You've got to grips with cacao and are coming to terms with spirulina but now there's a new health food to add your kitchen cupboards.
Date nectar is this summer's latest addition to the superfood shopping list and is being hailed as a must-have by someone who should know, Ella Woodward.
The 23-year-old best-selling author - better known as Deliciously Ella - has clubbed together with BeLOVeD, to celebrate the benefits of date fruit.
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Deliciously Ella's Ella Woodward has teamed up withBeLOVeD to celebrate the benefits of date nectar
Ella, a lover of all things healthy, has created three exclusive recipes using theBeLOVeD date nectar, including a chia pudding and date bread.
The health-food advocate says that dates should be a staple in any health junkie's cupboard as she uses them in her cooking constantly.
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She said: 'Dates are quite possibly my favourite ingredient, I love that they taste as sweet as candy but they're filled with so much goodness and they make me feel amazing, which is why I use date nectar in a lot of my cooking.'
Ella is right to plug the benefits of the fruit as dates are celebrated for their unique complex of minerals, fibres and phytochemicals and proven ability to help protect against cancer, heart attacks, strokes and liver damage.
The 23-year-old has enjoyed wild success with her cookbook becoming the fastest selling recipe book since record began and now she shares three exclusive date nectar recipes with you
Date nectar is made 100 per cent from dates the nectar has been expertly extracted to create naturally sweet date syrup that retains the benefits of the whole fruit and Ella says that it is a fuss free way of including the superfood in your cooking.
'BeLOVeD Date nectar is one of my favourite sweeteners as it has such an incredibly rich flavour that really adds depth to whatever I'm making, it's so much more exciting than lots of other sweeteners which only add sweetness but nothing else.
ELLA'S ONLINE REACH
Blog: 17 million hits
App: 70,000 downloads
Instagram: 250,000
Facebook: 64,000
Twitter: 25,000
YouTube: 420,000 views
'It's great to bake with too as it's really sticky so it helps bind mixtures together.
'I use it on everything from porridge to smoothies, chia puddings, crumbles, muffins, cakes, icing and just about everything else. It makes each dish taste so good!'
And Ella should know, her advice on clean living has seen her develop an enormous fan base with her cookbook becoming the fastest-selling debut cookbook since records began on its release in February.
The book tells the tale of Ella,a self-confessed 'sugar monster', who was struck down with a rare illness that attacked her nervous system and left her bed-bound. She cured herself through healthy eating and wanted to share her story with others.
She embraced a fully vegan lifestyle and managed to beat her illness and launch her own successful business, which has lead to the release of her debut recipe book documenting her story and sharing her healthy living tips.
Ella, whois the eldest daughter of Camilla Sainsbury, the supermarket heiress, and Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Shaun Woodward, blames her former diet for a multitude of problems.
Ella suffered from a rare illness that left her mostly bed-bound but claims a vegan lifestyle has cured her
Her childhood was extraordinarily privileged but her diet, by her own account, was appalling and she blames it for her poor health.
In 2011 Ella was diagnosed with a relatively rare illness called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.
The syndrome effectively breaks down your autonomic nervous system: the system that controls everything that is meant to happen automatically in the body - so your heart beat, digestion, circulation and immune system.
Ella, who lives in London, was bed-ridden 95 per cent of the time and prescribed conventional medication and steroids for about six months but they didn’t make much difference so she decided to make a change herself.
'I began researching natural healing which is how I came to change my diet. Overnight I gave up refined sugar, gluten, dairy, anything processed or refined and meat,' she told the MailOnline in February.
'I noticed a difference after just a few weeks of eating well though and 18 months later I was able to come off all the medication - which I should have been on for life - and now feel absolutely amazing.'
Ella tracked her progress and shared all her favourite recipes via an online blog, Deliciously Ella.
She quickly saw her internet fame sky-rocket, garnering 17m blog hits, 250,000 Instagram followers and 420,000 YouTube viewers, who avidly follow her colourful 'food p*rn' snaps and enthusiastic attitude to clean living.
BeLOVeD Date Nectar will be able in ASDA from 30th May
DELICIOUSLY ELLA'S DATE NECTAR RECIPES
Date and Pecan loaf
Makes one loaf:
- 1 and ½ cups of buckwheat flour (300g)
- ½ cup apple puree (200g)
- 10 tbsp BeLOVeD Date Nectar
- 8 medjool dates (150g)
- 100ml almond milk
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 60g pecans
The date and pecan loaf makes a great alternative to toast in the morning
Method:
Preheat the oven to 140c.
Pit the dates and cut them into small chunks.
Use your hands to break up the pecans so that they are a similar size to the dates. Then add all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Use a little coconut oil to grease a loaf tin, then pour in the mixture.
Bake in the oven for 1hr 15mins, then allow to set for about 10 minutes before eating hot or cold.
Date and Chia Pudding
Serves 1
- 4 tablespoons of chia seeds
- 250ml of almond milk
- 1 teaspoon of BeLOVeD Date Nectar
- 2 tablespoons of yoghurt
Chia pudding is super simple to make, prepare before you go to bed ready for the morning
Method:
Place the chia seeds, date syrup and yoghurt in a jar and then pour the milk in. Stir everything together before placing a lid on the jar
Store the jar in the fridge overnight (or for 6-8 hours), during this time the liquid will be absorbed and the pudding will form a jelly-like consistency
The date shake makes a great get-up-and-go breakfast for when you're on the hoof
Date Shake
Serves 1
- 1 ripe banana
- 250ml almond milk
- 2 tablespoons of almond butter
- 2 tablespoons of BeLOVeD Date Nectar
- 1/4 of a teaspoon of vanilla powder
Method:
Peel the banana then place everything into a blender and blend until the shake is smooth and creamy.
