Everything you need to know about seaweed pearls aka vegan seaweed caviar.
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📕 What is it?
Vegan caviar is a type of vegan gourmet food that mimics the look and feel of fish roe.
It's a sustainable plant-based alternative to black caviar, that's why this food ingredient is also known as seaweed caviar, kelp caviar or vegan caviar.
It is usually made from seaweed or seagrapes, and it can be used in many dishes or eaten on its own.
We will mainly focus on the seaweed version here, seagrapes look very different.
Seaweed pearls are the latest trend. You can even get them in Ikea, where they are known as SJÖRAPPORT.
It costs a few dollars, and it's available in all Ikea stores, so it is definitely affordable!
The ones that you can purchase are typically black or orange seaweed pearls. The black grains of kelp caviar are hard to be distinguished by the naked eye from traditional caviar.
They are made with gelatin. That means for them to be vegan they use agar-agar, an alga used as a good gelatin alternative.
Seaweed Pearls taste salty and like the sea. It's certainly nothing like real caviar or other fish roes like tobiko or salmon roe, but its flavors are great too.
🌿 How is it made?
Seaweed kelp is dried and turned into a powder.
This seaweed powder is then processed with salt and citric acid, which helps in the preservation of seaweed caviar.
Vegan Caviar, that you get in stores, shouldn't contain any other processed preservatives.
Water and agar-agar are also added and the whole liquid drips down to form little seaweed caviar pearls.
🥣 Uses
Vegan Caviar is used in many dishes, such as appetizers, side dishes, and other delicacies.
Basically, you can use it in exchange for regular caviar to make plant-based food. Just switch out the fish eggs for this vegan alternative.
Some examples are:
- as a topping for vegan bread spreads or other cold dishes as I did with my vegan seaweed caviar bites recipe.
- sushi rolls as in the boston inside out sushi roll or temaki hand rolls with soy sauce, wasabi and Japanese pickled ginger.
- blini and sour cream topping
- over your pasta as a topping. As in arrabiata or penne alla vodka.
- with potato pancakes and sour cream
- served with crackers or savory cookies
- As a topping for various salads
It's a budget-friendly option that looks good. I don't think it's just for vegans. I'm a flexitarian and I like them too!
🍱 Storing
When it comes to storing vegan caviar, you should keep it cooled in your fridge with minimal exposure to light.
Check the best before label on the jar to know for how long it is good.
If you want to maximize the shelf life, you could freeze them too. To thaw them, keep the jar in your fridge overnight.
💭 FAQs
Vegan caviar is not real caviar, it's an imitation made with alga (something that we have in masses on earth). Authentic caviar is fish roe, which is taken from the female fish. This practice has been connected to animal cruelty and the demand has worsened it over the years. This is when some smart people got the idea to create a vegan, more sustainable option. It looks the same and tastes almost the same.
Seaweed caviar is more bouncy and that's how you know there is vegan gelatin in it. Real caviar will pop in your mouth, letting a beautiful stream of flavors take over your taste buds. This is definitely something that I'm missing when eating vegan caviar. I also think that real fish caviar is smaller and perhaps a darker black. That said, vegan caviar makes a great alternative, and it can only get better in the future.
I have seen them appear in grocery stores in Europe. They are right next to the real deal caviar and fish roes, or occasionally, they keep them on the vegan shelf. That said, I discovered it mainly via IKEA, although theirs is of moderate quality. You can also get pearl seaweed online.
Seaweed is also known as kelp. Three main variations exist, brown, red, and green kelp seaweed. It's a large algae known to contain good amounts of minerals vitamins.
Traditional caviar is fish roe, so to say fish eggs from the sturgeon fish. Traditional caviar is not vegan or vegetarian.
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