Cookbook of the Week: 'Deliciously Ella'
Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Deliciously Ella: 100+ Easy, Healthy, and Delicious Plant-Based, Gluten-Free Recipes (Scribner) by Ella Woodward of the popular vegan and gluten-free recipe blog Deliciously Ella. The book quickly climbed to the #1 spot on the United Kingdom’s bestseller list—Woodward is British—and will be released in the United States tomorrow.
Noteworthy: You wouldn’t know it from looking at Woodward, a former model, or the healthy recipes in her book, but for years she was what she calls “a sugar monster.” Her love of the stuff peaked during her first year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland “when my friends and I basically lived off a delicious mixture of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream, mountains of chocolate (preferably filled with gooey caramel), and lots of fizzy pick ’n’ mix candy,” she writes in the book. She turned her life and her diet around after receiving a very serious diagnosis the second year of college. Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, an illness that breaks down the immune system, gave Woodward near-constant headaches, stomach issues, chronic pain, and blackouts. Inspired by Kris Carr’s cancer-management diet, Woodward did her own homework, and soon after cutting out the bad stuff and focusing on fresh, whole foods, those symptoms diminished and her energy returned.
The Team: Ella Woodward wrote the book. She makes a point that she’s “not a chef, I’m a cook, and everything comes from experiments in my own kitchen” and from years of living a healthy lifestyle. London-based photographer Clare Winfield, who has worked for Esquire magazine and on other cookbooks, took the colorful photos.
The Cuisine: Lots of plants! You won’t find meat, dairy, sugar, gluten, or anything processed or with chemicals or additives in this book. “I’m all about whole, natural foods that nourish your body,” Woodward writes. She takes cues from all kinds of cuisines—there are traditional British baked beans, Italian-inspired lentil Bolognese, Mediterranean hummus—but mostly they’re familiar, everyday foods with Woodward’s inventive twists.
Who Should Buy It: Vegans looking for some new ideas. And those who want to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diets. “I absolutely haven’t written this with the intention of converting you all to veganism. I’m not a huge fan of the word vegan anyway, as you can be a very unhealthy vegan,” Woodward writes. The book is meant to be a guide, and it’s flexible. “You can make it work for you, adding cheese to your baked sweet potato, a side of salmon to your quinoa, some yogurt to your smoothie or some milk to your tea—that’s just not a problem. As long are you’re loving plants, I’m happy!”
Must-Make Recipes: Mexican Quinoa Bowl, Creamy Coconut Porridge, Sweet Potato Brownies, and the Acai Bowl.
Check out more healthy cookbooks we like:
DJ Angie Martinez is into Healthy Latin Eating
I Quit Sugar, by Australian health coach Sarah Wilson
Our cookbook of 2014, At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen
