My Choice of Seaweed? Powdered kombu is a natural substitute for the artificial flavour enhancer MSG (monosodium glutamate). It is used mainly in salads and soups. The strong taste suggest that hijiki is extremely rich in minerals. Place an even amount of dulse on top. One gram of dulse contains 150 to 300 mcg of iodine. You can use long strips of cucumber, pepper, avocado, or whatever strikes your fancy. But they are just two other seaweeds, I don't know if they pulled them from your shelves as well. I keep kombu in an airtight container in a cool dark cupboard and it keeps for a very long time. There are also nori sheets flavored with wasabi, chilli and other ingredients. Dulse is a kind of edible seaweed. My hubby used to make us a delicious miso soup with kombu and noodles, with lots of veg. It contains both iodine and vitamin C  so you can use it as a condiment for rice, soups, salads, casseroles or grains either crushed into flakes or cut into strips. When you don’t live in Japan or in Asia, it can be a bit irritating to know that there aren’t a lot of Asian or more precisely Japanese stores that sell instant dashi or kelp or shavings of a fermented skipjack tuna for that matter.. Trying to set a good example for my kids here. The taste is also milder compared with hijiki and arame is normally cooked in a similar way. Yummy. For example, the iodine content of red algae can be as low as 15 micrograms per 100 grams of seaweed, whereas brown algae might contain several thousand micrograms of iodine per 100 grams of seaweed. There are thousands of seaweed types but these can be classified into three broad categories - red algae, green algae and brown algae. Eg, if you cook brown rice or a bean dish for a family of four, you may add a 2-inch or 3-inch strip of kombu (depending on its width) to the dish. Let's connect on Instagram || Facebook || Pinterest || YouTube Learn more about me on the ABOUT page. When buying such products, check to make sure that the ingredients are all natural. Agar agar or kanten is not a whole seaweed but a polysaccharide - a form of carbohydrate - extracted from a type of red algae. Said it helps with inflammation. My mom never told me to use sea veggies for hot flashes! Crumble or grind it into a powder and use it as a salt substitute. In Europe and North America, laver is one of the commonly eaten seaweed types similar to nori. But brown algae may be brown, very dark green or black. Avoid these. About 3-4 Tbs. This one has a mixture of me-hikiji and nori. The dulse flakes are from New Brunswick (Canada); the others are from Japan. In general, brown sea vegetables (the kelps) offer more bio-available organic iodine than red sea vegetables (dulse, laver, and nori). Commonly known as Sea Lettuce or Green Nori, it can also be used as a substitute for Nori in making sushi. Occasionally a small side dish, about 1/2 cup serving per person. Just like popular seaweed ingredients like nori, dulse requires no cooking effort and can be bought as both flakes and in leaf form. Okay to eat more occasionally, as in a sushi meal, since nori is not one of the stronger seaweed types. Sydney dietitians Anna and Alex from The Biting Truth explained the benefits to FEMAIL, including how to eat it. And seasoned seaweed snacks! But this sea vegetable is reddish brown, full of potassium and protein and available in whole stringy leaves or powdered as a condiment. Hijiki belongs to the family of seaweed types called sargassum and this was the seaweed used by Chinese physicians to treat goitre as long ago as the first century AD. So avoid those that appear very white. Wakame Salad – here is my favorite summer salad that always fills me up. Click the link to read my comments about coralline seaweed. In terms of calcium content, hijiki, a type of brown seaweed, contains about 14 times as much calcium as cow's milk whereas some of the red and greed seaweeds contain only about seven times as much calcium. It is sold by the Japanese and Koreans in large sheets (8 in x 8 in) for wrapping sushi, or as smaller strips (4 in x 1 in) either for sushi or to be eaten on its own as a snack. It looks interesting but I could not find much information about it. Among the different seaweed types, however, red and green algae are said to be more yin, as the leaves are softer and more open. I mean, he did look like a little Buddha when he was nursing so I assumed he was getting big and healthy, despite my weird diet. Biofuel – I don’t recommend you try this in your kitchen but seaweed is used to make biofuel when combined with genetically engineered E Coli. This could be because arame is one of the seaweed types recommended in macrobiotics, but not widely used in Japanese cuisine. Only choose Nori labeled “vegan” or “fish free”. Some even say that dulse tastes like bacon! In general, red and green algae are softer and milder tasting. Some of the seaweed types also have links that will take you to recipe suggestions. We do eat it at least once a week! I asked my mom repeatedly, when she kept shoving me the soup to eat at meals, why seaweed? It is actually a one of the seaweed types in the kelp family, similar to kombu, except that it is normally cut into fine strips. Seaweed “Wakame” Soup – New mom’s superfood for energy, detoxifying and the nursing baby.