Chef Chat:
Britton’s ‘Naturally Nourished.’
After spending time working on an organic farm, Sarah Britton started cooking. Food wasn’t something she’d given much thought until she saw the work that went into every item on her plate.
She started playing around with recipes, studied holistic nutrition and, in 2007, created the blog “My New Roots,” which inspired her debut cookbook of the same name. Taking an insightful and creative approach to vegetables, she is both playful and budget minded in her newly released follow-up cookbook, “Naturally Nourished: Healthy, Delicious Meals Made with Everyday Ingredients” (Clarkson Potter, $29.99). Featuring 100 vegetarian recipes, Britton infuses a blast of flavor into simple recipes where you won’t miss the meat. Think smoked lentil tacos, a rice-less sunflower seed risotto, and a pink pesto pasta made with roasted beets.
A native of Toronto, she now lives in Denmark with her husband and 3-yearold son. Q. What are your food roots?
A. I came from a family where cooking was definitely not important at all. We ate together every night, but both of my parents were not into cooking. Most of my memories are of them complaining.
At 16, I went vegetarian, mostly because my friends were doing it and then because of the environmental impact. I didn’t know anything about nutrition, and I was living off white bread mostly. I felt terrible all the time.
I went to work on an organic farm, and that’s really where I started cooking. The man who owned the farm was really into food. He would make everything from scratch. I didn’t know you could make mustard.
When I got back from that experience, I knew I couldn’t go back to what I was doing, which was design work behind a computer all day. I went to study at the Institute for Holistic Nutrition in Toronto.
Q. How did you end up living in Denmark?
A. I actually met a very tall, handsome Danish man on a street corner in New York City. He approached me asking for directions. It was instant. I moved over about two years after that happened. We’ve been together ever since.
Q. Your first book addresses recipes as plant-based, not vegetarian or vegan. This second book doesn’t use that term at all. Was that a conscious decision?
A. It is a very conscious thing for me. The first book, the subtitle, I didn’t want that because I didn’t want the label of plant-based on there. It is quite deliberate.
I don’t think this kind of food should be labeled. It is just food, really close to the Earth food. It is for everyone, and food everyone should feel good about eating and enjoy. It’s delicious.
Q. What’s your starting point creating recipes?
A. The starting point is just something that I’m interested in. Today, for instance, I made a poke´ bowl. I thought it would be really fun to make a vegan version of this without the fish. Poke´ is starting to become popular, and I thought I could make a vegan one. Let’s see if we can make a fish (substitution) out of vegetables.
We’ve seen soy and gluten becoming fake meat. That’s not really good stuff to eat. It’s fun to make mock meat and fish, I think, but in a non-processed way. So I made poke´ out of Chioggia or candystripe beets. I just roasted them with skins on, and when Chioggia beets are roasted they lose that stripe. They become pink, and it looks like tuna. It was unbelievable. It’s a beet that looks like tuna.
Q. Do you remember the first recipe you published?
A. No one was reading my blog except my mom and a couple friends. I do remember the first time someone who didn’t share my last name was commenting. The recipe that took off and doubled my readership is the Life Changing Loaf of Bread.
Q. What’s your current ingredient obsession?
A. I’m really into chaga mushrooms. They’re like a tree truffle, these weird fungi that grow on fallen birch trees in Ontario, Canada. You can also get them in California.
Mushrooms are some of the most powerful medicines, but you do have to go to a health food store to get these. They come in dried chunks or powder. It is actually delicious in hot chocolate.
Q. What are some things you thought about when creating recipes?
A. I think it is important with plantbased foods you choose things that are filling and nutrient-rich. Grains and legumes are staples in all my recipes. Plant-based food, because it doesn’t have that rich flavor that meat does, you have
to add lot of fresh herbs, lemon, chile, salt and really pump up the flavor.
Q. How do you address feeding a family as a vegetarian?
A. I tell people just cut back on the meat. You don’t have to give it up. I think it would be great if everyone stopped eating meat, but I don’t think that is a realistic approach.
My experience with the people I’ve worked with, they feel better and eventually give it up. But my father, he would never give it up. It is not about this food that is not allowed. When you are eating so many nuts, seeds, vegetables, you just want less meat.