Vegan Cooking Tips with Ann Gentry

Ann Gentry is a chef, restaurateur, food educator and visionary. She opened Real Food Daily in Los Angeles 1993, a totally vegan and organic restaurant that has since spawned another in West Hollywood. Please visit Real Food Daily to find out more about this truly unique restaurant and to learn more about Ann Gentry.

Question:

When a recipe calls for a cup of seaweed, like wakame, do they mean a cup before it's soaked or to take a cup of it after it's been soaked?

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Answer:

The best way to answer this question is to tell you the general rule for sea vegetables is they swell after soaking to double the size you started with. Due to the size and shapes of seaweed, to talk in measurements about them, you are talking about them after they have soaked. You'll be eyeing it a bit when you first start figuring out how much to soak. Trust yourself and lean on the abundant side. That way if you have soaked more than the recipe called for, you can use the additional sea vegetables in a soup or in a simple sea sauté with onion, carrot and condiments.

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