Apr 26

Apr 26 Sea Lettuce and Leek Soup

It may sound a bit macabre but ….

If, for some reason, someone finds me lying on the beach one morning, and assumed that my early run had ended in tragedy…. they might be concerned to find the pocket of my jogging pants stuffed with sea lettuce. Clearly a case for Vera or Sherlock Holmes.

But the truth is simple … a fresh tide had brought ashore a bumper crop of sea lettuce. Which I can’t leave alone.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Once I remove the lettuce from my pocket and put my pants through the wash… it was time to decide what to do with it.

First task was to make a dashi. I boiled up the seaweed to make a stock.

Then I rinsed and de-sanded the sea-lettuce, and fried in oilve oil. Liquidised, and set aside.

Air fried some diced potato. Fried up some celery, onions and garlic, and chopped some leeks.

All into one pan, to which I added the seaweed, some of the Dashi stock I’d made and reduced it down. Plus a little Miso paste.

Blended again, and back into the pan.

Stirred in some single cream…. and there we have it.

There was at least one moment in the process when I wondered if I should make Laver Bread out of the seaweed, but maybe another time.

Served with crusty bread and butter, a sprinkling of almonds, and happy in the knowledge that sea lettuce contains iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iodine, aluminium, manganese, and nickel and contains Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin C, calcium, soluble nitrogen, phosphorous, and numerous trace elements.