In the last couple of years many people have had a bit of an awakening in terms of food. Organic supermarkets, vegan restaurants, locally produced products and special diet catering are some of the new developments that we find ourselves surrounded with and that are replacing the old sources for food for more and more people. Some like to call it a trend, but I think that’s not what it is. It’s a change of mind, it’s the realization that the food industry is selling us shit that is bad for us and the world. It’s a development caused by education and I think for a big part we have the internet to thank for this. We no longer have to be slaves to traditions, habits and mainstream supermarket products. Because now there are food blogs, cook books, organic shops and delivery services out there that supply us with knowledge, recipes and ingredients for a better way of eating.
Ella Woodward is one of these people who are pushing the health food movement forward with her blog Deliciously Ella. She is, you could say, the British version of our own Berlin vegan expert Oh Sophia, and she too has now released an amazing cookbook that we want to introduce you to today. After the jump we will give you a little insight into Deliciously Ella with a list of 7 of her most important basic ingredients that make excellent healthy replacements for milk products, white flower, and refined sugar.
With her cook book that was released by Bloomsbury Berlin, Ella wants to give an easy and fun introduction into her healthy way of eating and cooking with some general explanations and tips and a lot of simple recipes for everyday life. She is not very dogmatic about veganism or organic foods, in fact she offers a lot of advice on how to combine some of her dishes with meat, fish and cheese. It’s not so much about totally changing your diet, or eating less in general, it’s more about showing healthy alternatives to industrialized foods that we are so addicted too.
One of the key qualities of the book is her list of basic ingredients that everyone who wants to cook and eat healthy should have in their house, regardless of you are a vegetarian, vegan or lactose intolerant person. She starts her book with this list and it immediately makes you realize how easy it is to just replace some core ingredients with something else that you might have never thought of but that would make a big difference. As a teaser I want to show you 7 of those healthy food products.
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Coconut Milk and Oil
Coconut milk is a mild and creamy alternative for everything where you would normally use cow milk and cream. Coconut oil is even more versatile, you can not only use it for frying and baking, but also for face and skin care and to bleach your teeth.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar is a great and healthy replacement for balsamic vinegar that normally has a lot of conservatives and sugar. It’s great for digestion and can be used to spice up salad dressings, sauces, and dips.
Nuts and Nut Butter
Nuts are great sources for vitamins, proteins and healthy fats. Both in their solid form and as mousse they make for great snacks and ingredients for baking and cooking. Nut mousse is an awesome alternative to Nutella that consists tons of refined sugar and other things from hell…
Grains
Forget normal pasta and white rice. Exchange it for quinoa, full grain rice, oatmeal and buckwheat. With these grains you can make dishes full of fibers and vitamins instead of stuffing yourself out with empty carbs.
Medjoul Dates
This is one of the special ingredients that Ella likes to use. Don’t use the normal dried dates, but spend the extra buck for the Medjoul dates because it will be worth it. They are perfect as sweet snacks, but also to make pastes and raw doughs.
Honey and Maple Sirup
think I don’t need to tell you that refined sugar is the biggest crime of the food industry. It’s in basically every processed food product (even sausage) in the supermarket, it is so bad for us and the cause of many common diseases and it’s highly addictive. And there are such nice healthier alternatives such as natural honey (which btw. is not vegan) or pure maple sirup.
Raw Cacao Powder
If you think that for a healthy diet you cannot eat chocolate anymore you haven’t met Ella yet. Her secret is raw cacao powder which is cacao in its purest form without all the industrialized shit of regular cacao and chocolate. It’s a great ingredient to bring that wonderful chocolate flavor into many sweet dishes.
photo: Tommy Clarke
Ella has a couple more magic ingredients in her book that she uses for all of her delicious recipes. To give you an idea what smart recipes she has thought up I want to show you one of her cooking tutorial videos. It’s one of her first ones she’s done and it’s about her sweet potato brownies. Yum!
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