It sounds like the holy grail of vegetables. Packed with iron, calcium, magnesium, and protein, a type of seaweed called dulse also happens to taste like bacon. Well, sort of. When the little-known algae started making headlines for its flavor, we tried frying some up.

The verdict: Yes, with its savory, umami, and salty taste, it’s sort of like bacon. A smoked version is even more bacon-like. It probably wouldn’t be mistaken for meat in a blind taste test. But pan-fried in a little oil? It’s crispy and delicious.

Researchers at Oregon State University, who have patented a variety of the seaweed that’s extra quick to grow, hope to soon begin farming it and creating a new commercial industry for what they see as the next superfood.





“It’s got all the bells and whistles,” says Chuck Toombs, a professor in OSU’s business school. “It’s a sustainable product. We even got a call from the Department of Energy…: It’s a carbon sink. It eats carbon, and produces protein. It’s like God’s vegetable.”

Toombs learned about the seaweed in the school’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and realized it had potential to go to market. “I didn’t know much about seaweed at all,” he says. “But what struck my eye is how prolific it is–it grows so fast–and the protein content. Then when I learned another dulse product was selling at Whole Foods for $60 a pound, that piqued my economic interest.”

Right now, the tiny supply of dulse in the U.S. is harvested in the wild in Maine and other states and sold in small quantities in health food stores. But the new strain developed at OSU could be grown more quickly and farmed in tanks rather than in the open sea. “The advantage of farming it is that we can control the quality,” Toombs says.

Controlled farming can avoid the risk that the seaweed contains toxins. A package from Maine comes with a somewhat ominous note: “Tested for chemical, heavy metal, petroleum, radioactivity and microbiological contaminants.” Like the fish that eat it, seaweed can absorb heavy metals like mercury if it’s growing in a polluted area.