Rawk Out: Arame Salad with Miso Sesame Dressing

What is arame? Arame is a sea vegetable, a species of kelp that has a mild, sweet flavor and a nice firm texture. This sea veggie is a great one to start out with because it is so mild tasting. It is also quite easy to work with. All you need to do is soak it prior to use for about 20 minutes in cool water, then drain it and give it a good rinse. That's all the prep it needs.

I use Emerald Cove arame. They harvest their arame from the Ise peninsula in Japan. It grows about 20 ft below the low tide level and it is harvested and then sun dried. Here is the pkg so you know what to look for.

Dried arame:

Soaking the arame:

This is what the arame looks likt after it has soaked and been rinsed:

For the salad, I mixed the arame with grated carrots and sliced snap peas, though you could use any other green veggie, asparagus, green beans, broccoli...you get the idea.

I dressed the salad with a Miso Sesame dressing that is worth preparing, even if you're not interested in the arame salad. It is a great dressing for any salad really. For the dressing, to keep it raw, use an unpasturized miso such as Miso Master brand. The dressing also has sesame tahini in it so look for a raw brand such as Artisana. The dressing has some sesame oil in it, so again, to keep it raw, get an unrefined brand.

Miso Sesame Dressing (adapted from Raw Foods For Busy People 2, Green Magic, by Jordan Maerin)
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
2 TBS miso (@room temp)
2 TBS sesame tahini (@room temp)
1 TBS sesame oil
Juice of 1 lemon (original recipe called for using 2 tsp vinegar, but I like to use lemon instead)
Pinch fresh ground black pepper

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl...it's that easy...
On to the salad.
Mix some of the Miso Sesame Dressing into the arame, carrot, snap pea mixture. I put down a bed of mixed greens and piled the arame salad in the middle, then added in sliced tomatoes and avocados. I topped with a drizzle of Miso Sesame dressing. Delicious...