Algae tartare Easy aperitif recipe full of benefits

An algae tartare is a very easy to make aperitif recipe and full health benefits. Use a mixture of algae (sea lettuce, dulce, nori) dried or fresh.

I’m talking about nutritional contributions, explains how to choose your algae, fresh or dried, how to do and season your tartare and also how to serve it. My favorite way, on cucumber or zucchini rings as in the photos.

The benefits of algae

They are uncomfortable and contain vegetable proteins as well as many Antioxidants, fibers, iodine, polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega 3, vitamins, minerals (Iron, Calcium Magnesium…)… vegetables from seas with very interesting nutritional intake therefore.

Algae also contains from Umami. You have undoubtedly heard of this 5th flavor (which completes sweet, salty, bitter, acid). On behalf of Japan, Umami has in particular a power over satiety helping to regulate food intake.

To give you some figures on their virtues:

• 10 gr of green algae per day bring us more than 70% of our magnesium needs and more than half of our iron needs. But also proteins, calcium, iodine, B12 vitamins.
• The red algae Dulce Bring the DHA (Docosahexaénoic acid), an omega 3 very precious for the brain and the heart. It also contains vitamins A, B12 and C, potassium of proteins…
• The Kombu Contains 20 % of vitamins and mineral salts (5 times more iron than spinach), calcium in large quantities (5 to 8 times more than milk) and a protein rate similar to that of eggs.
• Wakame He is a concentrate of calcium with 13 times more calcium than in milk per 100 gram. Note that plant calcium would be better assimilated than calcium from dairy products.

Which algae to choose?

Ideally mix 2 to 3 varieties of algae to make your tartare, or buy a ready -made mixture.
Algae are classified as 3 categories Depending on their color: green algae, red algae and brown algae.

The most often used algae are:

• Sea lettuce Also called sea salad is a green algae called Ulve or Ulva Lactuca.
• Dulce Also called cows goémon it’s funny is a red algae by the name of Palmaria Palmata.
• Wakame or sea fern is a green algae imported from Asia which now grows in Brittany but little in the wild.
• Nori or porphyra umbilicalis. By the way in Japanese Nori means algae and does not refer to a variety of algae.
• Kombu or laminar

Where to find the seaweed?

You have several options. The two main fresh or dried algae. They also exist frozen, salt or vinegar.

Fresh seaweed

If you are by the sea, in Brittany for example, and you know where and How to collect fresh algae in the seathis is ideal.

Be careful, there are some precautions to take:

• First of all to be careful and well Check the weather, the coefficient and tidal times Before leaving so as not to find yourself trapped.
• Also check The sanitary state of the beach that you are targeting on the government’s website.
• Well In shoes, clothing and having a seal and a pair of scissors so as not to tear the roots from the seaweed.
• Know the varieties of seaweeds and their best level of maturity and harvesting environment. Or be accompanied by a knowing. I made an exit for years ago on the Breton coast of pink granite with Régine Quéva Who created the conservatory of algae croqueuses for this kind of activities and the Food’Argues information site was exciting. I’m looking for the photos to add them to you in this article but I can’t find the date!

There are Good practices to harvest algae ::

• It’s necessary Cut the algae to the scissors so as not to tear off The “roots” (therefore leaving the stipe and the crampon) because some live for several years, but also cut at a certain height and not flush with the ground to leave a part of the blade (or sling) which is the name of the sheet.
• You have to harvest only the fixed algae And not those drifting.
• Finally do not make a raid on a set of algae but leave an intact part So that the groves regenerate.
• There is in addition certain specificities depending on the varieties (at low tide during certain coefficients, certain seasons, favor young shoots …).

Dried algae

Another solution used here: Dried algae that you will rehydrate.
You can find them in organic stores, on sale by correspondence on certain website.
For my part, I buy them from a producer who sells them on the markets in Brittany. When I go on the side of Perros-Guirec, I buy several Paillètes algae bags which are ready to use.

These dried algae are sold by variety or the most often in mixture. Mine is called Salare Iroise And is a mixture of sea lettuce, Dulce and Nori.

There is only Rehydrate them either with a little lukewarm water or with one of the ingredients used in the recipe (olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.).
For a seaweed tartare, I make a mix with a 4 -tablet ratio of dried algae for 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a little water.

What seasonings and variants

For my recipe I opt for seasonal seasoning to give character to the seaweed tartare: capers and pickles, garlic and shallot, olive oil And a little water too to rehydrate the algae.
In addition I offer you a little Balsamic vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) and Dijon mustard (which you can replace with lemon juice).
If you wish, you can add these ingredients in half to start, taste and rectify according to your personal taste.

Treat yourself, The variants are endless ::
Add spices (Turmeric, Curry, Espelette Pepper, etc.), ginger grated fresh, dice dried tomatoes,, candied lemon,, sunflower seeds…
Look at the recipes I offer you to see how to make the tartare and adapt according to your tastes or desires.

How long to keep the tartare of algae?

I would say a week in the refrigerator. There is a lot of oil that facilitates conservation.

As an aperitif Tasted:

• on bread toasts possibly slightly grilled or homemade crackers like my CRISPBREADS With mixtures of seeds and rye flour.
• You can also opt for a more vegetable version that goes perfectly: cut Cucumber or raw zucchini rings And use support to spread the seaweed tartare. It is a perfect association.

The seaweed tartare can also be used like a kind of condiment in a sandwichwith a mixture of raw vegetables or strewn on a compound salad.

Finally you can offer it To accompany a dish Like a fish in papillote or toasted in the oven.

Source Documents of Régine Quéva.

For lovers of fresh seaweed, I recommend a salad composed with another product that looks like an alga but which is not an algae, the salicorn.