Simmered Shredded Kelp (KONBU)

Simple and quick to cook, Simmered Shredded Kelp (Konbu) is a healthy side dish that is handy to have in the fridge. You will be surprised to learn that Simmered Shredded Kelp is filling but the total calories are so low.

Shredded or julienned kelp is called ‘kiri konbu’ (切り昆布) in Japanese. I touched on kiri konbu in my post Konbu Seaweed Salad with Cucumber, showing a packet of dried shredded kelp as an alternative to hand-made julienned kelp.

Today’s recipe, Simmered Shredded Kelp (Konbu) uses store-bought dried shredded kelp, but you can of course use home-made julienned kelp instead. The photo below is the same dish made with home-made julienned kelp. I cut the rehydrated sheet of konbu and julienned it by hand. You can see the inconsistent thickness of the konbu (well, I need to improve my knife skills).

About Dried Shredded Kelp

You can find dried shredded kelp in Japanese, Korean and Chinese grocery stores. I am familiar with the Japanese dried products, so I used dried shredded kelp sold at a Japanese grocery store.

As a comparison, I also bought a pack of dried shredded kelp from a Chinese grocery store, rehydrated it and cooked Simmered Shredded Kelp with it. The following sections show the differences I found between the two types of dried shredded kelp.

Japanese Dried Shredded Kelp

• Each strand of the Japanese dried shredded kelp is very fine, like a thick hair.
• When rehydrated, each strand becomes about 1mm / 1⁄32″ thick.
• It takes 10 minutes to rehydrate.
• Its rehydrated weight is 12 times the original weight.
• The rehydrated kelp retained its greenish colour.
• It is very tender and  you can eat it as salad without cooking.

Chinese Dried Shredded Kelp

• Each dried strand is coated in powdery salt and each strand is flat and about 1.5mm / 1⁄16″ wide.
• When rehydrated, each strand becomes about 2-3mm / 3⁄32-⅛” thick.
• It takes 20 minutes to rehydrate.
• Its rehydrated weight is 4.5 times the original weight.
• The rehydrated kelp is brownish, similar to boiled kelp. Each strand is very long.
• It is slightly crunchier and stiffer than the Japanese version. It can be eaten as is, but the texture is like boiled kelp.

There is no good or bad between the different dried shredded kelps. Depending on what you used it for, you can pick the most suitable dried kelp.

What’s in My Simmered Shredded Kelp

I used the following ingredients that are most commonly used in Japan:

• Dried shredded kelp
• Carrot cut into 4cm / 1½” long batons
• Thinly sliced chikuwa (log-shaped grilled fish cake)
• Oil to sauté ingredients

Instead of chikuwa, People also use aburaage sliced into small strips.

The Simmering Broth is a typical combination of Japanese seasonings:

• Dashi stock
• Soy sauce
• Mirin
• Sugar

If you want to make today’s dish vegetarian, use aburaage instead of chikuwa and make your dashi stock with konbu or shiitake (see my post Varieties of Dashi Stock which explains how to make them). Below is the vegetarian version of Simmered Shredded Kelp (Konbu). I used the Chinese shredded kelp.

How to Make Simmered Shredded Kelp

Cooking today’s dish is rather quick and simple. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook.

1. Sauté chikuwa and carrot pieces in a saucepan.
2. Add the Simmering Broth to the pan, mix and cook until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add kelp, mix and cook for about 5 minutes with a drop lid until the broth almost evaporates.

If using aburaage instead of chikuwa, simply replace the ingredients and follow the same steps.

Simmered Shredded Kelp goes so well with rice. You could almost say that Simmered Shredded Kelp is a warm salad. It keeps 3-4 days in the fridge and 1 month in the freezer, which makes it perfect to pack in a bento box.

Yumiko

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Simmered Shredded Kelp (Konbu)

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Simple and quick to cook, Simmered Shredded Kelp (Konbu) is a healthy side dish that is handy to have in the fridge. You will be surprised to learn that Simmered Shredded Kelp is filling but the total calories are so low.

The prep time does not include the time to soak the dried shredded kelp.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: konbu, konbu recipe, seaweed salad

Serves: 2 -3 servings

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 100g / 3.5oz rehydrated shredded kelp (note 1)
• 80g / 2.8oz carrot cut to 4cm / 1½" long 3mm / ⅛” thick batons
• 2 small chikuwa sliced into 3mm / ⅛” thick rings (note 2)
• 2 tsp oil

Simmering Broth

• 200ml / 6.8oz dashi stock
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp mirin
• 2 tsp sugar

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots and chikuwa pieces to the pan and sauté until the ingredients are coated with oil.

2. Add the Simmering Broth to the pan and mix, ensuring that the sugar dissolves.

3. Add the kelp and mix.

4. Place a drop lid over the ingredients, reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 4 minutes.

5. Check the amount of broth left in the pan. If quite a bit of broth is still left, remove the drop lid and cook for another minute until a very small amount of liquid is left in the pan. If there is not much liquid is left, place a lid (not drop lid) on to avoid evaporation of the liquid and cook one more minute with low heat.

6. Turn the heat off. Transfer to a large serving bowl to share or individual small bowls.

Recipe Notes

1. You can buy dried shredded kelp in a pack at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. See the sample phots in post.

I used a Japanese brand of dried shredded kelp that was 8g / 0.3oz in its dried state.

If using a Chinese brand, which has thicker strands, you will need about 20g / 0.7oz of dried kelp. Cut strands into half after rehydrating as they are very long.

You can also make julienned kelp at home. Please visit Konbu Seaweed Salad with Cucumber. The section HOW TO PREPARE KONBU FOR THE SALAD shows how to make kelp strips from a sheet of kelp.

2. Each small chikuwa weighs about 25g / 0.9oz. If you are using large chikuwa, you may want to halve it vertically then slice it. Substitute it with aburaage to make it vegetarian, with vegetarian dashi stock such as konbu dashi and shiitake dashi.

3. Simmered Shredded Kelp keeps 3-4 days in the fridge and 1 month in freezer.

4. Nutrition per serving assuming 3 servings.

serving: 136g calories: 109kcal fat: 5.1g (8%) saturated fat: 0.6g (3%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.9g monounsaturated fat: 3.2g cholesterol: 10mg (3%) sodium: 746mg (31%) potassium: 278mg (8%) carbohydrates: 11g (4%) dietary fibre: 1g (4%) sugar: 7.4g protein: 4.4g vitamin a: 90% vitamin c: 4.4% calcium: 1.6% iron: 2.1%