The Dutch Weed Burger!

Now here is a company we can get behind! The Dutch Weed Burger is a company in the Netherlands that serves vegetarian fast food with a twist. They infuse their creations with macro and micro algae, and their menu sounds creatively delicious.

The company manifesto reads, “Welcome to the House of Seaweed, a place where everybody prospers and everybody wins. Where we live and let live. Because our food is grown, not born. We bring the fun back in fundamentalism by serving you guilt-free pleasures. This is the new paradigm: 100% plant-based, 100% delicious. Be an agent of change and choose plants on your plate, as often as you can. For the animals. For the planet.”

Here are some of their menu options that use algae. Click the link and check it our for yourself, they look amazing.

The burger - The patty is made with royal kombu and soya chips, while the bun is loaded with the micro-alga Chlorella.

Weed Balls - A variety of mushrooms seasoned with kelp flakes, breaded and fried.

Sea nuggets - Balls of mixed beans and micro-algae, crunchy on the outside while soft inside.

Weed dog - An incredible looking hot dog enriched with kombu flakes and a green algae mustard sauce.

This is a genius business model. Fast-healthy, good for the body good for the planet while also creating unique flavors that are completely absent in the competition.

Real kombucha is made from seaweed

Kombucha is commonly known as a fermented, slightly alcoholic, lightly effervescent, sweetened black or green tea drink. How kombucha came to mean black/green tea has been lost in translation. Real kombucha is made from seaweed.

In Japanese, Cha (茶) means tea, and kombu means brown seaweed (kelp), therefore kombucha is kelp tea!

Below is a video showing how real kombucha is made.

A seaweed thanksgiving: Gravy

This post follows our segment “A seaweed Thanksgiving.”

Our last dishes were mashed potatoes, Yams with dulse, seaweed butter, and steak sauce

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Have you ever seen people meticulously put every food item on their plates, then pour gravy over everything? What about those delicious leftover turkey sandwiches with gravy? However you use it, most people would agree, your thanksgiving meal needs that gravy boat.

We recently came across this gravy recipe that uses kombu for savory flavor and thickening. This recipe is vegetarian, but could easily incorporate portly or beef broth so satisfy those carnivorous family members.

A seaweed thanksgiving part 1: mashed potatoes

With thanksgiving rapidly approaching, we thought we should start looking into some traditional dishes that incorporate seaweeds. This is the first post in our segment, “A seaweed thanksgiving.” Enjoy!

Traditionally Americans celebrate the 4th Thursday in November as thanksgiving. The celebration is a representation of the first thanksgiving celebrated by the pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. They were joined by the Native Americans who had helped the pilgrims forage in an unfamiliar land. Later thanksgiving was declared a federal holiday in 1863 by president Abraham Lincoln, during the American Civil War.

Unfortunately, the pilgrims and Natives have a complicated history, to say the least, that has soured many peoples perception of the holiday. We will only be focused on the holiday as a time to spend with friends and family, and more specifically, sharing food.

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mashed potatoes.

The fist dish is a cornerstone of the American thanksgiving feast: mashed potatoes.

This recipe by Michael Voltaggio is a twist on the classic dish using dry Kombu

Kombu is a common name from Japan for edible kelp, typically from Laminariaceae. Kombu is commonly available in stores, however, we always encourage exploration into using fresh seaweeds. If you know your collection requirements in your area, then go forage for some of your favorite kelp (remember none are harmful). If you are unaware of your local restrictions, you can always order other fresh seaweeds from Monterey Bay Seaweeds.