Kombu

Kjellmaniella spp., Saccharina spp. …

seaweed · prebiotic

Long strips of a brown seaweed farmed in China, Japan and Korea, dried; they make dashi, the base broth of Japanese cooking, and are cooked with pulses. It provides iodine, fucoxanthin and seaweed polysaccharides.

Origin

Hokkaidō (Japan)

Season (United States)

all year round · grows in your region

Preparation

In dashi, the seaweed is taken out before it boils; simmered with pulses or candied as tsukudani, it is eaten. Salty by nature: a rinse, or a short soak, takes some of it out.

Molecules

Seaweed polysaccharides · Fucoxanthin · IodineIn small amounts, not counted CalciumMinerals & trace elements Sodium (salty foods)

Did you know?

It was by studying kombu that the chemist Kikunae Ikeda identified umami, in 1908, naming it after umai, “delicious”.