The edible future from the sea: Seaweed

DW (English)

Lindy Taverner has been working in conservation and wildlife documentary for over a decade. Now she is making waves in the culinary landscape with her passion for seaweed.

Transcript

00:00Why are South Africans turning into a slimy green and plentiful sea plant for nutrition?

00:11It's because of ocean lovers like Lindy Tavana.

00:15I started really getting into snorkeling and then freediving about eight years ago.

00:22And then I started teaching snorkeling and some of my foreign clients asked me, can you

00:26eat that?

00:27Can you eat that?

00:28So I went from knowing what the species names were to what you can do with them and how

00:33to process them.

00:34I developed a real love for it.

00:38Around about the same time I got diagnosed with breast cancer and it was a bit of a push

00:43in the direction of looking after my health and finding out about the right nutrients

00:48to have in my body.

00:51This is wrack.

00:53It's delicious.

00:54And wrack you eat raw.

00:57Over here we have something called dead man's fingers.

01:01This is quite fun.

01:02It's actually got this gel in it and it's very popular to use on your skin for eczema

01:08and if you've got sunburn or just even for anti-aging.

01:13Lindy's trip down to harvest seaweed always includes a few stops along the way.

01:19This is June spinach.

01:20It's got a high in vitamin C. It's a natural African green, indigenous.

01:25So I just take the top bits so that it can easily regrow.

01:30With rising pollutions along the coastline, is it really all that safe and free from chemicals?

01:39First of all come to a beach that's clean, no sewage outlets and then just harvest where

01:44there is already quite a lot of that seaweed and then I always cut with a knife or scissors.

01:49I take at the most half and then you leave the hold fast so that it can just keep growing

01:55and seaweed grows super fast.

02:00Turning her passion from the superfood into a business, Lindy hosts foraging workshops.

02:06I think seaweed is meant to be an accompaniment to your meal to make it better and that's

02:11what I try and do in the food that I give people on the workshops so that they can understand

02:15it's an accompaniment.

02:21Seaweed's remarkably versatile.

02:24These kelp fronds may look like slimy strips but they are excellent for making lasagna.

02:31I'm cutting the kelp to make mermaid's pockets for lunch tomorrow.

02:35So what we do is we make like a parcel size and make a type of ravioli.

02:41Put a drop of vinegar into the boiling water and then, this is quite cool, I'm going to

02:48boil the pockets up and the chlorophyll being released in the pockets and then they go bright

02:53green.

02:57Her husband Franz grows organic vegetables which will be an essential ingredient for

03:03tomorrow's meal.

03:04Do you want big ones?

03:05Yeah, I think the bigger the better because we're going to use them as the wraps.

03:09Okay, I'll just take all the outer leaves.

03:15It's a stormy cold winter's day in Cape Town but people are keen to get foraging.

03:23It doesn't have a nice name but it actually tastes very nice.

03:27The name is sea intestines.

03:30It's the family of sea lettuce and it's super good for you.

03:37Having braved the cold, people are eager to get back to Lindy's home.

03:41But are they a little sceptical about what's in store for lunch?

03:46Here you go, these are the nori chips.

03:48So this is the seaweed we got in the rocks down here and I dry it and then I put some

03:53nutritional yeast on to make it cheesy.

03:56Having tasted some of Franz's cropped beer, it's time to sit down to a four course meal

04:01paired with organic wine.

04:05This one over here is a sauerkraut with a bit of kelp.

04:09This is a cabbage, a red cabbage that I've done with a rack.

04:12Remember you guys all tried the rack down at the beach?

04:15And the red one, be careful of, it's chilli sauce but it's done with kelp.

04:21But does it taste as good as it looks?

04:25Usually when I say seaweed, I think more like sushi and Japanese food that you have.

04:29And here you get it mixed with different sauces and flavours and spices and herbs and it gives

04:34it different dimensions in the food.

04:36And I think that's really wonderful.

04:38Next course is with June spinach and the mermaid kelp pockets sprinkled with June parsley.

04:45It's free from the rocks but also no pesticides, no fertilisers, like this is as sustainable

04:50food source as you can get, right?

04:53And who would imagine you could make a dessert from a plant that spends its life in salt water?

04:59This is a brownie done with dates and coffee and cacao and speckworm.

05:06And then I've got some candy here which is kelp candy.

05:13Putting on a good show comes as a second nature for Lindy, having spent time working on fancy

05:18super yachts, but was it always plain sailing?

05:22I did have some epic fails.

05:24I didn't realise in the beginning that I needed to cook the kelp really well before adding

05:28it to the lasagna.

05:30So now I know.

05:32Inspiring people to learn about the ocean's nutritious greens has been part of Lindy's

05:37healing journey.

05:39Well I love sharing the knowledge but I really like people.

05:42It's usually quite a joyous occasion.

05:44People have fun and seeing how happy they are when they get to eat the nice food.

05:50And then the sweet potato's got some herbs in it like wild rosemary.

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