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)
