[lacimontrose]

Hi all!
I am new to posting and new to cooking with seaweed!
I have just come to the end of NC101 and it has been brought to my attention that I need to incorporate more of the booster foods into my diet. I would like to start using more seaweed in my cooking routine but have very little experience on how to use it or what to pair it with so I am looking for any advice, recipes or inspiration!

Also I live in the mountains and I have scoured my local stores in search of different variety's but have been unable to find much aside from your standard snack sheets so information on where to source from would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for any tips.
Laci

[hilarygo]

Hi Laci!
Nice I'm glad that seaweed caught your eye. It's one of my favorites to add to food daily.
Here are some of my go-to varieties that are on rotation in my cooking:

DULSE- has a wonderful umami like flavor, delicious added to a Gomasio seasoning blend (a popular Japanese style condiment). I homemake a gomasio blend every month to have a fresh batch and keep it on the kitchen table to sprinkle onto salads, rice, soup.. you name it! check out this link to find out more about how to make your own gomasio but you can really play around with what you add: https://www.thymeherbal.com/2015/05/21/gomasio-with-seaweed/
I like making a blend of toasted sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, milk thistle seeds, dried nettle leaf and any other seaweed I may have on hand!

NORI- Get high quality nori sheets and use to make hand rolls, maki rolls and my personal favorite- Onigiri! Such a good pack lunch that you can make the night before. You can find these in convenient stores/7-elevens all over Japan. Nori is also great for gomasio and to top off soaps and noodle dishes.

KOMBU- this heartier, thicker seaweed does well simmered for 10-15 minutes to release the water soluble minerals. I like adding a few cut up pieces of this to my hot water/bone both/veggie broth I use before adding miso paste in the end (i add the miso directly in my soup bowl and pour the kombu water on top to preserve any heat sensitive enzymes in the miso!).

Trust-worthy Sourcing: It seems like online is the way to go for you, unless you have access to a organic+health forward Co-op? You can source online some varieties from Mountain Rose Herbs, Eden Foods. I like Emerald Cove's Organic Nori. Thrive Market has some great brands too but you have to be a member to purchase from them. We have some awesome seaweed found in Northern California coastlines too check out this company offering some local varieties: https://www.saltpointseaweed.com/

Hope this helps !
Hilary