In this second part of the Natural Eater Series we look at how rethinking food as a product of nature rather than of the supermarket can be an important guideline for a healthy diet. We also provide you with some guidelines that can make your choice of “natural” food meaningful for your health. Enjoy preparing a spring salad followed by our very own light recipe for semlor in the sunshine – great recipes for getting your children to participate in working with food from nature.

What is "natural"?
Today the discerning eater is always looking for the “natural” option when it comes to food. This is a good instinct. However, when we enter the supermarket, we can sometimes begin to scratch our heads about what “natural” really means. Scan the shelves and your eye meets package after package printed with images of luscious fruits and vegetables bursting forth yet with a content that doesn’t bear any resemblance to that image. “Natural” starts to feel like it doesn’t mean anything more than a mass marketing gimmick.

Don’t give up on your good intentions! Eating naturally is an important fundamental condition for a healthy and enjoyable diet. We just need to remind ourselves of what it really means, why it is important to us and march right back into our food stores armed with a few sensible guidelines.

Making Nature Your Food Principle
There is no better time to renew your commitment to eating with nature as a driving principle in your food choices than in the spring. Yet renewing your commitment to eating naturally does not require that you become a farmer! If you live in the city or the suburbs and you just don’t have the time, here are some other ways:

• Scout around your local area for local producers or outlets where local foods are sold. Mark out on a map as to where they are and consider how you can make buying more from them a practical part of your weekly routine, including asking whether they deliver.
• When you visit the supermarket, keep three principles in mind when it comes to things that you throw into your shopping basket: prioritize foods that are loose or not overly packaged; prioritize foods that have been through less processing than other alternatives (e.g. fish rather than fish fingers); prioritize foods in which you can understand the description of ingredients.
• Grow something on your windowsill such as a herb or tomato plant. It won’t feed the family but it will act as a reminder and an inspiration to stick to your commitment

Why bother?
A food program with nature as one of its driving principles is also one that leads to more nutritious and lighter choices. If you purchase fruit rather than a fruit bar, you are purchasing more vitamins and minerals, less sugar, less calories and usually more fiber.This principle also leads to greater respect for food, an instinct which is being lost in societies in which food is endlessly available.

A Spring Meal
As we focus on children in this current issue, we provide recipes for a delightful meal that you can prepare with your children , renewing everyone’s commitment to great “natural” ingredients as well as satisfying everyone’s sweet tooth.

Recipe: Spring Spinach Salad with Hazelnuts
Visit your local market, farmer or supermarket with your children. Get your children to pick out the vegetables that they would like to use in order to make your spring salad with. We suggest:

For the salad:
Baby Spinach, rinsed and patted dry
Red bell peppers, cleaned and roughly chopped
Cucumbers, rinsed and thinly sliced
Carrots, peeled, washed and sliced thinly
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Hazelnuts, lightly browned in a pan

For the dressing:
2 dl or ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsps white wine vinegar
Pinch salt & pepper
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons water

Prepare the salad dressing by combining all ingredients in a bowl and beating to a smooth consistency. Rinse and combine all ingredients in a salad bowl. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese and hazelnuts nuts over last. Serve with dressing in a separate jug.

After this light meal, everyone will enjoy this light version of Spring Semlor or dessert buns. Traditionally, semlor were eaten at the end of the 40 day period of fasting in February. Today in Scandinavian bakeries in the spring they are an energy bomb of cream, marzipan filling and sweet white bun. Children like this lighter and healthier version precisely because of the fresh berries.

Recipe: Spring Semlorwith Fresh Berries
For the buns:
8 dl or 3¼ cups plain white flour
2 dl or ¾ cup wheat germ
2 tsps baking powder
50 g or 1.8 oz. dried or fresh yeast
3 dl or 1 ¼ cups half fat milk
4 tbsps honey
50 g or 1.8 oz. butter
1 egg
Pinch of salt
1 egg for brushing the buns with

For the filling:
Fresh berries of your choice
Extra sugar for sprinkling, if needed
Whipped cream or whole milk yogurt

Begin by combining all dry ingredients in a bowl or bread mixer. If using fresh yeast, heat up the milk until it is 37 C (98.6 F) and pour over the yeast so that the yeast is dissolved. Then add to dry ingredients in the bread mixer. Add honey, egg and butter (chopped up roughly). Knead for 10 minutes or mix in the bread mixer on medium for 4 minutes. Allow to rest covered for one hour. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Form 16-20 small, flattened buns with the dough. Allow to rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour. During this time heat oven to 225 C (437 F). Brush the bun dough with egg. Bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool. Serve by slicing the bun in half and allowing everyone to choose their own filling of berries and yogurt/cream. You can freeze the buns for future use.

Remember to stick to one bun or semla per person! Limiting portions is one of the keys to enjoying food and staying healthy.

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