A Welsh breakfast using laverbread (bara lawr) from Swansea Market. Laverbread is formed into lavercakes and eaten for breakfast with eggs and bacon.
Laverbread, or bara lawr (bread of the floor) is not a bread at all, but a type of seaweed harvested from the south Wales coastline. It’s not your typical breakfast ingredient, but is a popular ingredient sold in the covered market in the small south Wales city of Swansea. I’ve known what laverbread was for as long as I can remember, but until now been to afraid to taste it. My Mother grew up near Swansea, and my Grandparents lived there until they passed so most childhood trips to south Wales included a shopping trip to Swansea and a dip in the sea in the Gower – a peninsular of land jutting out from Swansea and a named area of outstanding natural beauty.
Rhossili Bay | The Three Cliffs Bay
A few weekends ago my brother and I achieved a lifelong ambition to walk the entire peninsula of the Gower along the designated Welsh Coastal Path. No mean feat since we clocked up almost 50 miles over 2 half, and 2 full days stopping overnight in various B&B’s and hotels along the way. This gave us the opportunity to explore the previously unexplored (for us) territory of the marshy north Gower, and the glorious beaches from Rhossili all the way to Swansea we’d spent many a happy (and wet) family day on all those trips as children.
At the end of the trip before we left for London we decided to stop off at Swansea market with the intention or grabbing a bag of cockles, to snack on as our Dad so often did. Swansea market is the largest indoor market in Wales, a fact they are very proud of, but since only Cardiff is the larger city this does make me giggle a little. The Welsh like to be proud of anything! It’s not just laverbread and cockles that are sold in the market, there are also Welsh cakes (which I have featured before on the blog), meat – faggots a speciality, fruit and veg and other household wares. I never had an intention to buy some laverbread that day, since it is usually sold fresh but when I saw a long-life tin I thought it would be a great opportunity to try it at some point in the future. That time is now.
Swansea Market Goodies
So what to do with a tin of pureed, gelatinous boiled seaweed, rich in vitamins and low in calories?
Some trendy chefs are using it in fusion Welsh cooking these days, but I decided to go traditional and make the lavercakes that were written on the side of the Parsons packet, along with the serving suggestion of bacon and eggs, I could have included cockles too if I’d been able to get them in London. Traditionally the laver is mixed with oatmeal, formed into patties and fried in the fat from the bacon that you cook just before it. I used chunkier porridge oats instead of oatmeal, and feared the mixture was still too sloppy so added an extra bit of buckwheat flour. Extra oats or plain flour would also do the trick if necessary, and actually helped form a lovely crust on the top.
So what does it taste like? It tastes like you’d expect seaweed to taste. A little claggy, a little mucilaginous (my favourite food word), a bit chewy, not ultimately disgusting, but perhaps something you grow to love over time.
I don’t actually expect you all to rush out and make this stuff, but I really enjoyed creating this post and sharing some of my heritage and stories with you. Perhaps if you ever have the opportunity to visit Swansea you’ll be tempted to give it a try. For the braver amongst you, you can buy tinned laverbread on Amazon here
(affiliate link).
The Full Welsh (minus cockles)
- 2 rashers free range bacon
- 120g tin of laverbread
- black pepper
- 30g gluten free oats
- 2 tsp buckwheat flour
- 2 free range eggs
- First fry the bacon in a pan until it reaches the desired crispiness, do not drain the pan, you need the fat to cook the lavercakes. Set aside
- While the bacon is cooking make up your cakes. Mix the laver with some black pepper, the oatmeal and buckwheat flour until you can form into 2 patties roughly 2 inches in diameter.
- Place each patty in the bacon fat, shaping with your spatula as you go, and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the top is brown and slightly firm.
- Remove and drain whilst you quickly fry your eggs to go with.
- Plate up and eat!
For other Welsh inspired savoury dishes how about trying
- Welsh Lamb Cawl by me
- Cockles, laverbread & Welsh bacon by The Hairy Bikers
- Classic Welsh Rarebit by Amuse Your Bouche
- Cockle chowder using laverbread & Crempogs by Its not easy being greedy
- Crempogs with a leek, mushroom & chocolate sauce by Tin & Thyme
Would you be brave enough to try laverbread?
I am so intrigued by this seaweed ingredient! So much so I almost feel tempted to visit Wales just so I can try it!
Well, there are plenty more reasons to visit Wales than seaweed, but you can use this as a reason if you like! Thanks Elizabeth.
We had week in Wales last year. I’m Polish live in UK almost 20 years never been there. Of course apart from walks mountains etc it’s food. I’m big foodie, very adventurous. Got of course cakes, loads of cheese and tins and bags of laverbread. Not that I had clue what is it????????????????some green pulp in bags or tins well???????????? found recipes for laverbread cakes why not try? Loved them. The fresh one I used on toast. Takes few bites to get used to it but if you like it you know????????????????
Lovely!
How lovely that your brother and you had the time to go do this together, what a great achievement too, that was quite a walk, the scenery must have been breathtaking! Well done!
As to the laverbread – I’ll leave it until I next visit Wales but I have been known to eat all sorts of things considered weird by members of my family so i might well like it 🙂
Thank you, yes the scenery is quite amazing. I’m sure some people wouldn’t believe me you can find this in the uk! If you like weird things then I’m sure you’ll dig the seaweed! Thanks for stopping by!
I haven’t even heard of this before, but I really like seaweed, so I sure I would enjoy this too. It’s always great when people post recipes that mean something to them.
Thanks Dannii, it feels somewhat brave to be talking about seaweed when the rest of the world is getting obsessed with chia and quinoa – but what can I say, other than I don’t like to fit the mould!
Ceri, I am sorry to labour this point as your soup is lovely and this is a food blog but your pronunciation of “cawl”, if it rhymes with “towel” most definitely is 2 (two) syllables. If you were to rhyme it with “trawl” or “haul”, that would qualify it for one. To a grammar pedant like me, it’s nails going down the blackboard! ☺️
Ha ha no worries. I realise that I have been saying it wrong my whole life (sadly can’t ask my Mum as she passed away 10 years ago), probably my surrey accent. I must amend the wording in this blog. Enjoy the Cowl!
I love seaweed especially as a crispy snack! Never heard of lavercakes before so I’m very tempted to try them out 😉
Yes, crispy seaweed is ace. But so very different from this gooey seaweed! I hope you get the chance to try it one day!
I live not far from Swansea and I have eaten laverbread since I was a child and as you say it is an acquired taste. I love eating this with just a little oatmeal whilst it is still very runny. At 68 I try to eat it at least once a week. I eat it with Welsh salted bacon, egg, cockles and lots of brown sauce. One of my favourite things is a sandwich with crusty white bread, butter, laverbread, bacon and cockles….to die for….
My long gone dad used to do zoology field trips in Pembrokeshire when I was a small child, more than 60 years ago. He’d come home to London with laverbread and we all had a Welsh breakfast with it. I don’t think I’ve eaten it since. My brother lives in Canada and his daughter has just been staying with me. My brother still recalls laverbread and told his daughter about it. She might buy him some to take back to Canada when she returns. Thanks for your recipe!
lovely memories, thanks for sharing!
Eating it straight from the tin as I read this. Love the stuff!
Ooh love that!
I have to try laverbread at some point of my life – althought it entails travelling: 7,122 mi from my home town to Swansea. (I’ve been to Swansea before… and to the Gower peninsula, and I loved the area…)
Maybe you can find it tinned and have it shipped over? I used tinned laverbread for this recipe!