Having trouble getting your kids to eat vegetables? A new strain of designer seaweed might be just what you're looking for.

Scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) have been successfully growing a patented strain of bright red algae that they say, when cooked, tastes like bacon. It's a superfood for people who don't eat superfoods.

Dulse (Palmaria palmata) is a red alga that grows wild off the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific. Harvested and dried, the seaweed fetches a hefty price as snack food and cooking ingredient -- used commonly along the coasts of Ireland as a flavor enhancer for soups and stews.

While the new strain of dulse boasts vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and healthy concentration of protein, it wasn't originally designed with humans in mind.

"The original goal was to create a super-food for abalone, because high-quality abalone is treasured, especially in Asia," Chris Langdon -- who's been perfecting the strain of algae with his colleagues at Oregon State's Hatfield Marine Science Center for last 15 years -- explained in a press release.

"We were able to grow dulse-fed abalone at rates that exceeded those previously reported in the literature," Langdon said. "There always has been an interest in growing dulse for human consumption, but we originally focused on using dulse as a food for abalone."

When Chuck Toombs, a faculty member in Oregon State's College of Business, visited Langdon's research lab, he saw an opportunity for his business students.

"Dulse is a super-food, with twice the nutritional value of kale," Toombs said. "And OSU had developed this variety that can be farmed, with the potential for a new industry for Oregon."

Toombs and his students quickly got OSU's Food Innovation Center, in Portland, to buy in. They got to work trying to dream up ways to turn the ingredient into a product. But when renowned research chef Jason Ball came to help out, he said to focus on the ingredient not the product.

"The Food Innovation Center team was working on creating products from dulse, whereas Jason brings a 'culinary research' chef's perspective," explained Gil Sylvia, director of the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. "The point that he and other chefs make is that fresh, high-quality seaweed is hard to get. 'You bring us the seaweed,' they say, 'and we'll do the creative stuff.'"

Whether thinking about dulse as a product or ingredient, researchers believe there are a wealth of possibilities for the seaweed.

"In Europe, they add the powder to smoothies, or add flakes onto food," Langdon said. "There hasn't been a lot of interest in using it in a fresh form. But this stuff is pretty amazing. When you fry it, which I have done, it tastes like bacon, not seaweed. And it's a pretty strong bacon flavor."

While students continue to perfect their business and marketing plan for the food item, Langdon is ramping up production. He says if the business students can find a market, a growing industry could quickly bloom.

"Theoretically, you could create an industry in eastern Oregon almost as easily as you could along the coast with a bit of supplementation," he said. "You just need a modest amount of seawater and some sunshine."