I had given up eating seaweed briefly when I first discovered the histamine intolerance. Many seaweeds increase histamine but apparently some do lower it as well. I did not know which was which. I was eating many varieties of seaweed because it’s highly nutritious. My two favorite were nori and wakame.
I checked in with The Low Histamine Chef, and she let me know that wakame had anti-histamine properties. When we add food back in we still need to be careful and I was happy to find out that wakame agrees with me. I used to eat it in fish soups all the time. Now I’ve started playing with it in more ways since I’m not eating fish.
Wakame can grow over 30 times it’s dehydrated size so it’s also very economical along with just plain delicious.
I’ve made various salad/mixed veggie dishes and they’ve turned out very well.
I’ll share the recipe of one of them. Feel free to get creative and do variations as that I what I’ve been doing.
These are amounts for 2 people eating a meal sized salad, so just add more if you’re cooking for more.
- 1/2 cup wakame seaweed
- 1/2 red onion chopped
- 2 celery stalk chopped
- 2 inch piece of ginger grated with microplane grater
- sesame oil to taste
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
So I sliced the onion in half circles and chopped the celery and sauteed the two veggies. I used MCT oil, but you can use a mild flavored cooking oil/fat of your choice. Ghee would be good and I’d have used that if I was tolerating it. Since I top the dish off with sesame oil something nice and mild flavored is best so that you can taste the sesame oil later. Saute the veggies just until they’re softened. Do not brown. Put them aside.
Put the 1/2 cup of wakame in a couple of cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the wakami sit until completely rehydrated. The brand I use is cut up in bits and makes for very easy cooking. If you have something that’s not cut up in bits you will have to do that yourself.
Once the wakame is fully hydrated toss the seaweed into a colander to get rid of extra water. Run a bit of cool water over the seaweed.
Combine the seaweed and the now cooled sauteed veggies. Top with the sunflower seeds and toss with a bit of sesame oil.
Ready to eat.
As a variation I sliced red cabbage in thin strips instead of using celery. That was quite nice as well.
Eating wholesome whole real food is important for body/mind/spirit health and well-being. I’ve written a lot about my adventure with diet and healing here: Nutrition and gut health, Mental health and diet
And you can find more Foodie Friday posts and recipes here.