Forage Wild Food

Foraging for Pepper Dulse: The Truffle of the Sea

Pepper Dulse: Osmundea pinnatifida

(In Irish: Miobhán)

If you’re a fan of foraging food and finding edible treats in the wild, this series is for you.

For those who’ve been following this blog for a while, they may have noticed that I have a love for zombies and post-apocalyptic scenarios and so, this is how the survival series was born!

This week I’m looking at more seaweeds. Presenting:

Pepper Dulse

Also known as Osmundea pinnatifida (if you’re fancy), this very small seaweed can be tedious to harvest but perfect if you’re looking for a snack on the go.

The taste? Well, you guessed it, it’s salty and deliciously peppery, and can be a great addition to any salad to give it more of a kick.

The colour can vary from a dark purplish brown to a musty yellow and it’s mostly found on rocks on the upper to lower-middle shore.

You need to be very careful to forage this particular seaweed sustainably, so only take a bit of it from a place at a time using scissors.

Containing about 8% protein, pepper dulse is also high in fibre and low in fat with up to 32% concentrated sea minerals.

As good as it tastes though, I’d advise not eating too much of it because people do tend to get a bit queasy if they gobble it down!

(Lead image via Akuppa John Wigham on Flickr)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *