Seaweed and Co: the future’s unlikely superfood

Move over, kale – there’s a new leaf in town and, unlike you, it doesn’t need a host of herbs or spices to make it palatable. It packs its own punch: a pure, slightly salty and deeply umami flavour that could only come from one of the life’s few remaining mysteries: the sea. In short, kale, you’ve been out-greened by seaweed – and not the ‘seaweed’ (cabbage, really) you’ll find on Chinese takeaway menus either. This is the real deal, sustainably grown and harvested around the Scottish Outer Hebrides by a man who calls himself Dr Seaweed.

His name is Craig Rose – and he actually is a doctor, having done a PhD in marine biology before branching out into seaweed research. He’s spent decades immersed in the potential of seaweed for sustainable food production, and for human health. His company Seaweed and Co came about when he met some chaps cultivating seaweed in the Isle of Lewis – ‘predominantly for agriculture, animal feed and horticulture – for which it is really good,’ he says, but his interest lay in its culinary and nutritional qualities. ‘It’s rich in a huge range of minerals, trace elements, vitamin groups, amino acids and essential fatty acids.’ Research is ongoing – Craig is no quack, and wants every health claim to be peer reviewed, evidence-based and validated – but benefits the EU have approved include improvements to metabolism, thyroid health and cognitive function. ‘It’s a great vegan source of iodine – something British women’s diets in particular are deficient in,’ he explains.

What’s more, it’s delicious. ‘Few people realise it, but glutamate – the natural, friendly forefather to MSG – occurs naturally in seaweed, which is why Asian cuisines use it a lot in broths and stews.’ It turbo boosts flavour, bringing its distinctive umami to any party, which is why Seaweed and Co decided to launch its own range of products highlighting the merits of seaweed direct to consumers earlier this year. ‘We’d been supplying seaweed B2B across a whole range of products: mayonnaise, crackers, soups – all sorts; but we wanted to engage the public and make it accessible.’ Seaweed’s not weird, it’s wonderful, he continues – and indeed, it is this mantra that inspired the label which you’ll find on their various bottled oils and capsules. ‘We came up with the brand name Weed and Wonderful,’ he smiles. ‘We have a pure seaweed-infused oil, a smoked seaweed-infused oil, and an intense one – almost like an essence. It’s about taking the culinary benefits of seaweed and putting it into a useable context.’ To us, these oils cry out to be drizzled like chilli or herb-infused oil as the finishing touches upon a finished dish.