Fresh green salad from the sea

Seaweeds are macroscopic, multicellar algae. They are not really plants but algae a group plant-like organisms, usually underwater, photosynthetic but they have different structures for taking in nutrients from the environment. For one thing, they don’t have roots. Nutrients are taken in by diffusion from the water to the algal body. Unlike plants, which have roots, there is nutrient uptake from the roots to the upper parts of the plants. There are three major groups of these photosynthetic algae-brown, red and green algae.They are not to be confused with seagrasses, though. Seagrasses are vascular like plants. They are attached to the sand as well and grow where there is maximum sunlight. Algae on the other can grow deeper in the sea as they have a different type of photosynthetic pigments to catch the sun’s rays.

Seaweeds are very useful as food and medicine. Most familiar would be the nori seaweeds you can find in sushi and other Japanese food. Or the konbu for making dashi, also in Japanese cooking. They are also sources of carageenan used in ice cream-making as stabilizers. These days, seaweeds are farmed for extracting carageenan. If you like agar for making flans, well, these come from seaweeds, too.

I’ve lived near the sea so I’ve made a lot of seaweed salads. Perhaps you might take a vacation near the sea and come across them. Let me share with you how to enjoy this wonderful bounty from the sea.

Ingredients

250 grams fresh seaweeds (in the picture is a red algae)
1/2 cup cane vinegar
1 medium sized tomato, sliced
1 medium sized onion, slice
salt and pepper to taste

Cut seaweeds along the stems into bite size pieces. Blanch seaweeds in boiling water, around two minutes. Be careful not to overcook them as they might turn into agar and you’d have a flan instead! Wash in cold water then drain. Mix seaweeds, tomato and onion. Add the vinegar and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. It’s this simple!

Seaweeds may not be really plants but they have a lot in common with plants. So this post goes to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted this week by Simona at Briciole .

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