Kimchi & kombucha

Sara Rezgui is the chef at Treehotel who draws inspiration from all corners of the globe. She prefers to cook healthy food from scratch and ferment both tea and vegetables.

For many years, Sara Rezgui traveled the world cooking. Today she cooks for the whole world at Treehotel in Harads. She is also a trained diet and nutrition consultant.

– I want to inspire and convey how easy it can be to eat healthy and where you can find nutrition naturally, and it is in vegetables and natural ingredients that are not processed. Stop buying semi-finished products, find joy in cooking and dare to try something new, says Sara.

Her best advice is to eat more vegetables and more variety, try to think about eating in season, try new dishes and vegetables. To save time in the everyday puzzle and still eat well, Sara advises cooking a lot of rice at once and prepping by peeling potatoes the night before.

– We are in the middle of a change, you are becoming more aware of what you put on the plate and where the food comes from, she says.

Fermented vegetables

During her travels, she came in contact with many different food cultures and often came across fermented foods, that is, foods preserved by natural lactic acid bacteria. Interesting, Sara thought and started testing herself. Today, Sara produces her own kimchi and other fermented vegetables under the name “Sur Sara’s pickled vegetables”. She herself eats it every day as a side dish on the plate.

– It strengthens the immune system, provides good stomach health and it is fantastically good. It is a special taste that does not suit everyone, but I think it is a complement that we lack in the home cooking today, you need something sour and crunchy to the dishes, she says.

She shreds the vegetables and massages in a tablespoon of salt per kilo until it is thoroughly liquid. Then she packs the vegetables until they fall below the liquid level, puts on a weight and leaves it at room temperature for two to four weeks and then for a week in the fridge.

– All organic raw materials and vegetables naturally have lactic acid bacteria on them. I take the vegetables as they are and create an environment where the good bacteria thrive, develop and take over.

Local production

Sara prefers to use local ingredients, but it can be difficult to get hold of large quantities of vegetables that are grown nearby. That is one of the reasons why she is a driving member of Boden’s food cluster. The purpose is to strengthen local food production through increased cooperation between producers, processors and distributors.

– Tourism is increasing all the time and it would be fantastic for a Japanese tourist to be able to eat vegetables that have grown up under the midnight sun. We have such pure nature, so many surfaces and such opportunities, says Sara.

When #Närhetsliv visits her at home in the apartment kitchen in Boden, she offers a vegetarian and gluten-free meal with black bean steaks, pumpkin puree, kimchi and vegetable noodles with a kombucha drink.

– Vegetarian food is trendy and it is always good to get new vegetarian alternatives and tips. Kombucha is something many people are curious about, so I thought we could take a look at what it is and how to do it. It is a fermented tea drink.