Review: Deliciously Ella

I think many, if not all, of us health bloggers can view Ella Woodward, of Deliciously Ella, as the epitome of blogging success. She has changed her lifestyle to radically improve her own health, and inspired many others to do the same, all whilst keeping a positive, grounded attitude and producing lots of yummy food.

Those of you on Instagram may have noticed me sharing a few images of Deliciously Ella creations that I had made myself. Now, I am the first to admit that I am far too inclined to buy or lust after lots of recipe books, but then barely use any of the recipes, if any. However, Ella's book is just stuffed full of recipe's that I wanted to try, and I found myself often trying two or three a day.

As far as I am aware, most of the recipes in the book can also be found on the blog, but here they are even easier to find, with a few extra tit bits and anecdotes thrown in. What is different is that Ella goes into a lot of detail on how diet has changed her health, which ingredients and cooking methods to use, and recommendations on how to take up Ella's lifestyle yourself.

So far, I have been pretty pleased with everything that I have tried so far, and can't wait to have a crack at the sweet potato brownies. I am particularly taken by the tahini-based dressing used frequently in recipes, even though I am not keen on it on it's own. The dressing typically involves mixing the tahini with lemon, or honey and oil. It makes the best stir fry dressing! I would also recommend trying the lentil bolognese, which is the perfect healthy comfort food.

Although I initially borrowed the Deliciously Ella book, I am really considering purchasing it myself because it was such an enjoyable read. I will say that some of the ingredients are a little on the expensive side -I have plain pitted dates instead of medjool and a friend of mine used marmite and water as part of the dressing ingredients to avoid a more pricy item. However, there is a lot of flexibility around ingredients, and so long as you have some kind of food processor to get you started you will be able to access most of the recipes without too much bother.... I will need to get myself a food processor of my own by the end of summer!

If you are looking to eat cleanly, and naturally then Ella's book really is an excellent, whether as a starting point or to add some new ideas to an existing repertoire.