Seaweed on designer dinner menu

Seaweed, redolent with memories of seaside holidays and apparently better for you than ice cream and candy floss, is bidding to become the next designer ingredient for the country's dinner tables.

Two varieties, sea lettuce and dulse, are going on sale at Tesco, and are recommended for an extra kick in dishes ranging from pasta and chicken to scrambled egg.

Sea lettuce, delicate green and feathery, is said to be good for wrapping fish and meat during cooking - or eating as a salad in a marinade of lemon juice and olive oil.

Dulse, which comes in rich red ribbons, is recommended for enhancing pasta dishes, soups, salads and "works particularly well" with chicken, according to Tesco.