Stockholm, like many Nordic countries is easy to travel around, public transport consists of buses, trams, ferries as well as a beautiful underground network which houses art displays at many of it’s stations, it makes it very easy and pleasurable to travel across the archipelago of islands that make up this sprawling city.
Traditional Swedish food is very hearty, classic meatballs are served in most restaurants with creamy mashed potato, lingonberry compote and pickled cucumber slices sprinkled with chopped dill; delicious, nourishing and comforting. This staple can be found on most of the menus at traditional Swedish restaurants in Stockholm, a great place in a handy central location in Gamla Stan is The Hairy Pig Restaurant, a cosy, traditional restaurant with hearty plates of traditional dishes.
I found lingonberry compote to be similar to the cranberry sauce we serve at Christmas and made me wonder why we don’t incorporate berry sauce into savoury dishes more often; simple to prepare (just warm the berries in a pan with some sugar and water) and a great way of enhancing the taste and nutritional value of a dish.
The pickled cucumber was a delicious, sweet and sour accompaniment and again a simple preparation (sliced cucumber is added to white wine vinegar and sugar and left to marinade for a short time). Pickling is popular and an important part of Swedish cuisine as it was traditionally used to preserve food staples during the harsh winters. Pickled or fermented vegetables provide a good source of micronutrients as well as potentially helping to manage blood sugar and support gut health.
As always, a visit to the central food market was essential, in Stockholm it’s unsurprisingly upmarket with lots of stalls selling meat, seafood, fish and other fresh produce. There are also lots of places to eat, the food on sale was of high quality with a price to match! A less expensive takeaway option were the numerous open sandwiches on sale, fillings were generous and consisted of options such as smoked ham, prawn, egg, smoked salmon and fish roe, they were all served with a fantastic variety of salad options, I liked the unexpected addition of sliced grape to prawns which worked really and inspired me to consider the addition of fruit to salad more often.
Bread in Stockholm is sold in many bakeries across the city, one of the most popular chains is called Fabrique. Commonly sold varieties are rye bread and multiseed crispbread, delicious options which provide texture, nuttiness as well as being incredibly high in fibre and therefore leave you feeling nourished and fuller for longer. A good place to pick up a sandwich for lunch is the Fotografiska Museum, the restaurant which is situated on the top floor provides a fantastic view of the main port of Stockholm while you eat.
As well as traditional Swedish restaurants, Stockholm like most other European cities also offers plenty of other culinary options, sushi and ramen restaurants are particularly popular. I particularly enjoyed dinner at an Italian restaurant called Restaurant Slipen. It’s situated in a less touristy part of the city close to the water, it’s housed in a beautifully renovated boathouse, numerous boats are suspended above diners making it a thoroughly original space to enjoy delicious, homemade pasta, highly recommended.
I thoroughly recommend Stockholm as a great place to visit, I found it to have a strong culinary identity that prioritises fresh produce, I found a lot of inspiration and as a result have started to include more berries, pickles and rye bread into my daily diet.
MLT Nutrition 