Discover seaweed
Seaweed superfood
For us seaweed is like a vegetable from the ocean, a nutritious superfood to biohack your body and supply it with an abundance of minerals, trace elements, vitamins, important fatty acids, dietary fibre and iodine. The amounts of those contents vary within the different species, the time of harvest and location of growth.
Seaweeds are marine algaes and no plants, since they connect to their bottom not for getting the nutrition through their roots, but only to not be taken away by the currents. It has been eaten since centuries and is one of the foods with the longest food tradition.
We also believe that the European culture has forgotten how to eat it and therefore we want to enlighten you with seaweed kitchen inspiration and insight and want to show the colorful possibilities on how and why to bring this superfood back on your plate. Through our travels we experienced a lot of different food all around the globe. This is what got us inspired and we melted it into an easy fusion kitchen with seaweed twist. On our seaweed adventure trip we are on the search for old seaweed kitchen traditions and want to revive or interpret them for you to enjoy.
Health benefits
Incorporating seaweed and algae enhance your wellbeing and health because of the high concentration of important minerals and vitamins. Because those nutrients are found in chelated and colloidal forms they have a high bioavailability for your body. In our opinion nature sets the best examples and if we pay good attention we can definitely benefit from that. Each species has their own special superpowers and we would like to portrait them as we start this journey, reach out to experts, make interviews and prepare some unique story content for you.
High nutrient density
Seaweed possesses more nutritional density than any land-grown vegetables and delivers a lot from the wide spectrum of important vitamins and minerals. You find great amounts of calcium and magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, Vitamin A, many of the B vitamin group, Vitamin C, E and K, as well as important iron. Lots of important trace minerals such as copper, selenium and manganese can be found also, as well as it is great vegan source of important iodine.
Regulates blood sugar
Seaweed contains a much greater amount of fibre as land vegetables and fruits. They contain both types: soluble and insoluble dietary fibre. Insoluble fibre is important to enhance your digestive function and the soluble fibre helps to slow down the rate carbohydrates are digested which then helps to keep your blood sugar at a healthy level. This is beneficial to human health, including managing diabetes Type II. Up to 12,5% of the daily recommended fibre needs can be covered with ca. 8g of seaweed.
Immune system boost
Seaweed consists of great amounts of polysaccharides (carbohydrates). As an example alginates and fucoidans are found in brown algae and carrageenan and agar-agar come from red algae. Those polysaccharides have a remarkably positive effect on the gastrointestinal tract and microbiome as being prebiotic. Our immune system roots in a healthy gut and supports our body during cold and flu season. Moreover, there is current research that works with the anti-viral probabilities of algae to find ways to help combat the new pandemic.
Natural flavour enhancer
The first taste we experience before even entering the world is umami, since it exists in the amniotic fluid. It is the fifth flavor dimension along salty, sweet, sour and bitter and is used when describing an in-depth flavor with a savory deliciousness. This flavor is build by amino acids (proteins) along other things and acts like a natural flavor enhancer. Some seaweed species contain great amounts of this naturally occurring glutamates, hence less salt is needed and the dish is balanced out in taste naturally.
Hormone balance
Seaweed contains many of the nutrients our hormone system needs to regulate our heart rate, metabolism, digestion and control our cell and organ functions with naturally great amounts of zinc, magnesium and Vitamin C and E. Seaweed is a great source of the important trace mineral iodine, which is not only key for thyroid health, but also important for the synthesis of our sex hormones. Moreover, iodine is key for the brain maturation of fetus and newborn and also for the defense against tumors by initiating the natural cell death (apoptosis), especially in the thyroid gland itself, the breast, the ovaries and the uterus.
Brain health
There are fatty acids that are crucial for our nutrition and when being “essential” it is meant that our body cannot produce them themself and we have to make sure to get them through our diet. The unsaturated fatty acids: omega 3 and 6 are essential linoleic acids that are vital for the maintenance of normal brain and memory functions and also during pregnancy when the child's brain is developing. It is therefore often recommended to eat fish oil, since they contain a great amount and balance of those fatty acids. However, the fish only contains them, because they have eaten the seaweed before. Macro algae only contains little amounts of those important fatty acids, but why not start one step ahead of the fish and take some marine micro algae oil?
Detox effect
The alginates that are found in the cells of brown algae are able to bind and reduce heavy metals like: lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic as well as get rid of radioactive compounds from your body. Moreover, eating algae has an alkalizing effect, which means that it naturally balances out the consumption of too much meat, sugar, dairy and white flour products for a healthy pH-level in your body. When talking about detox, in meaning to support your body to get rid of pesticides, insecticides, general pollution and chemicals from our environment, the micro algae chlorella is the perfect match to support your body. Due to its unique cell walls, which contains of several cellular layers it has the strong ability to absorb those toxins and help to transport them away from your body.
Natural cell protection
Seaweed contains numerous protective enzymes and antioxidant components that successfully combat oxidative stress by detecting and destroying the active forms of oxygen and free radicals. It has been researches that iodine was one of the first antioxidants our cells set up to protect themselves. And there are more strong antioxidants such as: polyphenols, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), tocopherols, carotenoids and derivatives of chlorophyll. They all together help to protect your body and help combat e.g. skin aging, inflammation processes and the development of cancer. Wanting to act against premature signs of aging Chlorella is a wonderful algae that due to its high number of nucleic acids has the incomparable potential to regenerate and multiply cells.
Experience the taste
Taste stimulates all of your senses and makes you feel comfortable, full and can lead to exciting dialogues at the dinner table, because it is just so individual. Have you ever talked about how something tastes or how you experience the consistency of something in your mouth? With seaweed you will cover and complete the whole range of flavor, texture and taste dimensions.
Healthy seasoning - umami
We have to make food choices every day and sometimes it is hard to decide what to prepare. Especially when we lack time it can get hard to bring flavor or diversity onto your plate. When we taste the whole spectrum of sweet, salty, bitter, sour and also the 5th flavor dimension umami in one dish we feel complete. By incorporating seaweed you can bring this deep savory umami flavor dimension onto your table and can easily reduce regular table salt at the same time. More natural glutamic acids? Yes, please! This is why we love sprinkling seaweed flakes so much.
Taste the rainbow
Seaweeds come in many different color shades and also change color through the process of blanching. Since we love the idea of diversity on your plate, seaweed can add that little extra in color, nutrition and taste and to your plate as well.
They are the oldest living species on the planet and we will give you a short portrait of the main three macro algae groups coming from the ocean and the micro algae and cyanobacteria that live in freshwater and that we like to use in our kitchen.
There is evidence that seaweed and algae has always been eaten in the history of mankind either as food or remedy because of its powerful nutrition input and naturally occurring iodine content.
Brown algae (Phaeophyta)
Brown algae contain a certain orange carotenoid (fucoxanthin) and together with the green pigment chlorophyll they get that characteristic brown color. Together they form those majestic kelp forests underwater which are anchored to the ocean bed and create an important habitat for the underwater world. For further edible marine macro algae portraits check out our stories. As we start this journey, we will work out the characteristics, health benefits and ways on how prepare each seaweed species and give suggestions on what to combine them with.
Below you find an overview of the brown algae species we frequently use in our kitchen and that are especially great for stews, soups and flavor.
Green algae (Chlorophyta)
Green algae is mostly found in the warm and shallow waters. As their remarkably green color demonstrates they are rich in chlorophyll. While for brown algae there is no stem species or origin, research assumes that the green algae is the origin for the land plants. They are the most easily found on top of the rocks or in rock pools at the beach.
In our kitchen we frequently use: Ulva (Sea lettuce) it has very thin and fragile leaves and is very easy and soft in taste. We even made Christmas cookies with sea lettuce last year. Moreover, we use the micro algae Chlorella, check out the last column on Microalgae. And we love Haematococcus which is used for the production of Astaxanthin one of the most powerful existing antioxidants.
Red algae (Rhodophyta)
Their shade of red varies in dependence of the intensity of light. In deeper water regions they build pigments to support photosynthesis and therefore have darker shades. This species group is found between the low intertidal zone and deep water. The world's most widely consumed seaweed species is laver (Porphyra), which is used to produce nori for sushi. Fortunately, dulse (Palmaria) gained more and more popularity over the last years. It is especially umami rich and because of its meaty and savory flavor dimensions it is often called the vegan “bacon” of the sea.
Moreover, we use Irish moss (Chondrus) and the extracts from different red algae species creating Agar Agar for its unique jelling possibilities and more. And the calcium algae (Lithothamnium) is also part of daily nutrition.
Micro algae & Cyanobacteria
In contrast to the macro algae, those organisms can only be seen through the microscope. The cyanobacteria Spirulina is officially counted a bacterium, although it is commonly referred to as blue algae. The tradition of eating Spirulina originates back to the Aztecs. They sieved the algae from the lake Texcoco and it was revered for its nutritional value.
In nature, vitamin B12 is only synthesized by certain bacteria or archaebacteria. Chlorella can contain large amounts of enzyme active (bioavailable) cobalamins, depending on the way it is farmed. Moreover, it is the most chlorophyl dense organism on the planet and a great source of the other naturally occurring B group vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, zinc and beta-carotene. Please check out our health section to learn more about the detox functions of chlorella.
Kelp & kombu (konbu) - great for stews and soups and flavor.
The Japanese name for kelp is kombu (konbu), which often belongs to the biological order of Laminarias.
Here a few species we use in our kitchen quite frequently: the often called “kombu kelp” aka the sea-girdles (laminaria digitata), saccharina japonica, sugar kelp (saccharina latissima), winged kelp (alaria esculenta), sea spaghetti (himanthalia elongata) and wakame (undaria pinnatifida). There are also fucus species we use in our kitchen like serrated wrack (fucus serratus) and the air bubble filled wracks that float to the surface like: bladdered wrack (fucus versiculosus) or ascophyllum nodosum.
You might have also heard about the species rich sargassum brown algae, also called “Hijiki”in Japanese. They occur firmly in the warmer oceans of the world or some species also swim freely. There is whole region in the Atlantic ocean named after them the Sargasso Sea, where each year the matured eels travel back to lay eggs and die.
Environmental benefits
Our choice of food impacts the planet, with intensive agriculture depleting soil, adding to CO2 and fuelling global warming. Seaweed is part of the answer since it is more nutrient dense that any land-grown vegetables and requires no arable land, fresh water or fertilizer for growth. The low-intensity process of farming seaweed reduces carbon in the atmosphere and supports ocean biodiversity.
