Imagining that I'm "Living the Deliciously Ella way"

Take a long, hard look at the pile of food in this picture, all freshly plucked from the kitchen cupboards and the fridge of my family home. And now imagine me, with a flourish (I think this sort of thing requires a dramatic flourish), swiping it all straight into the bin. Yep, even the Mini Rolls which I'm sure we can all agree are a food of the Gods.

Well, that's exactly what I would have to do if I suddenly decided to follow the diet of Ella Woodward, more commonly known as "Deliciously Ella". Since telling the public that she's cured herself of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome and hasn't had to take any medication for it since transitioning to a completely vegan diet, she's written three cookery books on the topic. I suppose that with statements like that backing her, it's not hard to understand why her first became the best-selling debut cookery book since records began.

On the blurb of Deliciously Ella she explains how you can "look and feel better" by learning to cook her "natural, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free recipes". So, with thousands of devout follows and a clean eating empire under her belt, I decided to see exactly what I would have to cut out of my diet if I decided to start "living the Deliciously Ella way" (6).

Meat and Fish
I'm already vegetarian, so this one isn't really a big deal for me. However, for the other estimated 98% of the British population that aren't, that's a pretty big lifestyle shift to consider making, especially since Ella openly admits that she isn't a nutritionist.

Eggs and Dairy
The basic principle of plant-based living means completely cutting any animal products out of your life. No eggs. No milk. No cheese. I guess I have to wave goodbye to the sauce in my post-clubbing meal of choice: the McDonald's Spicy Veggie Burger.

Processed Foods
Ella's brand is built on her making what she calls "natural alternatives" to the food that we eat on a daily basis. Everything is made from scratch, with not a tin opener in sight. In my kitchen that would mean getting rid of everything from baked beans and peanut butter to my mum's homemade jams.

Refined Sugars
This is the part of the book where we all have to pretend that dried mango is as satisfying as a bar of Dairy Milk, isn't it?

Gluten
Now this is the one that threw me the most. I thought it was almost universally accepted that brown pasta, wholegrain bread and brown rice were pretty good for anyone not intolerant to gluten. But Ella says that one of her keys to creating "healing food" is binning that stuff completely.

So, what was I left with in my kitchen once I filtered out everything that didn't adhere to the Ella guidelines? As you can probably guess: Not that much. A few baking potatoes and a drawer of fresh veggies. A bag of lentils and some soy milk. And definitely not the majool dates, apple cider vinegar and brown rice flours that are apparently "core ingredients" when it comes to plant-based cooking...