A few weeks back there was a woman in front of me in line at Whole Foods and her cart was half-full of dried seaweed. “What do you do with your seaweed?”, I asked, hoping she might offer some recipe inspiration. “I actually just eat it right out of the bag”, she replied. That option hadn’t occurred to me, so when I got home I pulled out some of the seaweed that had been gathering dust in my pantry and gave it a whirl. No dice. There is not enough saliva in the world to get me to eat dried seaweed on the regular.

Most of us know how incredibly good seaweed is for us, but how many of us really incorporate into our diets regularly? I love to order a seaweed salad at a Japanese restaurant with my sushi, but they are often overly sweetened and they rarely offer much variety. For today’s recipe, I created a three-seaweed salad with radishes, carrots, scallions, and a lemon-sesame vinaigrette. When life gives you dried seaweed, make seaweed salad.

Seaweed & Vegetable Salad:
*serves 4-6*

½ C. dried wakame seaweed
½ C. dried arame seaweed
2 C. loosely packed kelp noodles
3 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced diagonally
½ C. carrots, julienned
5 large radishes, very thinly sliced
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

For the Dressing:
1 medium garlic clove, minced and smashed
a small piece of fresh ginger (about the same size the garlic clove), minced and smashed
2 Tbsp. unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
2 tsp. honey
½ tsp. salt
¼ C. toasted sesame oil
5 or 6 chives, sliced into ¼” lengths

Soak the arame and wakame seaweeds according to their package instructions. Rinse and drain thoroughly. Rinse and drain the kelp noodles as well. Of course you can use whatever seaweed you like or have on hand for this recipe – you’ll want about 4 C. total of reconstituted seaweed.

Slice all of your vegetables and place into a medium bowl with the seaweeds.

To prepare the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients except the oil and chives together until the honey and salt are dissolved. Whisk in the sesame oil and then add the chives at the last second.

Pour the dressing over the seaweed and vegetables and then toss thoroughly with your hands to coat. Transfer to a platter or bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes or up to one day. 

When you’re ready to serve the salad, sprinkle generously with the toasted sesame seeds.