Sarah Britton’s food transformation started when she ate a tomato picked from a vine that was packed with more flavour than anything she’d ever tasted.
She chronicles that discovery and subsequent journey to a plant-based diet in her new book My New Roots (Appetite by Random House).
The subtitle is Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season, and Britton says they not only taste delicious, but every ingredient supports good health and disease prevention.
“Eating healthily doesn’t have to be boring or associated with sacrifice,” she said.
“One of the most amazing things I’ve learned is that when you eat this way, you don’t have to count calories. You don’t have to worry about fat grams.”
Now 32, Britton says she was overweight when she was younger and often berated herself for her food choices.
“This has just liberated me so much from that and my body has completely come into the shape that it should be in just naturally … I spent so much energy feeling really bad about what I was eating. Now I feel so free from that because I can eat whatever I want whenever I want,” said the Copenhagen-based author during a return visit to Canada to promote her book.
“Every single calorie is really good for me and I don’t have to worry about it anymore, which is just the most liberating thing. Food is supposed to be a joy and a pleasure, and if we can free ourselves from the shackles of all this negativity that’s around food, wouldn’t that be nice?”
Growing up in Toronto, Britton ate processed, packaged and sugary foods — “my parents didn’t love cooking.” After graduating from design school in Montreal, she quickly decided she didn’t want to sit in front of a computer all day.
An interest in the environment inspired her to attend a five-week workshop on organic farming in Arizona. The five weeks turned into a year.
“I’ve never experienced such a profound transformation in my life. I completely changed. My energy level skyrocketed, my skin cleared up, I slept better, I had tons more energy. I could just think clearer. I literally say I woke up for the first time in my life because I realized I’d been living in a mental fog for 23 years and I thought that was just what people felt like.
“When I finally started eating properly, I could not believe the difference it made.”
Back in Toronto, she studied at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition and became a Certified Nutritional Practitioner.
The farming stint taught her the importance of growing food organically. The course taught her what food did in the body.
“We know how our phones work, we know how our cars work, we know our computers inside out, but we have no idea what our liver does, we have no idea what our intestines do … We are so disconnected from our bodies and we’re in them our whole lives. And to not understand how they work is quite shocking to me.”
When she moved to Copenhagen to be with her Danish husband — they met on a street corner in New York when he asked her for directions — she discovered she couldn’t legally practise holistic nutrition.
So she started her My New Roots blog in October 2007 to share her thoughts about plant-based eating along with the results of her culinary experiments. Her debut book, which ranges from simple recipes to long-term food projects, stemmed from that.
Talking her way into a job in a restaurant opened the untrained cook’s mind and skills to many ways of being creative in the kitchen. “Even if you don’t want to eat vegetarian, just keep it whole and natural,” she said. “If you can invest just 20 minutes a day, you’ll see such a world of difference in your health and how you feel. I think that’s pretty invaluable. I know it can be a stretch for people, but that’s my advice.”
RECIPES
Eating healthy whole foods is important to Sarah Britton, but only if they taste delicious.
“It’s really hard to make changes to your diet unless the food tastes really good,” says the author of “My New Roots” (Appetite by Random House).
She has divided her first cookbook into five seasons, such as is followed in traditional Chinese medicine: spring, early and late summer, fall and winter.
“I think eating with the seasons is really important just to prepare your body for the external environment. If we’re eating things like cold smoothies every day in the winter, we’re actually telling our body it’s hot outside and this is one way we can get sick, as a matter of fact.
“Nature gives us what we need for certain times of the year, but most people are disconnected from that in their daily lives,” she adds.
Britton’s favourite ingredients are avocados and all types of greens, especially kale.
“It’s one of the most nutrient-dense plants per calorie on the planet. It’s definitely something to add to your diet if you can.”
Versatile avocados can be used in sweet or savoury dishes, are satisfying, loaded with healthy fat and widely available. She uses them in the super-creamy filling of a key lime tart instead of cream, eggs and butter.
Here are two recipes from “My New Roots” to try at home.
GRILLED ZUCCHINI AND GREEN ONIONS WITH BABY SPINACH AND HAZELNUTS
Grilling is a quick way to give a relatively bland vegetable a flavour makeover.
For a dish with so few ingredients, you’ll be amazed at the complexity of tastes. And even if you’re familiar with grilled zucchini, the grilled green onions will surprise and delight. The chili brings some heat, while the hazelnuts deliver an earthy, satisfying crunch.
For a more substantial meal, add some crumbled goat or sheep feta, and perhaps some lentils or chickpeas.
Zucchini contains good amounts of fibre, potassium, folate, copper, riboflavin and phosphorus. The summer squash’s magnesium has been shown to be helpful for reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke, and combined with its potassium, it can also reduce high blood pressure.
This recipe comes from the “early summer” section of “My New Roots.” It’s suitable for vegan and gluten-free diets.
1 medium to large zucchini
Knob of coconut oil or ghee, melted
Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 medium green onions
7 ml (1/2 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
15 ml (1 tbsp) cold-pressed olive oil
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/2 fresh chili, minced (serrano is a good choice)
2 ml (1/2 tsp) raw honey
Grated zest of 1 1/2 organic lemons
A few good handfuls of baby spinach
35 g (1/4 cup) hazelnuts, toasted if desired
Heat grill (an indoor grill pan is fine as well).
Slice zucchini lengthwise into thin ribbons (but not too thin or they will fall apart on the grill). Lightly rub melted oil on zucchini slices, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Slice and season green onions in the same manner.
When grill is hot, lay zucchini and green onion slices on grate, and cook uncovered until there are some char marks on underside, 3 to 5 minutes. Flip over and cook until tender and marked, another 2 minutes. Remove vegetables from grill and place on a plate.
In a small bowl, whisk lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, chili, honey and grated zest of 1 lemon. Put spinach in a serving bowl and pour dressing over it; toss to combine.
Roughly chop hazelnuts. Arrange grilled veggies on top of spinach. Sprinkle with hazelnuts and remaining lemon zest.
Makes 2 servings.
SUNFLOWER SESAME SEED BRITTLE
Britton remembers making peanut brittle for special occasions with her mother when she was a little girl. Years later, she has figured out a way of making it much healthier, using sunflower and sesame seeds in place of peanuts, and brown rice syrup instead of processed sugar. It’s still salty-sweet with an extreme crunch, but much less allergenic and easier on blood sugar levels.
It’s also easy to make with a few ingredients that are readily available at bulk stores, she says.
Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of vitamin E, the body’s primary fat-soluble antioxidant, benefiting the body’s cardiovascular system. Sunflower seeds also contain good amounts of magnesium, a natural relaxant that helps calm nerves, muscles and blood vessels.
This brittle recipe appears in the spring section of “My New Roots.” It’s suitable for followers of vegan and gluten-free diets.
175 g (1 1/4 cups) sunflower seeds
45 g (1/2 cup) unsweetened shredded coconut
35 g (1/4 cup) sesame seeds
75 g (1/2 cup) dried cranberries or raisins, roughly chopped
5 ml (1 tsp) fine sea salt
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
30 ml (2 tbsp) coconut oil
125 ml (1/2 cup) brown rice syrup
Preheat oven to 160 C (325 F). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sunflower seeds, coconut, sesame seeds, cranberries, salt and cinnamon and stir well.
In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil over low heat. Add syrup and whisk until uniform. Pour liquid over dry ingredients and fold quickly to incorporate before mixture becomes too sticky. Spoon mixture onto prepared baking sheet and smooth top with back of an oil-greased spatula.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool completely on baking sheet.
Using edges of parchment as handles, lift cooled brittle off baking sheet and place on a work surface. Crack brittle into pieces and store in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Source: “My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season” by Sarah Britton (Appetite by Random House, 2015).
