Recipe: Sweet & Salty Seaweed Cereal Bars
Here’s an idea for how to easily sneak seaweed into your diet. Chewy, sweet and salty, snackable seaweed cereal bars.
Why is eating seaweed important? If you’re vegetarian or vegan, in particular, seaweed provides many essential vitamins and minerals that may be lacking in a meat and dairy–free diet, such as omega–3s, iron and calcium — all whilst being very low in calories and fat free. Kelp in particular is known as one of the highest sources of iodine, which can be beneficial for thyroid regulation, but do take care to eat in small measures.
These bars are so easy to make and can be made as low–sugar as possible by using muesli or granola with no added sugar. The secret to the sweet/salty umami-ness is in the vegan miso caramel syrup. I recommend making a large batch and freezing the bars until you want to eat them. If you allow them to defrost for a few hours they will have more of a firm and chewy texture.
If you can’t find shredded kelp (look for something like this, c/o Wai Yee Hong), you can substitute it with sushi nori sheets that you can cut up yourself.
Let me know if you try this recipe and share your results on Instagram with #CelestialPeach.
Rehydrated shredded kelp. Not scary, not at all.
Ingredients
20g shredded kelp
500g no–added sugar muesli
100g sugar
2 tbsp shiro miso paste (the light, yellow, sweet variety such as this one from Sous Chef)
1 cup water
Instructions
Soak the kelp for a few hours in water until rehydrated.
Boil the kelp for 10 minutes, rinse and drain.
Cut the kelp into shorter pieces, roughly 1–2 cm in length.
Make the miso caramel: place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Once at boiling point, reduce the heat to a simmer and slowly stir in the miso paste. Simmer until about 50% reduced in volume and the caramel has some viscosity to it.
Mix the kelp, muesli and caramel in a large bowl. Spread the mix in a well–oiled, flat–bottomed baking dish, making sure to pack it in tightly.
Bake at 170C for 45 minutes. The top should be golden brown and slightly caramelised.
For firm and chewy bars, allow the dish to cool before setting in the freezer for a few hours. Pre–score the contents of the dish to make it easier to slice into bars after freezing.
