Happy meals
SWEDISH CHEF NIKLAS EKSTEDT HAS PAIRED UP WITH JOURNALIST HENRIK ENNART TO CREATE A COLLECTION OF FEEL-GOOD HEALTHY DISHES. HE SHARES HIS FOOD PHILOSOPHY WITH KATIE WRIGHT
‘HORRIBLE” – is how Niklas Ekstedt sums things up when asked how he’s fared during the pandemic. “It’s so difficult, because I’m used to travelling all the time and meeting people from all over the world... and now I’m just stuck,” admits the Swedish chef, 42.
There are some upsides to being at home though, Niklas tells me on the phone from Stockholm, where he’s on the way to pick up his eight-year-old son from school and it’s already gone dark at two in the afternoon.
“I’m really now sure that I’ve met the love of my life,” he says of wife Katarina. “You know we haven’t had one fight during this time and we spent all this time together. I made the right choice there.”
Not that it’s non-stop matrimonial bliss in the Niklas household, however. “My wife gets crazy when she opens the refrigerator and it’s filled with cans that smell, she’s like, ‘What is this?!”’
With more time on his hands, the chef and author has recently got very into fermenting (which is why the family fridge is overflowing with vegetable-filled receptacles), inspired by what he learned while working on his latest book, Happy Food For Life, alongside journalist Henrik Ennart.
The follow-up to bestselling Happy Food, once again it focuses on how what we eat can affect how we feel, combining the latest research with health-boosting recipes.
Now well-versed in the importance of nourishing one’s gut bacteria with a varied diet and fermented foods, the cook says he “wasn’t aware at all” before he teamed up with Henrik.
“I knew nothing, it’s been a very personal journey,” he reveals, explaining he’s had to pay more attention to his diet as he’s got older.
“When you were in your 20s, you could just consume – it just vanished – but now you quickly gain weight and it’s more difficult to get rid of it.
“Also you feel more depressed, at least I feel more affected by bad food. I really need to eat healthy food to stay alert and be ready for battle.”
So what’s his key advice for staying fit in mind and body?
“I think the secret to a healthy lifestyle is to eat a lot of different things. Broaden your variety of foods when you shop, so don’t get stuck on just one thing, and also you discover new things that you might find delicious.”
Niklas and Henrik believe a largely plant-based diet, using whole ingredients rather than processed foods, is generally best – but they don’t say you have to cut out meat altogether.
In a bid to choose more plant-based meals, Niklas started eating more salad, but quickly realised the leafy dishes didn’t give him enough energy.
“Less salad and more food,” was what he was craving. “I needed to complement my meal with something warm. So soup is really good. Also use a lot of spice when you eat plantbased, like chilli sauce, so you feel alive when you eat it.”
Variety is key, but the veggies don’t have to be fresh from the market every day.
And while a surplus of sugar and fats isn’t advisable, there’s no reason you can’t indulge now and again. In fact, Niklas says it’s OK to “go crazy” when you treat yourself, as long as it’s not too often.”
With the chef’s Stockholm restaurant, called Niklas, closed for two months in the summer, he says he relished having more time at home with his sons, aged eight and 12, but was sad not to be able to travel to the UK for a holiday as planned.
“I’d like to go to Cornwall. We were planning a trip this summer but we never went.”
In the meantime, he’s enjoying evangelising about the mood-boosting powers of a plant and grain-heavy diet
and isn’t afraid to speak out about the dangers of junk food – even when faced with criticism.
“When you cook something and you tell people that this can actually make you feel better, this could increase your longevity, people get really interested, but also you get criticised for it,” he says.
“It’s kind of like our war. If it was tobacco companies in the Sixties and Seventies, we’re now fighting the food companies.
“I think we need to highlight these things in a very positive way, in a very delicious way.”
When you were in your 20s, you could just consume – it just vanished – but now you quickly gain weight... Also you feel more depressed... I really need to eat healthy food to stay alert and be ready for battle.