How to Make Irish Moss Paste

Irish Moss is a neutral tasting seaweed used as a thickener in many raw food dishes; mousses, pies, parfaits, soups, dressings and even smoothies. It is full of protein, fibre, iodine and other trace minerals and makes a great alternative to nuts when you are after a creamy consistency.

It takes a little bit of lovin' to prep, but a little goes a long way, and it is so versatile. To make a paste, you first need to prepare the Irish Moss properly.

How to prepare Irish Moss:

1. Take your dried seaweed and pop it in a sieve.
2. Run it under cold water and rinse thoroughly.
3. A whole bunch of sand and debris should fall out.
4. Transfer the seaweed to a large bowl of water and give it an additional rinse.
5. Change the water a few times as you go, until the water remains clear.
6. Leave it to soak like this for about 4 hours, it will expand in size so needs lots of room.
7. After four hours time, your Irish Moss is now ready to use.
8. You can store it in an airtight container, still submerged in water, in the fridge for a week.
9. You can stop here, or you can now make it into a paste.

*I found a bag of vacuum packed Irish Moss from my local organic store, it was 100g in weight and gave me three cups of soaked Irish Moss. I'd say you would only need to soak and prepare a third of this at a time.

Irish Moss Paste

• 1 cup Irish Moss, soaked
• 1/2 cup water

METHOD:

1. Blend the Irish Moss and water in a high speed blender for a few minutes until it becomes gelatinous.
2. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.