ALARIA SEAWEED
Alaria is the North Atlantic's answer to wakame — mild, slightly sweet, and one of the few seaweeds tender enough to eat as a vegetable rather than only as a seasoning. If you want somewhere to start with cooking seaweed, this is it.
Buying and Storing
Alaria is sold dried, usually as whole blades or cut strips. Good dried alaria is dark olive-brown and brittle, and rehydrates to a deep green. It keeps indefinitely in a sealed container away from light and damp.
Fresh alaria appears occasionally from Scottish and Irish producers in spring. It doesn't keep — use within a couple of days, or blanch and freeze it.
Rehydrating
Dried alaria swells considerably — roughly five times its dried volume — so start with less than looks right. Ten grams dry is a generous portion for two people.
Soak in cold water for ten minutes, or hot water for three or four. It should be pliable and green but still have some structure. Over-soaking makes it slack. Keep the soaking water for stock if you're making soup; discard it if the seaweed was salted.
The Midrib
Alaria has a pale central midrib running down the blade. It's tougher than the surrounding leaf and takes longer to soften.
For quick preparations — salads, garnishes — cut it out and use the softer blade either side. Don't throw it away: sliced thin and simmered longer, or pickled, it's sweeter than the rest of the plant.
How to Cook It
- Miso soup — rehydrated alaria added to hot broth at the end. The direct wakame substitution, and the simplest use.
- Seaweed salad — blanch 30 seconds, refresh in cold water, then dress with rice vinegar, soy, sesame oil, a little sugar and toasted sesame seeds.
- With grains and pulses — a strip added to lentils, beans or rice as they cook. It softens into the dish and seasons the pot.
- Frittata and omelettes — rehydrated, squeezed dry and chopped through the egg.
- Noodle bowls — added to ramen or soba at the end, where it keeps some bite.
- Steamed as a green vegetable — fresh blade, briefly steamed and dressed with butter or oil and lemon. Behaves much like spinach.
What It Goes With
Alaria's mildness makes it easy to pair. It works with sesame, soy, ginger, rice vinegar and citrus in an East Asian direction, and equally with butter, lemon, black pepper and potatoes in a Northern European one.
Where it doesn't work is against strong competition. Heavy tomato sauces, chilli and long-cooked meat dishes will bury it.
Common Mistakes
Using too much. The commonest error by far, because dried seaweed doesn't look like much until it swells.
Over-boiling. Alaria needs a minute or two at most. Prolonged boiling turns it slimy and flattens the flavour.
Adding it too early. In soups and stir-fries it goes in at the end, not the beginning.
Not rinsing. Some dried alaria is salted for preservation. Taste a piece before you season the dish.
A Note on Iodine
Alaria's iodine content is lower than the large kelps, which makes it more suitable for regular use. It's still a kelp relative, though, and anyone pregnant, breastfeeding or with a thyroid condition should take medical advice before eating seaweed regularly.
Related
For identification, habitat and where alaria grows, see our page on Alaria esculenta. For other seaweeds worth cooking with, see sugar kelp and dulse, 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.