Wakame salad

Cover dried wakame with cold water for about 5–10 minutes, until soft, then drain and squeeze it dry. Toss with rice vinegar, a little soy sauce, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds; slice large pieces so they’re easy to eat.

For a ready-to-eat salad, look for wakame as a main ingredient and check whether it is already dressed with sesame oil, sugar or chilli, so you can balance the rest of the meal. Dried wakame is a handy choice if you want to make the dressing yourself.

Keep homemade wakame salad in a covered container in the fridge and eat it within 2 days. Drain off any pooled liquid before serving; it can make the dressing watery.

Serve it alongside sushi, rice bowls, grilled fish or tofu. Its tangy sesame dressing also works well with plain rice and crisp cucumber.

Use thinly sliced cucumber for a crisp, mild salad, or rehydrated hijiki for a more sea-like flavour and firmer texture. Dress either one with rice vinegar and sesame, but add soy sauce sparingly because hijiki has a stronger savoury taste.

Not always: wakame salad is made with wakame, while a salad sold as seaweed salad may combine several seaweeds. The similar-food data lists seaweed salad at 109 kcal and 7.4 g protein per 100 g; wakame salad has 97 kcal and 1.8 g protein per 100 g.