The Gate is a vegetarian restaurant located a short walk from Angel station. It strikes the perfect balance between casual and classy and its dishes follow an equally balanced theme of healthy and a little bit naughty (like the ‘white chocolate sphere’ that is also available free from gluten!)
Sweetcorn & cilantro fritters
Fare Healthy is a feel-good festival of food, exercise & wellbeing.
Healthy avocado choc pots from Onist
Business stories from Deliciously Ella, Livia’s Kitchen and Pip&Nut
Lunch from pollen + grace
It started with an avocado…
And some other chopped veggies
Ooh!
Start with a bowl of spinach and a drizzle of (good quality) olive oil.
Scatter the chunks of avocado over the spinach and top with some smoked salmon, a squeeze of lemon and scatter of seeds (like these from Iswari):
Chuck your other chopped veggies into the bowl and top with some chopped nuts and goji berries.
Not finished yet!
Houmous from The Precious Pod
Goes perfectly with Kale Krackers from Planet Organic (where I bought all of these goodies!)
Ta-da!
Dinner at The Wild Rabbit
Daylesford salad
Cevenne onions, new season chestnuts, roasted cepes, Parmesan air and crispy Daylesford kale
Bitter chocolate: poached pear, grue de cacao and chocolate sorbet
Not forgetting the most important meal of the day!
And so the adventure begins..
Made it to Daylesford!
I recently ordered a beautiful new bookcase from Habitat (since my pile of magazines, books and journals was beginning to form a very colourful new carpet) and was finally able to put all my cookbooks in one place. Seeing them altogether gave me the urge to share what inspired me about each of the authors:
Who better to start with than the original pioneer of the health-food movement, Deliciously Ella. She started her blog as a way of documenting an experiment to see if changing her eating habits could alleviate the symptoms of a rare illness she had developed called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, which included chronic pain and fatigue. She started simply with a regime of porridge, avocado toast and brown rice pasta with veggie sauce and began to notice a difference. This inspired her to create her own healthy recipes, including her infamous sweet potato brownies that shocked her followers with their purely wholesome ingredients – no butter, eggs, sugar or flour but instead sweet potatoes, dates and an incredible ingredient called cacao, which seemed to taste just like chocolate but was apparently a superfood!
Fast forward four years and Ella is about to release her fourth book whilst running two successful and delicious delis, not to mention a line of energy balls (that you can even make yourself!)
Niomi Smart is probably most well known for her vlogs, although she has recently released a healthy cookbook called Eat Smart that features a beautiful raspberry + lemon ripple ‘cheese’cake (the cheese is made from cashews!)
The Hemsley sisters were two of the first health-conscious foodies I stumbled across and I actually like their non-vegan style that caters for everyone. For example, their BB brownies include eggs but otherwise ingredients full of health benefits (including black beans – what else could BB stand for?) showing that veganism is not necessarily the answer. Their bright green avocado lime cheesecake is also worth a try but when it comes to using avocados for the sweet stuff, their healthy chocolate mousse is my all-time favourite as its so simple and delicious!
Madeleine Shaw is so bright and bubbly, and the gluten-free brownies from her latest cookbook are divine.
My New Roots is a beautiful blog by Sarah Britton.
After watching the patisserie version of the Bake Off (Creme de la Creme), I was determined to try my hand at the notoriously more difficult department of desserts. It’s actually so difficult with quite complicated recipes that I still haven’t tried one from Patisserie Maison.. #WatchThisSpace
I first heard about Henrietta Inman in Vegan Living (a great magazine, even for non-vegans!) and was particularly impressed by her professional training as a pastry chef, as for some reason this is rare for the majority of health-conscious cooks. Seeing so many of my favourite healthy ingredients put together with such technicality gave me so much joy and I can’t wait to try a recipe from there (perhaps the coconut rose cake with whipped vanilla coconut cream!)
Redemption is a non-alcoholic bar, which has shown me that there isn’t much demand for such places. Passing the Notting Hill branch one evening, the bar was deserted.
However, as a restaurant, Redemption redeems itself. From pretty porridge for breakfast (below) to daily-changing buddha bowls for lunch you are guaranteed some goodness. Just don’t expect it to replace your favourite watering hole anytime soon – I have a feeling that people like the option of drinking. After all, what are the chances of four non-drinking friends going out together? In my opinion, that’s where places like Farmacy succeed, as they provide healthy options but offer a cheeky glass of wine for the friends that have come along for the ride.
If you’re working out at Frame Kings Cross and need some well-deserved sustenance, head to Granger & Co. for some fabulous food by candlelight.
puy lentils, burrata, basil and sourdough croutons
Situated a short walk from South Ken station is The Good Life Eatery. If you’re lucky, there won’t be much of a queue for one of their highly-coveted tables by health food fanatics. The menu offers a mouthwatering selection of health conscious choices, with the added benefit of non-vegan additions like smoked salmon (so you can bring along your sceptical friends and feel safe in the knowledge they will be just as satisfied as you!)
Pictured above is the Goodness Bowl, which is a big bowl of sweet potato falafel, gluten free crackers, edamame and miso dip, quinoa salad, 1/2 seeded avo, courgetti with feta and a delicious lemon dressing.
nictakesnote 