ALARIA ESCULENTA
Alaria esculenta — dabberlocks, badderlocks, or winged kelp — is a brown seaweed found on exposed rocky coasts across the North Atlantic, including all around Scotland and Ireland. It's the closest North Atlantic equivalent to Japanese wakame, and one of the most palatable seaweeds growing on British shores.
What It Looks Like
Alaria has a distinctive shape: a long olive-brown blade, often two metres or more, with a pale midrib running down its centre like the spine of a feather. Small wing-like fronds cluster around the stipe at the base — the source of "winged kelp."
It grows on wave-exposed rock at and below the low-tide line, and it's an indicator of clean, well-flushed water. You won't find it in sheltered bays or anywhere sluggish, which is convenient: where Alaria grows tends to be where you'd want to harvest.
What It Tastes Like
Mild and slightly sweet, without the strong iodine note of the larger kelps. The midrib is tougher and sweeter; the blade is tender and cooks quickly.
Texture is the main appeal — it softens to something silky rather than slippery, which is why it works as a vegetable in its own right rather than only as a seasoning.
The Wakame Comparison
Alaria and wakame (Undaria pinnatifida) are closely related and behave much the same in the kitchen. Anywhere a recipe calls for wakame — miso soup, seaweed salad, noodle bowls — Alaria will do the same job, and it grows on this side of the Atlantic rather than being shipped from Japan or Korea.
How to Use It
- Rehydrated in soups — dried Alaria swells quickly in hot stock. Add near the end, as it needs only a minute or two.
- Seaweed salad — blanched briefly, then dressed with rice vinegar, sesame oil and a little sugar.
- With grains and pulses — cooked alongside lentils, beans or rice, where it seasons the pot and softens into the dish.
- Frittatas and omelettes — chopped through the egg before cooking.
- As a green vegetable — the fresh blade, briefly steamed and dressed, works much like spinach.
The midrib is worth separating if you're working with the fresh blade — it takes longer to soften, and it's good sliced thin and pickled.
Harvesting
Alaria sits low on the shore, so it's only accessible on a good spring tide. Cut the blade partway up and leave the base and stipe intact so the plant regrows — cutting at the holdfast kills it.
Take from living plants on open coast, not from the strandline. Spring growth is the most tender.
Beyond the Kitchen
Alaria is farmed commercially in Scotland and Ireland, and alginate extracted from brown seaweeds of this family is used widely as a thickener and stabiliser across food manufacturing. It's also used in animal feed and as a soil conditioner.
Nutrition
Alaria contains vitamins A, C, K and B vitamins, along with iodine, calcium, magnesium and iron, plus dietary fibre and a relatively high protein content. Iodine levels are lower than in the larger kelps such as oar weed, though still worth being aware of with regular use.
Related
Alaria is one of the brown seaweeds, alongside sugar kelp and sea spaghetti. See our guide to edible seaweed in the UK, or the full guide to edible seaweed.
Seaweed has been a source of savoury flavour for centuries. Sozyë's sauces are brewed from a blend of wild Scottish seaweeds, harvested off the north coast of Scotland.