Here’s the story of a happy accident.

It starts with abalone, a somewhat hard to come by shellfish that’s lovingly referred to as the “bacon of the sea.” (It's excellent gently panfried, or slow-cooked in panna cotta.) Now, the mollusk is typically harvested by divers, deriving its delicate, smoky, and buttery umami flavor from its primary diet: a red lettuce-like seaweed that grows along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. This plant is called dulse.

Part of the reason abalone is such a delicacy to procure is because dulse is incredibly difficult to harvest, meaning abalone has been hard to scale in any meaningful way. (A feathery 8-ounce bag of dehydrated dulse flakes will set you back close to $20 bucks.) But now, a team of researchers from Oregon State University have patented a growable strain of the seaweed that’s as nutritious as kale, tastes like bacon, and is, most importantly, easy to grow. And here's the thing: It might even be better than the abalone it was intended to feed.

“The original goal was to create a super-food for abalone, because high-quality abalone is treasured, especially in Asia,” said study author Chris Langdon. “We were able to grow dulse-fed abalone at rates that exceeded those previously reported in the literature. There always has been an interest in growing dulse for human consumption, but we originally focused on using dulse as a food for abalone."

But not only is this particular strain of dulce packed with vitamins and minerals, but it consists of 16% protein—even when cooked—which is basically unheard of. All of this is fantastic news for humans with mouths, because if you were to draw a Venn diagram of people who enjoy the taste of bacon with people who definitely could use more vegetables in their diet, you would essentially have two concentric circles. Until then, I guess we're stuck with meh salads.