Kelp, Cinderella Of The Sea

by Judy Sobeloff, from the September 2005 newsletter

True confession: While adrift in a rowboat this summer, our three-year-old admired something large and golden brown floating in the water. My husband reached down, pulled it into the boat, and all of us, including our 15-month-old, chomped it. We were participating in an elaborate story involving mermaid food, but did we really need to reach down and take a second bite?

OK, your turn. Along these lines, the writer David Sedaris describes watching his father surreptitiously eat small pieces of his hat. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten?

We’d tasted what I now know to be called bull or bull head or bull whip kelp. Lying on beaches, it had never looked the least bit tantalizing. But kelp is the Cinderella of the food kingdom, working tirelessly behind the scenes in the form of alginic acid or alginate or algin to “improve texture and mouth-feel” www.nationmaster.com so that we can enjoy such delicacies as ice cream, toothpaste, paint, and tires.

Both our kids will gobble dark green vegetables by the plateful if you call it “seaweed” (mermaid food), but mermaids surprisingly had nothing to do with the excitement that accompanied our introduction to kelp noodles. When my friend Debby is enthusiastic about something, I’ve learned to listen and take notes. So when she told me about kelp noodles, I ran to the Co-op to get some: Behold, Kelperella, Cinderella dressed up for the ball!

Made by the San Diego-based Sea Tangle Noodle Company since 2001, kelp noodles are “made of only kelp (a sea vegetable), sodium alginate (sodium salt extracted from a brown seaweed), and water.

Kelp noodles are fat-free, gluten-free, and very low in carbohydrates and calories,” according to the packaging. In the parlance of Weight Watchers, Debby notes, kelp noodles have “0 points,” because your body uses as many calories in chewing and digesting the noodles as you’re taking in.

Debby likes the “crunch, the weird texture” of kelp noodles. “Believe it or not, it’s like lobster. At first it’s really chewy, like rubber, and then it bursts.” She uses them in place of rice noodles or spaghetti, “anywhere that you’d use pasta or a cold crunchy vegetable.” (See Debby’s serving suggestions below.)

The packaging promises “neutral taste,” which, if anything, is an understatement. My friend Stuart, sampling hot noodles with vegetables, cashews, and lemon tahini dressing, described the noodles as “very inert” but liked the crunch and enjoyed the dish nonetheless.

Though Stu’s children, ages 4 and 10, declined their noodle-tasting opportunity, my kids both went nuts for the plain cold crunchable noodles, eating them by the handful, and also devoured hot Peanut Miso Noodles the following night.

I love kelp,” my daughter said. “I wish we could make kelp more often.”

You still might think that if the noodles have no taste, and if you’re not on a diet, why bother? The cool thing about kelp is that it’s high in iron, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and iodine (Evelyn Roehl, Whole Food Facts). According to The Nutrition Almanac, sea plants are rich in minerals and “have an advantage over land crops because they grow in sea water in which the minerals are constantly being renewed.”

Kelp noodles also have a high fun factor and are easy to prepare, forgiving and flexible. As the packaging states: “Best of all, no cooking is required.” Eating them cold involves only rinsing and cutting them to the desired length, and even “cooking” is as simple as letting them sit in hot or boiling water for just a few minutes.

While the recipe directions on the package tended toward the vague and casual, leaving me wondering whether the noodles and vegetables were intended to be cooked or eaten cold, in the final analysis it didn’t seem to matter.

Debby’s Kelp Noodle Serving Suggestions
NOTE: Layer rather than toss.

1. Bed of lettuce, then cold kelp noodles, then walnuts and cranberries, then bleu cheese if you’re feeling adventurous, then salad dressing of choice, such as Annie’s Sesame Ginger.
2. Bed of lettuce, then wild rice, then hot or cold kelp noodles, then black beans, then a balsamic vinegar dressing. Optional: Sprinkle with fresh cilantro.
3. Bed of brown rice, then hot kelp noodles, then steamed vegetables (such as snow peas, broccoli, water chestnuts) and lemon or lime tahini dressing.

Debby’s Lemon Or Lime Tahini Dressing

Tahini
Water
Minced garlic
Lemon juice or lime juice
Bragg’s Aminos or tamari or soy sauce

Mix tahini with water to desired consistency for sauce. Add other ingredients to taste, and mix well.

Peanut Miso Noodles (adapted from Sea Tangle Noodle Company)

Kelp noodles, cut to desired length
Vegetables of your choice, sliced

Sauce:
1 part miso paste
3 parts ground peanuts or peanut butter
Water, added to desired consistency
Sugar to taste
Dash of sesame oil and vinegar

Combine above sauce ingredients to make dressing. Add sauce to vegetables and noodles. Mix well.

When not tangling with kelp noodles, Judy Sobeloff is coordinating the Moscow Community Creative Writing Workshop.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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