My name is Kriselda Mustonen – I’m a 30-year-old wellness influencer and yoga instructor from Helsinki. I’m super grateful for this opportunity to start my collaboration with HEIROL!
Home, kitchen, and stopping to enjoy a mindful meal are all things close to my heart. Both my father and brother are marvelous chefs, so my love for food comes from in-house. However, I’m certain that the same rule applies to other families, as they have for mine – my mother and grandmother have been our family’s biggest foodie influencers, and it is them who I need to thank for falling in love with cooking.
As far as my cooking skills go though… I’m definitely an amateur and the way I learn best is in the form of trial and error. This said, my kitchen is often fairly prone to “whoops” moments. But it’s all about the mindset y’all! You shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes, but rather be willing to learn from them. This ties in well with the values I hold the dearest: life is an opportunity for continuous learning and self-development. Add curiosity and open-mindedness towards the world onto the list and there you have it. I loooove to learn new things! Whether it is a new meditation technique or how to use a sous vide cooker.
The foodie side of me tends to get sensitive every time I get the chance to sit down for a meal made with love. It has happened at my grandmother’s dinner table, as well as at Michelin star restaurants. In my heart of hearts, I’m absolutely a hedonist, but throughout the years I’ve learned to listen to my body’s needs. I have to give thanks to my curiosity and openness, as I’ve given a go to many different diets. Nowadays, my relationship with food is very intuitive and I like to eat everything. The human body is intelligent, and once you learn how to listen to it, you can take the best possible care of it. I’ve found my balance through experience and cherishing well-being.
Through yoga, I’ve learned to respect the connection between the body and nature – I aim to follow Ayurveda, which is a traditional, thousands of years old, Indian alternative medicine system. My diet is very season-heavy; when my body needs warmth, I give it to it, and vice versa. I’m also extremely interested in self-sufficiency when it comes to food. Through the years, I’ve learned that you don’t have to be perfect in this. Self-grown herbs or hand-picked mushrooms taste so much better and make your meals a couple of notches more special.
“Food be thy medicine” – They say food is healing and food is fuel. For me as well, obviously, it is nutrition, but most importantly it’s enjoyment and togetherness. When I moved into my new home, a nice kitchen and a big dinner table were the first things on my list. I love to host and bring people together, so I need to have a big table that all my loved ones can sit down and enjoy a long, memorable evening. Due to the ongoing situation in the world right now, this will have to wait for now. Until then, I can work on my cooking and master some of my favorite recipes!
Whether we are talking about ingredients or kitchenware, I think it is important to emphasize quality. Much like your makeup bag: the foundation spreads the best when you use a high-quality brush. Once you find your go-to’s, there’s no going back. I may or may not have shed a tear when I sliced a tomato for the first time with HEIROL’s Santoku Knife. I got my old kitchen knives as a present from my father – this was when I was 18 years old and had just moved out. So maybe it’s obvious, but I think it’s about time to update my kitchenware to fit the needs of an adult.
In my first collaboration post, I listed out the kitchen ‘must-have’ tools right now. You can find my post here! Now it’s time to put those kitchen tools to use with this lovely Spring recipe: tasty oven-baked salmon with crunchy fennel.
In Ayurveda, Spring is the time of kapha. In Sanskrit, kapha means ‘that, which propers in water’. As the snow melts away, nature comes back to life, and vegetation starts to thrive. This recipe includes fish, as well as fennel and cucumber (hello water-rich foods, hello kapha)!
In addition, you can find some of the best friends for your cells: nutritional super rice (black-eyed peas, raw rice, quinoa, beans, seeds, and lentils) and broccolini. Your body, mind, and soul will thank you! You can find the recipe below.
Oven-baked Salmon w/ Crunchy Fennel
2 portions
400 g of salmon
Fennel
Cucumber
Mint leaves
1,5 dl of super rice
100 g of broccolini
Lemon
Salt
Take the salmon out to room temp for about 30 minutes before cooking it. Season with some (or plenty of) salt and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 150°C. To get an even more beautiful color, give the salmon an additional 5-10 minutes in the oven at 200°C. You can also use a kitchen torch for this!
Cut the stem of the fennel and use a mandoline slicer to make 2-3 mm thick slices. Place the sliced fennel into a bowl of ice-cold water, as the salmon cooks in the oven. This is how you get that crunch to the fennel. Prepare the super rice as it says on the packaging. Slice the broccolini into bite-size bits. Heat the pan and use plenty of good oil to cook the broccolini and super rice. Season with salt and lemon juice.
Use the mandoline slicer to slice the cucumber beautifully. Take a separate serving platter and place the cucumber, fennel (after you’ve strained it), and mint leaves. If you want, you can drizzle some smoked paprika on top!
Place the super rice and broccolini mix on the plate as a beautiful base, the salmon goes on top, and the fennel and cucumber salad goes on the side of it. Yummmm!
Kisses,
Kriselda Mustonen is a wellness influencer and yoga instructor from Helsinki. Her interest in cooking comes from her family. To Kriselda, food is enjoyment and togetherness. The foodie side of Kriselda tends to get sensitive every time she gets a chance to sit down for a meal made with love. Get to know Kriselda on Instagram @kriselda
