Let’s say you want to farm. And let’s say there is a crop that requires you to plant and harvest, but do very little in between. It needs no fertilizing, no weeding, no watering, and it has very few enemies in the form of pests or disease. It gets all it needs from the environment around it and, under optimal conditions, can grow almost six inches a day. It’s healthful for people, and it actually leaves the environment better than it finds it.
That’s the case in favor of seaweed, and it’s a case that Charlie Yarish, a professor in the department of marine sciences at the University of Connecticut at Stamford, has been making for nigh on half a century. They call him “Captain Seaweed.” I visited his lab, and I’m a believer.
Yarish has spent decades doing the work that brings an interesting idea – let’s farm seaweed! – to the point where growers can start viable farms. There are some 3,500 kinds of seaweed, and figuring out which kind to grow, and where, and how, is a big job. The first rule? “Always grow a species native to the water you’re growing in,” says Yarish. Because some seaweeds are wildly invasive, that’s an important point.
One of the farmers who has taken advantage of Yarish’s research is Paul Dobbins. He’s a co-owner of Ocean Approved, a company that farms sugar kelp off the coast of Maine and sells it frozen, rather than dried. In a kind of busman’s holiday (I farm oysters), I went out with him to take a look at the kelp. It was early spring, and most of his crop had already been harvested, but he still had a line or two in the water. We pulled up to the buoy that marked a line, and he reached into the water.
What he pulled into the boat was a remarkable abundance of plant. Sugar kelp gives magic beanstalks a run for their money: It can grow from seedling to 15 feet over one winter. In the process, it cleans the water by removing some of the nutrients that can lead to algae blooms. Along with shellfish, kelp is one of the few farmed foods with a positive environmental impact.
And it doesn’t consume much in the way of resources. There’s the gas for the boat. There’s the labor in planting, harvesting, and processing. And that’s about it.
There are a couple of ancillary non-environmental benefits. Most shellfish farming takes place from spring through early winter, so a crop that can grow from early winter through spring is an excellent complement; it can use both the space and the labor in the off-season.
That same benefit makes kelp farming an easier sell to people who live in the area. Two objections to shellfish farming are that it’s unsightly and that it uses areas of water that people want to use for recreation. Because kelp grows over the winter, those issues are less important. In the U.S. Northeast, where I live and farm, many waterfront homes are occupied only seasonally, and homeowners look more kindly on a farm that operates only when they’re not in residence.
Seaweed farms are good neighbors; they actually clean the water, and they require very few resources. Planet-wise, seaweed is a clear win. How about human-wise? Should we be eating more seaweed?
In the United States, we’ve picked up what seaweed habits we have from Asians (miso soup, seaweed salad, sushi), who have a long seaweed-eating history. But where there’s sea, there’s seaweed, and coastal people around the world have used it for food, medicine, and animal feed for millennia. Most of that seaweed wasn’t farmed but foraged, a practice that continues to this day all over the world. If you’re fond of the roasted pieces of seaweed that have become widely available as packaged snacks, take a look at the label: Some are made from farmed seaweed, others from wild-harvested. But there’s only so much we can take from the wild, and if we’re going to eat more, it makes sense to grow it.
The health impact of eating more seaweed isn’t so easy to figure out, because that word “seaweed” covers a lot of territory. Each of the thousands of species has a different nutritional profile. But we have to start somewhere, so let’s look at kelp. Compare the U.S. government’s nutritional data for kelp with the data for a nutritious terrestrial green – spinach – and you find that, gram for gram, the seaweed isn’t as nutrition-dense but is still a perfectly respectable vegetable and an excellent source of iron, folate, and vitamin K.
Some scientists speculate that seaweed has benefits beyond the standard-issue list of nutrients and that more-obscure compounds might confer special advantages. Proteins, polyphenols, and polysaccharides might help fight viruses, cancer, or obesity. Alginate, a kind of fiber in seaweed, appears to block fat absorption. We don’t know much about any of this yet, but the possibilities are intriguing.
One well-studied aspect of seaweed is its iodine content. We all need trace amounts of iodine, and a deficiency results in goiter, an inflammation of the thyroid. Because iodine is added to most table salt, goiter is relatively rare in this country, but it’s still a problem in other parts of the world.
Seaweed’s high iodine content is a double-edged sword. Just a bit of seaweed can get you the recommended 150 micrograms, but it might not take much more to get you over the recommended upper limit for adults of 1,100 micrograms. That much iodine can cause thyroid dysfunction.
Lots of factors affect iodine levels, which means farmers and processors have some control over iodine content. Species of seaweed, water temperature and salinity, and age of the plant all play a role. On top of that, at least a portion of the iodine in seaweed is water-soluble, which means you can leave some of it behind in cooking water (although how much varies widely, which complicates the issue).
Although there are several ways to manage iodine content, seaweed still has a bit of a nutritional Catch-22. If you’re eating enough of it to get significant nutrition, you may also be getting too much iodine. If you eat smaller portions (like those roasted seaweed snacks, or the pieces in your miso soup), iodine isn’t a problem, but you’re also not getting many nutritional benefits.
And then there’s the taste, which is a bit of a hurdle. Seaweed is, unfortunately, not delicious.
It’s not terrible, either. It’s bland and a little salty. It tastes a lot like you’d expect a green that comes out of the ocean to taste: vaguely oceany. The texture, at least of the kelp that Ocean Approved grows, is crunchy, but not crunchy like apples or cashews or toast. It’s crunchy with a hint of soggy. Not bad, but not the stuff food cravings are made of.
This, of course, is a judgment call, as assessments of taste always are, and I don’t expect anyone to take my judgment as the last word. So I asked Barton Seaver about the flavor of what he and other proponents have taken to calling “seagreens” in an attempt to make them sound more palatable. Seaver is a chef and sustainable-food advocate, and his latest book, “Superfood Seagreens: A Guide to Cooking With Power-Packed Seaweed,” is coming out in January. Advocate though he is, he’s upfront about seaweed’s… um… unfamiliarity. “We’re not used to the flavor,” he says. “The incredible umami-rich flavor of seagreens can be, quite honestly, off-putting at first. Seagreens need a more gentle introduction.”
That part about umami is important. It’s the fifth taste, a hard-to-describe savory richness, and seaweed is rich in glutamate, a compound that imparts it. And so, even if seaweed’s flavor may not work well on its own, it can be an important addition to other dishes. Seaver suggests adding seaweeds to familiar foods – smoothies, salads, soups – rather than expecting it to stand alone.
As farmers and scientists experiment with different types of seaweed, flavor obviously will be one of the characteristics they look at, and it’s certainly possible that delicious varieties are in our future. Oregon State researchers recently announced that they had developed a type of dulse, a red seaweed, that tastes like bacon. Seeing as actual bacon has just been declared a carcinogen, this could be a BLT-saving development.
All in all, seaweed isn’t my candidate for the new kale. Given that it’s an acquired taste, and that there can be some risk associated with high consumption, I don’t think it’s going to take dinner plates by storm. But when it comes to the problem of feeding 7 billion people, a nutritious green that grows all on its own – and requires no land, fertilizer, or fresh water – ought to be part of the solution.
If that bacon thing works out, though, I’m all in.
Moorish Stew
4 servings (makes 8 cups)
Here, chef Barton Seaver has replaced the wilted spinach in a traditional Spanish recipe with seaweed – or, as he likes to call it, seagreens. He also uses seaweed to create an umami-rich vegetable broth that’s the base of the stew.
Dried kombu (kelp) is available on the international/Asian aisle of larger grocery stores.
MAKE AHEAD: The broth needs to steep for 1 hour; it can be cooled, then refrigerated for up to 4 days in advance. You’ll have leftover broth, which can be frozen for up to 1 month. The stew tastes even better after a day or two of refrigeration; reheat before serving.
Adapted from Seaver’s upcoming “Superfood Seagreens” (Sterling Publishing, January 2016).
Ingredients
For the broth
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 rib celery
- 1 ounce dried kombu (see headnote)
- 1 quarter-size slice fresh ginger root
- 1/4 cup chopped dried mushrooms, preferably shiitake
For the stew
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes or russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or more as needed
- 1 ounce dried kombu, rehydrated (see NOTE; may substitute 3 cups fresh/frozen seaweed)
- One 14.5-ounce can no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained (may substitute about 1 1/2 cups cooked/homemade chickpeas)
- One 14.5-ounce can diced, no-salt-added tomatoes
- 4 large eggs, for garnish (optional)
Steps
For the broth: Combine the water, onion, celery, dried kombu, ginger and dried mushrooms in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Bring just to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low; cook for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it steep for 1 hour. Strain, discarding the solids. The yield is about 8 cups.
For the stew: Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the potatoes and onion, stirring to coat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the potatoes start to pick up some color, then stir in the garlic, smoked paprika and 1/2 teaspoon of salt; cook for about 1 minute, then add the rehydrated kombu, chickpeas, 4 cups of the broth and the tomatoes and their juices, stirring to incorporate. Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, partially cover and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat; taste, and season with salt, as needed.
For the optional garnish (just before you’re ready to serve), grease a small nonstick skillet with cooking oil spray, then heat it over medium heat. Fry the eggs 1 at a time, seasoning them with a little salt and transferring the cooked eggs to a plate as you work.
Spoon the stew into individual bowls. Top each portion with a fried egg, if using. Serve hot.
NOTE: Rehydrate the kombu by soaking it in a bowlful of cool water for about 5 minutes. Drain before using.
Nutrition | Per serving: 380 calories, 10 g protein, 59 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 450 mg sodium, 9 g dietary fiber, 7 g sugar
© 2015, The Washington Post
