick and satisfying side dish for anything remotely Asian in flavor profile.  It is even good accompanied by a nice sushi rice alone (and some hot sauce!).  Bonus:  it is packed with nutrients, notably iodine.  When you make this at home, you can control for sugar and other nefarious ingredients that you may want to avoid with premade, commercial seaweed salad.

You may be asking yourself why this salad is not the bright green color that you find in the supermarket or restaurant. From my research, that bright green is not natural and possibly enhanced with chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, etc. that you will not want to consume.

I’ve been buying this Jeollannamdo brand of dried seaweed (on Amazon) for several years.  There are no directions in English on the single serving packets, so not wanting to learn Korean, I’ve been freestyling it.  What follows is my basic seaweed salad recipe/method.  I think this will work with just about any dried seaweed mixture.  (Note, some dried seaweed must be blanched in boiling water for 6 seconds.)  The recipe that follows is for ready to hydrate seaweed.

(Serves 2-3)

Ingredients

(for the salad)

• 2 packets of the Jeollannamdo seaweed packets
• ¼ C matchstick daikon radish
• ¼ C matchstick carrots
• ¼ C diced green onions
• a sprinkling of diced cherry tomatoes or red peppers for color (not PP Friendly)
• 2 T diced jalapenos (not PP Friendly)
• ½ t sesame seeds to garnish
• ¼ C radish sprouts (or any other sprout)

(for the dressing)

• 4 T rice wine vinegar
• 3 T organic aminos—coconut aminos good also (basically, soy sauce that is more healthful)
• 1 T sesame oil
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 t grated ginger
• 1 t grated garlic
• a couple shakes of dried red pepper flakes
• 1 T honey

Method

• Soak the seaweed mix in very cold water for 10 or so minutes.  Drain well and set aside.
• Toss seaweed mix with your vegetables.
• Mix up dressing well and pour half the dressing over and let set for 5 minutes.
• Plate your salad, add more dressing to taste, and garnish with sesame seeds.

You can add any number of veggies to this:  cucumbers, corn, green peas, etc.  I like to serve some Siracha sauce with this as well.  Goes great with buckwheat noodles for a cold noodle/seaweed salad.  The pictures I’ve posted show it served with sushi rice and a 5 spice pork loin.

Stay briny,

–Stacey