I'm not someone who chases food trends. I'm a 47-year-old secondary school history teacher from Galway, and my cooking is honest rather than fashionable — soups, stews, grain dishes, the kind of food that takes time and rewards patience. I'd been cooking the same way for years and was broadly happy with it. But there was something I kept noticing: my broths and soups, however long I cooked them, never quite had the depth I was looking for. They tasted good. They didn't taste great. There was a dimension missing that I couldn't name.
A chef friend eventually named it for me: umami. And then she told me the simplest way to add it.
The Conversation That Started It
My friend Siobhán is a professional chef who trained in Japan for two years in her late twenties. She came for dinner one evening, tasted my vegetable broth, and said, very diplomatically, that it was missing something. When I pressed her, she said: "You need kombu. It's what Japanese cooking has known for centuries. It's the reason dashi tastes the way it does."
She explained that kombu — a type of brown seaweed — contains naturally occurring glutamates that create that deep, savoury, mouth-coating quality that makes a broth taste like it's been cooking for days even when it hasn't. She'd been using dried seaweed in her cooking since her time in Japan and couldn't understand why it wasn't more common in Irish kitchens, given that we're surrounded by some of the best seaweed waters in the world.
I went home and started looking for a good source. I wanted something organic, something Irish if possible, and something in a format that was easy to use without any specialist preparation.
Why ALGALICIOUS
The ALGALICIOUS Organic Kombu Seaweed Flakes – 50g Irish Laminaria Digitata ticked every box. Certified organic. Harvested from the North Atlantic — which, as an Irish person, felt right in a way I couldn't entirely articulate but appreciated nonetheless. No additives whatsoever. And crucially, the 2mm flake format meant I could add them directly to a pot without any soaking, cutting, or preparation. Just open the bag and add a pinch. That simplicity was important to me — I wanted to incorporate this into everyday cooking, not treat it as a specialist ingredient that required its own ritual.
The shelf-stable format was also practical. It sits in the cupboard alongside the other dried goods, ready whenever I need it, without any of the storage concerns that come with fresh or refrigerated ingredients.
The First Time I Used It
I made a simple vegetable broth — the same recipe I'd been making for years, the one Siobnán had diplomatically critiqued. I added a small pinch of the kombu flakes at the start, let everything simmer for forty minutes, and tasted it.
The difference was immediate and genuinely startling. The broth had depth. Not a seaweed flavour — I want to be clear about that, because it's the concern most people have — but a roundness and complexity that hadn't been there before. It tasted like it had been cooking for much longer than it had. It tasted, in short, like the broth I'd been trying to make for years without quite getting there.
I called Siobnán that evening. She said "I told you" with the satisfaction of someone who has been right about something for a long time.
How I Use It Now
Eight months on, the kombu flakes have become a permanent fixture in my cooking. A pinch goes into every broth and stock I make. I add them to the water when cooking dried beans and lentils — it reduces the cooking time slightly and adds a background depth to the legumes themselves. I've started adding a small amount to grain dishes — barley, farro, brown rice — cooked in the liquid. The effect is subtle but cumulative: everything tastes more considered, more complete.
I've also started using them in a simple miso soup that I make most mornings — a habit I picked up from reading about Japanese breakfast culture and have maintained because it's genuinely a good way to start the day. The kombu flakes dissolve partially into the liquid and add exactly the right foundation for the miso to build on.
The 50g bag lasts me about six weeks with daily use, which is excellent value for something that has this much impact on the food. I order two at a time now so I'm never without.
What It's Changed
My cooking is better. That's the simple version. The more specific version is that I've stopped feeling like something is missing from my broths and soups, which was a low-level frustration I'd carried for years without quite identifying it. The food I make now has the depth I was always reaching for, and it comes from a single ingredient that costs very little and takes no effort to use.
Siobnán came for dinner again last month. She had the broth. She said nothing, which from her is the highest possible praise.
Who This Is For
Anyone who cooks soups, stews, broths, or grain dishes and wants more depth without more effort. Anyone curious about umami and looking for the most accessible entry point. Anyone interested in adding a genuine superfood to their diet in a way that doesn't require changing how they cook — just adding one ingredient to what they're already making. And anyone who, like me, has been cooking the same dishes for years and wondering why they never quite taste as good as they could.
Get Yours
The ALGALICIOUS Organic Kombu Seaweed Flakes – 50g Irish Laminaria Digitata are available in the store now. Find them alongside other quality food and pantry essentials in these collections:
- Seafood – ocean ingredients for the home kitchen
- Meat, Seafood & Eggs – quality proteins and ocean produce
- Food Items – pantry staples and specialist ingredients
- Food, Beverages & Tobacco – browse the full food range
- Latest Products – see what’s just arrived in store
One pinch. That’s all it takes. Your broth will never be the same again.
— Niall Sheridan, history teacher, home cook, and recent and enthusiastic convert to the power of kombu.
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