Fresh and Easy Seaweed Bread for Picnics

(Organic flour, gutweed (Ulva intestinalis) and dulse (Palmaria palmata))

Picnics, according to BBC food, require planning; as much as I agree that some planning is needed, I also want it all - good homemade food and little fuss. With our erratic UK weather, sometimes an impromptu picnic is a great adventure too, though if I can, I like to avoid shop-bought convenience food. Instead, I have a few standard homemade go-to goodies that I rely on for picnics.

Homemade bread* feels like a real treat, and it is so easy to make! Apart from 10 minutes preparation, you just need time to allow your bread to rise, then bake. Despite Summer being the time of lots of fresh fruit, salads and veg, I find I'm often prioritising outdoor adventures over thought-through meals, so adding a handful of dried or fresh seaweed into bread seems an easy way to up my nutrition and keep taking care of myself.

(Making seaweed bread)

Best seaweeds to add into bread

Seaweed bread is tasty and good for you. Some of the seaweeds suitable for bread are; sea lettuce, gutweed and dulse. You can use a small handful of dried or fresh seaweed, chopped. You can also add a teaspoon of other dried and ground seaweeds such as; wireweed, bladder wrack, egg wrack or feel free to experiment with others. I have a sea lettuce bread recipe in my wild food foraging book. and this is the basic recipe I use for all my bread, unless I'm making seaweed foccacia!

The other couple of quick and easy wild food dishes are my recipes for; Rock Samphire Salsa Verde, which you can make in 10 minutes, and my favourite Carrot, Ginger and Seaweed Salad made in 10 minutes and both these dishes will keep for a few days in the fridge too. Topped with Elderflower cordial - your picnic can suddenly feel rather wild and special as well as quick and fuss-free.

And of course, if the weather turns you can still enjoy all this wonderful food indoors.

Picnic tips for always having seaweed available

*When I make bread, I tend to make a couple of large loaves at once then slice and freeze what I can't use within two days, this way I have seaweed bread available all the time. Easy!

(Dulse and gutweed seaweeds in a Cornish rock pool ready to be sustainably harvested for seaweed bread)

Related posts:

How and When to Harvest Green Seaweeds Green Olive and Seaweed Tapanade Baba Ghanoush with Dulse Seaweed Wild Garlic and Seaweed Oil (inspired by Nathan Outlaw)