Roundup - Deliciously Ella Every Day

I've just had the second Deliciously Ella book out of the library. Like the first book the emphasis is on easy to prepare veggie food with fresh, wholefood ingredients and there's no sugar, gluten or dairy in any of the recipes. Ella is a plant based eater rather than a vegan and she does include honey in some of the recipes but that is easy to substitute with agave or Sweet Freedom.

One thing Ella does exceptionally well is breakfasts. I've blogged in the past about my love for Baked Oatmeal which was born from recipes in her first book and on her website. The picture below is a recipe from the Speedy Porridge Four Ways section of the book and is Cinnamon and Date flavoured. Her porridge method involves soaking the oats for 10 minutes before you cook them, just like with her baked oatmeal recipe. This dish is made with soya milk, dates, cinnamon and a little coconut oil and drizzled liberally with my favourite Sweet Freedom which has become such a must have item in my pantry! It made a thick porridge that was quite similar texture wise to the baked oatmeal. I loved it.

I've been playing around with a few different Bircher Museli recipes recently. This one is different in that it doesn't contain any yoghurt. It's oats, raisins, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, grated apple and Sweet Freedom. Instead of yoghurt you use cashew milk. Of course any other plant milk would work too. I'd picked up a small carton of Provomel Cashew milk to try the last time I'd been in a Waitrose so I used that here. This was a really filling breakfast with lots of good textures going on. I really liked the inclusion of sunflower seeds which are something I don't eat very often but they went really well here with the apple.

This smoothie was nice and thick and creamy with the inclusion of banana, frozen berries, cashews and oats. It wasn't quite as sweet as I like but that was easily remedied with the inclusion of a couple of dates.

These banana and oat bars were easy and quick to cook. They were also ultra healthy with no added sugar and just the mashed banana to sweeten them. They made a really different breakfast and went well with a nice mug of Earl Grey.

I was pleased to see a bowl recipe in the book cos who doesn't love a good bowl recipe. There's something about that combination of a protein, a grain and some greens that really makes you feel you're looking after and nourishing yourself. This Buddha Bowl jumped out to me straight away when I first flicked through the book and was the first thing that I made. It consists of brown rice nestled up to a mix of black beans, tomato puree, garlic, miso and spinach. Alongside it is some mashed avocado sprinkled with chilli flakes and I added a touch of steamed broccoli too.

This chickpea, quinoa and turmeric curry was the standard dish out of everything I made. Seriously you must give this a try. It's a wonderfully comforting one pan dish which is really well balanced nutritionally. It thickened up nicely when cold and made a great filling for a wrap.

Also from the big batch cooking section of the book is this Spiced Sweet Potato Stew. It was a good, hearty dish and the leftovers froze nicely. As with all of Ella's recipes, the portions sizes are nice and generous.

Finally check out the colour of this hummus! This is Spiced Turmeric Hummus. I have recently been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and am experiencing pain in my lower back, hips and foot after having fractured both my heel and my pelvis in recent years. I've been reading up on the painkilling properties of turmeric and finding more ways to sneak it into food and drinks. I loved the colour of this and the recipe makes loads, about four tubs worth so some has gone in the freezer. We've another music alldayer this weekend so it will come in handy for feeding us then.

Ella seems to polarise people's views and I've seen some vegans on social media seem quite angry at her promoting a plant based diet when she isn't vegan. I don't think she has ever labelled herself as a vegan though but has been quite clear about how she used a plant based diet to help her recovery from PoTS. I don't think it can be underestimated what an impact her best selling books have had. I know several people who aren't veggie who have bought her books and bringing this type of food into the mainstream definitely contributes to people in general eating more meat free meals and shops and restaurants increasing their vegan offer. Visually the books are beautiful and a pleasure to read. You're not going to find the complexity of flavours and inventive recipes that you'd get from someone like my hero Isa Chandra Moskovitz. You will however find some good, solid, easy to prepare and healthy options.