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The Truly Effortless Way I Eat Something Green with Every Meal
Thank you, Costco.
MariaShumova/Getty
Getting a good amount of vegetables into each of your meals can feel, more often than not, like a never-ending aspiration, rather than an achievable reality. A pasta dinner that’s chock full of fresh veggies? Seems easy enough until you’re craving cacio e pepe. A quickly cooked plate of frozen dumplings paired with an equally generous helping of gai lan (Chinese broccoli)? Seems like a no-brainer until you realize the greens you bought last week have already gone bad. Between managing a cooking schedule, cravings and ultra-perishable produce, reaching your vegetable quota can take more time, meal planning and energy than one would hope.
One way I’ve reached my personal vegetable quota? Getting a bulk size (28-ounce) tub of Azuma Gourmet Seaweed Salad ‘Gomawakame’ from Costco.
Seaweed salad may seem familiar from sushi restaurant menus – but if you’ve never tasted it, it’s a cold salad comprised primarily of seaweed and sesame seeds, seasoned with a gently sweet dressing. It’s one of the few salads I don’t eat simply because I must, but because I genuinely crave it. The slick seaweed strands have a satisfying bite to them that most leafy green salads do not.
Whenever I have a tub of the salad in my fridge, it’s so easy to scoop out a serving and eat it as a side for lunch or dinner. Because it’s already dressed and meant to be eaten cold, it doesn’t require any extra work to flavor or heat it (so you can skip even the small effort of drizzling bottled dressing and tossing, or popping something in the microwave). Best of all, because of its natural texture, the salad doesn’t really wilt – meaning, even if you’re scooping out a serving days after opening it, the last bite is as satisfying as the first.
Costco’s bulk-size tub of gomawakame stays fresh in the fridge about a week after opening, and 30 days if unopened. The salad also remains good in the freezer unopened for up to two years. It’s easy to stock up on a couple of these and pull out whenever you’re in need of an effortless vegetable side.
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