Recipes

The Spa Cuisine at Mountain Trek is 5 Star. We are happy to provide some of those great recipes to all.

No Noodle Lasagna

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While a noodle-less lasagna may conjure visions of an unstructured mess, we find this healthy dinner dish to be amply supported by delicious layers of thinly-sliced zucchini, squash, and eggplant. Layered between these nutritious vegetables that we often overlook is mushroom, swiss chard, roasted red peppers, and cheese. We’ve provided the recipe for our delicious homemade Red Wine Tomato Sauce, but you can also use a quality organic store-bought sauce if you are short on time. Serve with a simple green salad on the side to round out your meal. Enjoy!

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Red Wine Tomato Sauce (optional—can use store-bought sauce)

  • 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup onion, diced
  • 4 teaspoons garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 4 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons ground fennel
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 4 cups canned organic tomatoes, blended
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons honey

Lasagna Filling

  • 1 eggplant, sliced into 1/4″ slices lengthwise
  • 2 zucchinis, sliced into 1/4″ slices lengthwise
  • 1 large or 2 small butternut squash, sliced into 1/4″ slices
  • 1 ½ cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon white wine
  • 1 cup white cheddar cheese, or mozzarella
  • ¾ cup cottage cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons parmesan – grated
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • ½ cup swiss chard – chopped
  • ½ cup roasted red pepper- chopped (if from a jar, drain thoroughly)
  • 1 cup sharp cheese or parmesan – grated
  • 2/3 cup pitted olives- ground into a tapenade (optional topping)
  • 2 cups salad greens (optional side)
  • olive oil and balsamic vinegar for drizzling (optional for side salad)

Preparation Method

  • Prepare the red wine sauce by sautéing olive oil, onions, garlic, and all herbs, salt, and pepper in a saucepan until translucent.
  • Deglaze with the wine, then add tomatoes, honey, and vinegar and heat through to simmer for 5 minutes and then set the sauce aside.
  • For the lasagna, start by slicing the eggplant, zucchini, and squash into 1/4″ thin pieces, lengthwise.
  • Lightly spray the eggplant, zucchini, and squash with cooking spray or brush with oil and bake on a baking sheet for 7-8 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in oil and garlic, then deglaze the pan with the white wine.
  • Beat the cottage cheese with the egg, parmesan, and nutmeg. Set aside to be included in the lasagna.
  • Put 4 tablespoons of your red sauce in the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish.
  • Layer in sequence: 4 slices of eggplant / mushrooms and red pepper / red wine sauce – 1 cup / swiss chard / cottage cheese mixture -1/2 cup / zuccini / red wine sauce -1 cup / cheddar cheese or mozzarella / butternut squash / red wine sauce- 1 cup/ sharp cheese.
  • Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
  • Top with olive tapenade, and serve with a side of greens drizzled with oil and vinegar.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Wasabi Crusted Halibut With Spinach & Chard Gomae

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Wasabi_Crusted_Halibut

Rich, spicy, and healthy, this dish is packed with nutrients and filled with flavors of Japanese cuisine. Made with succulent halibut and crunchy wasabi peas, this recipe is a Mountain Trek favorite! We like to serve Halibut when it is fresh and in season. If not in season, substitute another white fish.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

  • 4 oz halibut, skinless, 4 portions
  • 1/4 cup organic mayonnaise
  • 2 tsp sweet chili sauce
  • 1/2 tsp wasabi powder
  • 1/3 cup dried wasabi peas, roughly chopped
  • 3 cup broccoli flowerets, chopped
  • 4 cup Swiss chard, fresh chopped
  • 1/2 bunch kale, de-veined and chopped
  • 1 green onion, cut diagonally

Gomae dressing:

  • 1 tsp agave syrup or honey
  • 1 tsp water
  • 1 Tbsp Bragg’s liquid aminos
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/4 cup sesame seeds
  • 1/8 cup grapeseed oil
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp tahini

PREPARATION

  • Heat the oven to 400 F.
  • Place the halibut on a parchment-lined baking sheet
  • Mix the mayonnaise with the sweet chili sauce and wasabi powder to make a paste.
  • Spread the paste evenly on top of each piece of fish (common mistake: do not add wasabi peas yet)
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the fish is flaking and the top is slightly browning, 5 minutes before the baking is complete, press the wasabi peas firmly into the paste to cover and return to oven.
  • Prepare the gomae by removing any hard stems from the spinach and chard and chop.
  • Steam the broccoli. Add the spinach and chard and continue to steam until everything is cooked through and softened, but still bright green. Drain well, keeping warm
  • Mix the dressing ingredients in a saucepan on low heat. Once warm, toss with the greens.
  • To serve, place fish on plate next to a classic gomae mound. Sprinkle with green onions. To add an element, steam some carrot spears and place fish atop (as pictured).

Cedar Plank Salmon with Grilled Asparagus

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Cedar Planked Salmon with Grilled Asparagus

Something special happens when you cook with wood. A rich, smokey flavor gets infused into your fish and vegetables and takes your grilling to the next level. When you don’t have a wood smoker, cooking on top of a cedar plank is the next best option. Soaked for hours before placed on the grill, the plank will first steam and then begin to emit a rich smoke. Salmon is packed full of omega-3 fatty acids, making it the perfect fish for this cooking method, as it invites the smoke right in. This Cedar Plank Salmon and Grilled Asparagus recipe is a wonderful, healthy, summer grilling option—simple, easy to prep and clean, yet packed full of nutrients and vitamins. We love the deep red meat of Sockeye salmon, but any other salmon can be used on the plank. Make sure to keep the barbecue closed while cooking so the cedar smoke can work its magic on the fish. Serve with a healthy, light salad to round out your meal.  Serves 4.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

  • 1 Cedar Plank (6″ x 12″, ~1/2″ thick)
  • 4 oz fillets of sockeye salmon
  • 16 asparagus spears medium
  • 1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
  • Oil spray (Avocado oil if possible)
  • 1 pinch coarse sea salt
  • 1 garlic (dried)
  • 1 garlic (fresh)
  • 1 pinch ground chilies

Marinade:

  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1 tbsp Braggs aminos or tamari soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 tbsp cracked chilies
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ginger minced
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

PREPARATION

  1. Soak the cedar plank (use something to weight it so it stays submerged) 2 hours before cooking.
  2. Rinse salmon, pat dry, and place in a shallow baking dish or bowl.
  3. Puree marinade ingredients in a blender until smooth and pour over salmon, reserving some marinade to drizzle over the finished fish or for the accompanying asparagus.
  4. Let sit, refrigerated, for up to an hour.
  5. Wash and dry asparagus and toss in a little oil spray with a pinch of sea salt and dried ground garlic or fresh minced garlic, plus a pinch of ground chilies.
  6. Dry the plank and lightly oil it (avocado oil or other high smoke point oil)
  7. Preheat barbecue, place the plank on the grill, and cook on medium temperature for about 10 min, or until the center is almost done. It’s normal for the cedar to smoke a little in the barbecue, this will add flavor to the fish.
  8. Set the plank aside with the salmon on it (you can keep it in a barely warm oven, wrapped) and put the asparagus on the grill. Grill for a few minutes until spears are just done (still bright green, but with grill marks and a bit crunchy).
  9. Serve with lemon slices and a drizzle of marinade on both the fish and asparagus.

Bugaboo Salad With Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Take your standard green salad to an entirely new level with this healthy and hearty rendition inspired by the Bugaboos, a local mountain range with mighty rock formations, glacier-sculpted granite spires, and many peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The towering alfalfa sprouts and feta cheese remind us of the awe-inspiring mountains and glacier terrain the Bugaboos has to offer. This salad is strong and powerful, but simple and healthy. Make your own balsamic vinaigrette dressing using our guest-favorite recipe.

Serves 4.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

Salad:

  • 5 c. mixed baby salad greens
  • 1 c. beets, grated
  • 1 c. carrots, grated
  • 1 c. chickpeas cooked
  • ½ c. feta cheese crumbled
  • ½ c. alfalfa sprouts
  • ¼ c. sundried tomatoes sliced
  • ¼ c. toasted sunflower seeds

Dressing:

  • ½ Tbs. Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbs. honey
  • 1 tsp. crushed fresh garlic
  • ¼ tsp. dried basil
  • 1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tbs. orange juice
  • 1/3 tsp. orange zest
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

PREPARATION

  1. Blend dressing ingredients in a blender. Set aside in refrigerator until ready to use.
  2. Place a bed of salad greens in a bowl and layer, making your own design; beets, carrots, chickpeas, feta, sprouts, and
    sun-dried tomatoes.
  3. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds.
  4. Serve with dressing on the side.

 

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is an award-winning health retreat immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia. Our one or two-week program—featuring daily hiking, yoga, exercise classes, time in our state-of-the-art spa, and of course, delicious, healthy cuisine—will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

How To Reset Your Health In 48 Hours

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a woman sitting on a hiking trail meditating

It’s perfectly understandable that spending an entire week eating healthfully, hiking through lush nature, sleeping well, exercising, and detoxifying will do wonders for your mind and body. But you might be shocked to hear that with the right strategy and a little bit of motivation, you can make a profound impact on your health in just 48 hours. That means that in just one weekend, you can right the ship, take the reins, and restore the balance of your health. It’s not a walk in the park (well, you actually might take a walk in the park) but your body will thank you for dedicating just one single weekend to yourself.

We’ve been running our Basecamp weekend retreats in response to the COVID crisis. Guests spend one weekend (Friday 3 pm – Sunday evening) following our program and working virtually alongside our expert team. And we have to say—the results have been absolutely amazing. Participants are feeling significantly lighter, recharged, and reset. We’ve distilled this amazing weekend into an easy to follow 4-step guide so you can reset your health in the span of 48 hours, and emerge from a healthy weekend feeling like the best version of yourself.

Step 1) Make a bulletproof schedule

The last thing you want to be doing all weekend is constantly trying to decide “what’s next”. This will prevent you from fully sinking into the weekend. Sit down and write your 48-hour schedule on a piece of paper. Make sure to include the following critical elements:

Nutrition

Eat 6 times per day, starting immediately upon waking, and consume your calories within a 12-hour window. Give your metabolism a break for the other 12 hours (Intermittent Fasting). Eat most of your calories early in the day and then taper off moving towards night-time. Eat organic, plant-based food when available, and avoid processed food, added sugar, and alcohol.

Fitness

Move your body as much as possible throughout the day. We weren’t designed to sit, so let’s try to do as little of that as possible this weekend. Time your exercise for after your meals to begin understanding the value of food as fuel, not a coping mechanism. Begin your day with yoga (after a smoothie), then after breakfast do a HIIT or other functional fitness class. After lunch, spend a long time outside in nature, walking for either 40 minutes at a vigorous pace, or 90 minutes at a leisurely rate. Then, following dinner, tackle one more functional fitness class and end your night with restorative yoga.

Sleep

After a full day of exercise and eating properly, you have some building blocks for great sleep. Ensure you not only get enough hours of sleep, but also a deep sleep. Take a warm bath with Epsom salts and lavender oil 90 minutes prior to bed, don’t let your phone cross the threshold of your room, ensure your room is the right temperature and is dark, and do a relaxation technique while laying down. Read our full guide to great sleep for more tips.

Stress relief/management

Make sure to include relaxation time. Mindfulness is a highly potent tool for stress relief. If you already have a practice, carve out a large chunk of time of your weekend to dive deeper than you have in the past. If mindfulness is new to you, take this weekend as an opportunity to dip your toes in. Schedule a couple of 5-10 minute guided meditations sessions, ideally early in the morning and then again before bed.

Creating a schedule can be difficult, so we’re happy to share ours. If you actually want to follow along, all of the recipes and exercises are linked (click the image first), and you can find a shopping list below

Step 2) Prepare for success

Once your schedule is in place, it’s time to commit and get ready to immerse in the weekend. There are three critical components to preparing:

Ensure you have the right equipment—for our schedule, you need the following:

  • Kitchen with basic cooking tools
  • Blender
  • Yoga mat
  • Yoga strap (could be a belt or tie, etc.)
  • Firm blanket or pillow (for morning yoga)
  • 3 large firm pillows (e.g. couch cushions—for restorative yoga)
  • Light weights (2-5lbs) or substitute (soup cans or water bottles)
  • Running shoes
  • A chair (used for stability during exercise classes)
  • Water bottle

Shop for your ingredients 2-3 days prior to the weekend

View a shopping list for our schedule

Remove as many distractions as possible

Carve out this time for you. It’s only 48 hours, so almost everything can wait. Tell your friends, family, and colleagues that you are going to immerse yourself in this experience and request they only call, text, or email if it’s an emergency. This will reduce your stress and anxiety. Get baby sitters for the kids if you have them, or make a plan with your partner to watch them for the weekend. Be selfish for just this one weekend.

Step 3) Instill accountability

We’ve talked the talk. It’s time to walk the walk. While investing in an experience like Mountain Trek and spending time with our expert staff, whether that be a full week at the lodge to really dive deep into your health transformation or just a weekend for a quick tune-up, will provide you the accountability you need to succeed, it isn’t always an option. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and tricks to instill accountability on your own:

Form a “tribe”

The best thing you could possibly do is gather a small group of your closest allies and do the healthy weekend reset together. Sharing your experience with others has been proven to dramatically increase your chances of success and will make the experience more memorable and enriching. Create a group text thread dedicated to the weekend and have nightly Zoom calls to touch base and discuss your experience and progress.

Share your intentions

If no one is able to join you, share what you are attempting to accomplish with a close friend, family member, or colleague. Detail to them what you are doing the healthy weekend and what you are hoping to accomplish. Ask them to check in with you on Sunday about how it went. Just knowing that someone else is aware of your goals will hold you accountable.

Set a reward

Completing your healthy weekend reset is a big deal and a positive experience. These accomplishments deserve rewards, not only to keep you working towards the goal but to create a positive association with accomplishing such endeavors. Write your reward down prior to beginning your weekend and stick it on the fridge as a reminder.

Step 4) Turn healthy actions into habits

Once your 48-hours are up, you need to capture the momentum you worked so hard to create to ensure your health stays pointed in the right direction. A 48-hour reset is not a justification to go binge on bad habits—it is a leveling-up, a beginning of a new chapter, a fresh start. To keep your compass pointed towards your “true north”, we need to cement your new habits so they become part of your lifestyle.

Building habits is a skill and can be tricky at times. At Mountain Trek, we follow a six-step process to build healthy habits—ones that are truly sustainable:

1. Identify your health and wellness goals

This one is easy. Just write down all of your goals. Try to be as specific as possible, however.

2. Redesign your goals to optimize for success

Make sure your goal is SMART; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-anchored. Setting a SMART goal immediately doubles your chance of success.

3. Simplify

Pick a maximum of two goals from step 1.

4. Set a weekly target

Start small. Aim for doing your healthy action two, maybe three times each week, then grow from there.

5. Monitor your progress and adjust if needed

Write your goal down in a journal, keep a piece of paper handy with a tally, track it using your online calendar, or, you can use either Mountain Trek’s Health & Habit Building App, which will keep track of your progress for you, or our simple goal tracker. Whatever tool you decide to use, it’s important to monitor your activity, notice when you’re falling behind and congratulate yourself when you are achieving your goals.

6. Reward your intention

Whether you are successful or not, you need to reward yourself for your intention to do your best. Rewards can be small or big, simple, or complex.

You now have a proven strategy to reset your health in the course of just one weekend. We hope you take the time to invest in your health, you need and deserve it now more than ever. Be compassionate to yourself throughout the process and don’t worry if it doesn’t all go to plan. There will most likely be hiccups along the way. The important part is that you committed to a healthy weekend—to yourself—and you made your best effort.

If the above is daunting to tackle on your own, we would be more than honored to have you join us for one of our upcoming Basecamp weekend retreats, where our expert team will do all of the work listed above for you, so all you need to do is show up and give it your best.

Good luck, stay healthy, and keep moving!

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Japanese Umami Beef Soup

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We recently developed this soup in an effort to bring more flavors of the east to our menu. As a base, it uses chickpea miso, which delivers some sweetness but is balanced by the sesame, tamari, and sake. We’ve included shiitake mushrooms, arame seaweed and edamame beans for a great nutritional profile.

Servings: 6

Time: 20 min

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp Braggs amino acids or tamari
  • 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
  • 4 tsp cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 cup onions, cut lengthwise
  • 1 cup carrots, cut into matchsticks
  • 1/2 cup celery, chopped on diagonal
  • 2 cups napa cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 5 tbsp chickpea miso paste
  • 4 cup beef stock or bone broth (for heartier soup)
  • 1-2 cups water
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sake
  • 1 1/2 cup edamame soybeans, without pods
  • 1/2 cup smoked tofu, diced
  • 1/2 cup arame seaweed
  • 20 oz. striploin beef, cleaned, fat removed, cut into ¼” thick small strips.

PREPARATION (20 min)

  1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
  2. Meanwhile, prepare the shitake mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, ginger, and garlic.
  3. Also while the water is coming to a boil, prepare the striploin beef and set aside.
  4. Once boiling, pour the water into a large bowl and add the arame seaweed. Set aside and let soak for 20 min to rehydrate.
  5. Heat the olive and sesame oil in a large pot on medium-high.
  6. Add all ingredients from step 2 (vegetables + ginger + garlic)  and the Braggs to the pot. Saute until soft.
  7. While the vegetables are cooking, blend the miso with beef stock/bone broth, vinegar, and sake in a large pot and heat. This is your soup broth.
  8. Add vegetables (once cooked), tofu, and edamame to the soup broth and simmer at a low temperature for 10 minutes. Add water as desired for preferred thickness.
  9. Meanwhile, using your vegetable pot, stir fry your beef in olive oil with a splash of sesame oil and Braggs until slightly browned. Add to soup once cooked.
  10. Drain the seaweed. Add atop the soup before serving.
  11. Enjoy.

 

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is an award-winning health retreat immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia. Our one or two-week program—featuring daily hiking, yoga, exercise classes, time in our state-of-the-art spa, and of course, delicious, healthy cuisine—will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Greek Chicken and Feta Soup

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bowl of soup with garnish and napkin

Our Greek Chicken and Feta Soup is an incredibly healthy soup and a wonderful mix of protein, fiber, and vitamins. It makes a great lunch or dinner and the recipe can be multiplied for batch cooking. Top your soup with fresh feta to add a layer of depth to this soup’s flavor profile.

At Mountain Trek, we bow down to soups as the ultimate trail lunch. Warming your soup up and putting it in a thermos (double-walled & vacuum-sealed is ideal) before heading out to the trail will keep it nice and hot, and since it’s a cooked item (vs. something like a raw salad or sandwich), digestion is expedited, allowing you to take in ample calories without the risk of cramping. Also, if you are hiking in the spring or fall, a warm soup half-way through your hike is just the ticket.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 4)

  • 16-20 oz chicken breast
  • Olive oil
  • ¾ c. onion, diced
  • 1 c. celery, diced finely
  • 4 tsp garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ c. zucchini, diced
  • 1 c. grated carrots
  • 2 tbs. minced fresh parsley
  • 1 ½ c. diced Roma tomatoes
  • 3 c. fresh baby spinach
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. oregano
  • 1 pinch black pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¼ c. white wine
  • 4 c. veggie or chicken stock
  • ¼ c. feta cheese crumbled – 1 Tbsp. per serving

PREPARATION

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Rub your chicken in olive oil and bake until cooked through (internal temp of 165 F). Meanwhile,
  3. In a large soup pot sauté oil, onions, garlic, celery, oregano, salt, & pepper until onions are translucent.
  4. Add white wine, cook for 5 minutes more.
  5. Add zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, stock, and bay leaf; simmer 45 minutes. Add cooked chicken and fresh parsley.
  6. Remove bay leaf before serving.
  7. Serve topped with feta.

What is Mountain Trek?

Mountain Trek is the health reset you’ve been looking for. Our award-winning health retreat, immersed in the lush nature of British Columbia, will help you detox, unplug, recharge, and roll back years of stress and unhealthy habits. To learn more about the retreat, and how we can help you reset your health, please email us at info@mountaintrek.com or reach out below:

Detoxifying Kale and Quinoa Salad

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This kale and quinoa salad recipe is gluten-free and packed full of nutrients, omegas, and antioxidants. Quinoa is a complete protein (has all the essential amino acids), high in fiber, a good source of antioxidants, and also has a good omega-3 profile. Kale is a nutrient powerhouse and packed with antioxidants like quercetin and kaempferol. Blueberries and lemon juice are both chelators—compounds that bind to heavy metals and support the elimination of them—furthering the detox benefits of this recipe. Put these all together and you have a nutrient-rich, hearty salad that will leave you feeling healthy and clean.

Serves 4.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups quinoa – cooked in 3 cups water
  • 4 packed cups kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cup pomegranate seeds
  • 2 Haas avocado, chopped
  • 1 cup red onion, finely minced
  • 1/4 cup additional olive oil
  • Topped with toasted pumpkin seeds
  • Fresh blueberries
  • Fresh Spinach to bed the salad

PREPARATION

  1. Cook the quinoa in the water.
  2. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, combine the kale, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Get in there with your hands and massage the kale so it’s well coated, and set it aside to wilt for at least 10 minutes.
  3. When the quinoa has cooled, transfer the kale mixture, pomegranate seeds, avocado, onion, and additional olive oil to the bowl with the quinoa, and toss well. You can serve immediately or make this salad a day ahead and refrigerate overnight. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds and blueberries.

Meet Chef Simon Vine & His New Recipes

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Chef Simon Vine makes rutabaga spaghetti with tempeh-almond ‘meatballs’ and a tomato-cashew rosee sauce at Mountain Trek

Chef Simon Vine makes rutabaga spaghetti with tempeh-almond ‘meatballs’ and a tomato-cashew rosee sauce at Mountain Trek

Let’s be real, a large reason you’re coming and/or have come to Mountain Trek is for the food, more appropriately referenced as ridiculously-delicious, organic spa cuisine, that just so happens to be calorie-controlled to reset your metabolism. But who’s the mastermind behind our nourishing meals and snacks? Who is this menu-Einstein we all want to take home with us?

This year, we’re excited to introduce Simon Vine, Mountain Trek’s very much invaluable Head Chef. Through a rigorous vetting process, we hired Simon to take the reins of Mountain Trek’s meal-creation not just because he’s a wizard in the kitchen, but because he has journeyed through life in a way that closely aligns with our program’s ethos.     

 

Simon Vine Mountain Trek Head Chef

Mountain Trek Head Chef Simon Vine

In 2016, Simon Vine had worked his way up from being Executive Chef at a renowned fishing resort to catering for up to 300 people in the film industry. He was on top of the world. Behind the scenes, however, the 80-hour weeks were causing him to physically and mentally deteriorate. Depleted, Simon moved from Vancouver, Canada, to a remote island. There, he spent six weeks letting go of a stressful, hustle-bustle routine devoid of sleep and healthful food. He recommitted to himself, promising to return to his roots. He yearned for the plant-based, outdoor-oriented lifestyle of his childhood.

Simon and his wife never returned to the rat race; instead, they moved to the Kootenay Mountains. At Mountain Trek, Chef Simon is able to balance work with camping, biking, hiking and skiing, and he has rekindled his appreciation of a wide range of ethnic cuisines and ingredients.

Simon’s meticulously-crafted spa cuisine is both balanced and bold, light and intensely flavorful, and it’s created with the intention of helping others positively change their lives. While he’ll be bringing back many guest favorites this season, he’s also excited to be rolling out a few new dishes; he is, after all, dedicated to elevating our meals, while ensuring they stay within the program’s framework.

He says, “I’ve been busy counting calories and ensuring that we are able to deliver the results people want, without compromising on flavor and quality. We’ve also brought in some new cooking techniques with the addition of a “sous-vide” circulator to our kitchen.”      

Regarding what’s new on the menu, Simon says, “One new dish I’m really excited about is the seared steelhead salmon with parsnip puree, grilled fennel and radicchio salad, and tomato-caper relish. The steelhead we feature is an amazing local British Columbia fish, which is produced sustainably. The beautiful mild flavor of the fish is complemented by the rich sweetness of parsnips, as well as the fresh and bright flavors of the fennel and radicchio salad.” Rounded out with the sweet and tangy bite of the tomato caper-relish, Simon says, “This dish is a winner in my books!”

To whet your whistle just a little more, Simon says, “I’m also really excited about the rutabaga spaghetti with tempeh-almond ‘meatballs’ and a tomato-cashew rosee sauce, which will be accompanied with a kale caesar salad.” He says, “It’s a really healthy and interesting twist on the ultimate comfort food: spaghetti and meatballs.”

Eating isn’t just about curbing hunger pangs–it’s about nourishing a healthy and active body. The Mountain Trek program doesn’t offer a “diet”; instead, we eat seasonal, local, wild and organic foods six times over the course of the day to properly absorb all nutrients and avoid energy crashes. Each meal and snack is individually prepared for your body and your goals for the week, and are free of processed foods, stimulants or toxins, allowing your body to heal and strengthen.  If you feel in need of a health reset, join us for a week of exercising in nature, de-stressing in the spa, and clean eating.