This Wild Seaweed and Miso Noodles recipe is a great way to cook with either freshly harvested, or previously dried foraged seaweeds.
This recipe was inspired by my good friend Joanna Ruminska from Incredible Edible, a professional forager based in Plymouth.
I recently joined her for a fun beachy foraging class she was running, and after we’d gathered both land and sea wild plants, she used them to cook us a lovely lunch right there on the beach.
A few days later I took that inspiration and decided to add the noodles and seaweed to a miso broth base, knowing that the flavours would complement each other perfectly.
I used three different seaweeds that I’d harvested at a very low tide on a local beach here in Cornwall.
The varieties I’d gathered include: Sea Spaghetti (Himanthalia Elongata), Serrated Wrack (Fucus serratus) and Sea Lettuce (Ulva Lactuca).
But any fresh or *dried seaweed, whether foraged or bought, would work well in their place.
* dried kelp or kombu can be very thick and tough and therefore may require more cooking time than stated in this recipe.
As the name implies, Sea Spaghetti can be used in the place of noodles, but if you’re new to eating seaweeds I would use them a little more sparingly until you are comfortable with their flavour and texture!
Also, it is worth noting that seaweeds are high in iodine which can be detrimental in people with thyroid issues. To be on the safe side, please consult your doctor if you are looking to add seaweeds to your diet in this instance.
If you’re interested in learning how to forage for seaweeds, do get in touch with Joanna via the link above if you’re in the South West of England, or search for a coastal foraging class in your area.
How to make a beautiful bowl of wild seaweed and miso noodles
1/ cook your noodles
You can use any noodles you like for this recipe. I used rice noodles which are naturally gluten free, and only require sitting in a bowl of boiling water to ‘cook’. But soba or egg noodles would both work extremely well here too.
If your noodles require cooking time (versus soaking time!), simply add them to the broth pan once the water is boiling.
2/ make your miso soup base
Pour your water into a saucepan and bring to a boil (add your noodles here if yours need cooking time).
Reduce to a simmer and stir in the miso paste, along with the garlic and ginger.
A quick note about miso paste. You can buy a range of different miso pastes and as a general rule of thumb, the darker the colour, the stronger the flavour.
If you are new to using miso I would recommend starting off with a white or yellow miso as these are milder and softer in flavour.
Then in time you can branch out into trying the darker flavours if you fancy. Feel free to decrease or increase the amount of miso in this recipe to suit your taste.
Miso is alive with gut friendly, fermented bacteria which are killed at high temperatures. If you’re after the benefits of these microbes, feel free to make the entire dish with just water, then stir in the miso at the end of the cooking time once you’ve taken the pan off the heat.
3/ time to add the seaweeds
If your seaweeds are freshly harvested, rinse well in a bucket or sink of cold water, changing the water until no sand or critters are left hiding in the leaf folds.
Shake or wring dry, then chop roughly into bite sized pieces and add to the pan.
Whilst seaweed can definitely be enjoyed raw, I like to cook them as the water quality around our coastline can sadly be questionable. A quick boil will kill anything likely to make us sick.
They only need the briefest of cooking, 30-60 seconds is enough.
4/ plate up your noodle broth
Place the noodles in serving bowls and pour over the broth.
Top with all the yummy extras you have to hand.
I used chopped spring onions, lime juice, white and black sesame seeds, chilli flakes and finally I drizzled each bowl with a little toasted sesame oil.
I also added soy sauce because I love the stuff. But taste your soup before adding any as both miso and seaweed can be naturally pretty salty.
And there you have it! A super quick recipe that’ll put your low tide forage to very good use!
Thanks again to Joanna for inspiring this tasty lunch, and do say hi from me if you give her follow on social media:)
- 450 ml water - plus extra for soaking the noodles
- 2 nests rice vermicelli noodles
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
- ½ tsp fresh ginger - minced
- 5 tbsp fresh seaweed - chopped. Use half this amount of using dried seaweeds, and soak before cooking to rehydrate.
- 2 tbsp white miso - feel free to add more or less to suit your taste
- 2 spring onions - chopped
- 2 tsp white sesame seeds
- 2 tsp black sesame seeds
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- ½ lime - juiced
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes - more or less to suit your taste. you may prefer to use Sriracha instead for a more blended flavour of chilli.
- 1 tbsp soy sauce - optional
Place the dried noodles into a bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Leave to ‘cook’ for the required time as stated on the packet.
If you are using another type of noodle that requires cooking, add into the broth water at the beginning and cook for the required amount of time before adding the other ingredients.
Pour the water into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Add the garlic, ginger and chopped seaweeds. Stir and leave to simmer for 30-60 seconds.
Divide the noodles between 2 bowls. Pour the broth over, and spoon over any pieces of seaweed remaining in the pan.
Top each bowl with the remaining ingredients, being sure to taste the broth before adding the soy sauce, just in case it’s salty enough.
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