Deliciously Ella anyone?

[wrenster]

I've just received her new cook book for my bday and am very chuffed indeed!

Has anyone tried anything yet? A lot will be experimentation for me as I've never cooked that way before but I can't wait to try (wont be going vegan though!)

Any recommendations?

I got coconut cream from sainsburys in a blue box. I made her date and oat bars - chia has made them a bit rubbery but takes the edge off sugar cravings. Also made squash, bean and quinoa stew (from newspaper article too) and it was good, DH and dc ate it.

Might make her raw kale salad tomorrow actually.

I'm not sure that I could be faffed to eat like this all the time but it certainly makes a change

I don't think I've ever eaten a date. Not since I read years ago that they were infested with small insects ( sorry ) . Are they nice? I imagine them to be like dusty prunes in taste for some reason

I love most of her recipes that I've tried, esp the coconut porridge and the dates with almond butter, guacamole and tamari rice etc. There's a salad on her blog which has pine-nut pesto and pomegranate which is lovely!
The only things that don't work for me are her tomatoey based ones, and the mango pancakes from her blog which were too soggy.
I love her book and ofter just flick through to remind myself to eat more healthily

I have cooked from the book over the last 3 weeks and my energy levels have increased a lot.
Energy balls and shortbread were v tasty.
Enjoyed roasted chickpeas, guacamole, smoothies and juices.
Lots of the salads, sweet potato wedges all good.
Although my super food crackers weren't very nice.

I made the raw brownies and broke my kitchen aid blender! Too sticky. Not happy. They did taste quite nice though.

Anyone made the flapjacks? Made them yesterday and they were SO dry. Would be nice with more lubricant.

Agree about the tomato ones. She seems to put a whole tube of tomato puree in all of those. Maybe it's to make up for flavour
Lost from having no onions?

Are onions out too then? I find this kind of eating bizarre and disordered. Plus we are allergic to most of the key ingredients...

Yes she says they don't agree with her. I think it's all just a bit extreme and the book is very much written to suit her tastes, ie the only way she can find healthy food palatable is to make it incredibly sweet. There aren't very many completely savoury recipes in there at all.

I'm not a big fan of hers, a lot of what she has to say about physiology etc is complete crap!

I think "healthy eating" to that level is actually unhealthy in how controlling etc it actually is.

The Dahl is good

We've tried a few and particularly recommend the squash risotto (whizzing up squash makes it v creamy), bean chilli (very hearty but add more spices) and how she flavours brown rice (although no need to cook it so long).
Generally I find she uses same ingredients for everything - tamari, tahini, etc and I prefer a bit more variation. But her principles and ideas are useful, eg making own healthy muesli, ideas for using more veg. However, she doesn't come from a cookery background, she comes from the point of view of health. And from that perspective her book is a winner. Eg. We tried the avocado chocolate mousse and could feel virtuous for eating it and we didn't feel too stuffed or pudding-ed out afterwards. It did taste a bit 'green', but you could get used to it.

I gave up on Ella and gave my copy away the Bolognese/ lasagne and flapjacks were just horrible. IMO Anna jones a modern way to eat is a far better book, though not vegan entirely, it's got some wonderful recipes and is written in a less gloating manner ( though not entirely unpretentious - she does tumble and marry her ingredients )

Must agree that the sweet potato brownies are a disaster and the super bread too...I bought the physillium husk powder specially but had to chuck the loaf - yuck. Nicer seedy gluten free bread one was in Hemsley & Hemsley book which is not vegetarian but has some great recipes that actually taste good whilst being healthy for you!

The only thing we make on a regular basis from Ella's book are the cookies with chia seeds, nuts, dates and raw cocoa - so delicious and really fill you up.

i love to cook but most of the recipes did not work or tasted yucky...think she needs to research things a bit more.

Dates with almond butter are my favourite, as are her recipes for guacamole, her sweet potato wedges and her banoffi pie.

Sorry to resurrect slightly old thread. Did anyone find it was worth making the date-heavy recipes? There are a few I've seen online that look good but the medjool dates are so expensive.

Also is it worth getting the book or can you just go by the website?

Has anyone had problems with the potato and cauliflower curry recipe going hideously gelatinous??

I've had problems with the cauliflower and potato curry. For some reason it gets a hideous and inedible gelatinous texture. Has this happened to anyone else? Anyone know the reason why?

Does anyone know where the cheapest place for medjool dates?
Have been getting mine from Waitress £3.99 for 400g.
Wondered if there is cheaper.

This is an older post, so apologies but on the subject of Ella I have been using her cookbook for 10 months. Some stuff great, some like cardboard/chewing gravel. I have learnt much about alternatives to sugar which has been great.
I'm just wondering about her blogs. The one she sent out on Monday seemed extremely inappropriate - celebrating herself, her big expensive engagement party and her friends and family who had jetted in from America when the events in France and the rest of the world had dominated most people's thoughts. She seems very disconnected to the real world, and this last blog really jarred with me. Am I being too critical?

Wasn't she outed as a total bloody fraud quite recently, like a lot of these "I'm so healthy and aspirational" bloggers?

she won't work with the charity for the condition she reckons she's "cured" by switching her diet from sprinkles on toast and Haribo to raw veggie superfoods.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/22/wellness-gurus-belle-gibson-pseudoscience

OK, not a fraud as such, but very much part of a tribe of "wellness bloggers" who seem to peddle little more than BS and pseudoscience.

Nothing wrong with doing a bit of "healthy" baking (I have the Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache book, although I wouldn't call it healthy per se) but I do think it promotes a very strange way of eating. Just don't pretend that you can make a serviceable brownie out of sweet potato. Treat yourself to an occasional real brownie instead.

And it sounds like a lot of the recipes are shit as well

She's starting her own deli delivery company Mae something, where for £9.00 you get a box of lunch delivered to your door with a variety of her food, such as her sweet potato and veggies. I'm not against her style of cooking. Some of her stuff is good, I just wonder about her credibility. Her videos make her seem so aloof and cut off. She poses on a posh sofa, and tells us how great it is to relax, or use a particular spa, or how we should all love one another. So many great 'celeb' cooks have studied and worked so hard to learn their craft. She seems so patronising and out of touch. But hey, she's selling millions of books so maybe I'm just bitter!

She is very much a curate's egg .... Good in parts. I've just made carrot muffins which taste really nice but are impossible to get out of the paper cups and completely uncooked inside despite baking far longer than she said. The black bean burgers my husband (burger hater) loved them and I felt depressed eating them, though the black bean houmus was good.