Wakame Uses :

Wakame needs to be reconstituted before using it. Simply place the seaweed in a bowl and cover it with warm water for a few minutes. It might expand a bit, so you might not need to use a lot of it. Once hydrated and drained, it’s added to salads and soups, or chopped, seasoned, and served as a salad. Famous miso soup is often garnished with diced tofu, minced scallions, and small pieces of green seaweed. That seaweed is wakame.

How to Cook With Wakame :
After rehydrating, it’s simply a matter of soaking it in iced water for 5 to 6 minutes, then draining it, and squeezing out the excess water. Another technique is to blanch the wakame, which involves briefly immersing the dried wakame in boiling water, then draining it, and rinsing it with cold water before squeezing it dry. Blanching brings out the bright green color of the wakame, and you’d typically do it if you were using it in a salad as opposed to a soup. Lastly, the dried strips can be ground in a spice grinder and used as a seasoning for salads, soups, fish, or tofu.

Wakame Recipes :

Although not common in Western kitchens, wakame is a very versatile ingredient. Use rehydrated wakame in salads, add it to vegetable soups, or serve it as a side dish to meats and rice dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce. Use the dry ground powder, soy sauce, spring onions, honey, and sesame seeds to marinate meats before grilling. Mix rehydrated chopped wakame into pasta salads and dress with tamari and onion salt.

Storage :
Dried wakame can be kept sealed in the bag it came in, in a cool, dry, dark place, for up to a year. Once you’ve rehydrated it, it should be kept refrigerated, where it will last for 3–4 days. You can also store rehydrated wakame in the freezer, where it will keep for a year. Salted (refrigerated) wakame should be kept in the fridge, where it will stay fresh for several weeks, but it’s best to check the expiration or sell-by date.