Carrot and Sea Spaghetti Salad

Willowy sea spaghetti and delicate carrot strips combine with a sweet garlicky dressing to create this colourful salad.

Easy to prepare, Sligo GP, Prannie Rhatigan - whose beautiful book Irish Seaweed Kitchen (€35) is the first comprehensive guide to harvesting, preparing and cooking Irish seaweeds - makes this salad regularly for demonstrations - it never fails to delight even first time seaweed tasters.

Seaweed used: sea spaghetti (very easy to recognise, the name says it all!)

Serves 4-6

15g (½oz) sea spaghetti, dried or a handful of fresh sea spaghetti
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
4-5 carrots, washed well, not peeled, and sliced into long, fine lengths with a potato peeler

Dressing:

3 tablespoons good quality olive oil
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon coarse whole grain mustard and honey
1 tablespoon mixed seaweed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
A pinch of cayenne pepper
A pinch of grey sea salt

To prepare the sea spaghetti:

1 Rinse dried sea spaghetti and soak in warm water for 1 hour or briefly steam until al dente. If using fresh sea spaghetti, rinse well and steam for 10 minutes until al dente.

2 Rinse the seaweed again and then marinate in lemon juice and wine vinegar for a few hours or overnight.

3 Some can be left full length to decorate – chop the remainder into 2.5-5cm (1-2 inch) pieces.

To prepare the salad:

1 Combine the dressing ingredients in a small jug or bowl.

2 Pour the dressing over the carrots and sea spaghetti and allow to marinate for at least an hour.