Happy Monday people! 👋🏻

We all know Mondays can be a little slow…

So, today, we’ve teamed up with the lovely Eloise Minton to share a quick, easy and nutritious recipe in aid of our all-new Clean Eats Class! As I’m sure many of you are aware, we will be opening our doors and putting you in the expert hands of Eloise this February! You lucky lot… Eloise is not only a qualified nutritional therapist – she is also an exceptional chef running healthy eating workshops demonstrating how to make simple and delicious food. 😍  Next month, she’ll be blessing The Avenue with her specialist skills and throwing a series of delicious classes. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, secure your spot now and check out exactly what you’ll be learning here…

Last week we met up with Eloise to chat about our Clean Eats class and learn a little bit more about her love for food!

A 10-minute interview with the all new Avenue Cookery School chef, Eloise Minton.

The Avenue:

We are extremely excited to have you on board next month – and we’d love to know a little bit more about you and the roots behind your love for food! You are a chef specialising in healthy and delicious ‘free from’ food; how did you get into this business?

Eloise:

I had a reputation for being a good chef, but I never wanted to work in a busy, hot kitchen; doing it for a living was never my plan. I was studying yoga at the time and was asked to cook for retreats in 2011, when Adventure Yogi was looking to expand their holidays to include detox retreats. This allowed me to apply my understanding of food energetics and nutrition, to support the guests to feel better and get healthy. I really fell in love with this way of working as it gives people the opportunity to be away from the usual temptations and see how the food and different routine can really make a difference.

The Avenue:

Sounds dreamy! What sort of changes do you get to see?

Eloise:

The most common change reported by far is an increase in energy, followed by ‘that foggy feeling’ disappearing, improved digestion, improved clarity and cognitive function, better moods and a renewed interest in food!

You know, I was really amazed and encouraged by the feedback from guests at first. Eating well has helped me to improve my health significantly and with my training as a nutritionist, this was an ideal combination of my interests: food and health. Changing lives for the better is such a humbling experience. I’ve had guests go on to study nutrition themselves, and make simple changes for themselves and their families; often with life-changing excellent results.

The Avenue:

That’s lovely! Can you sum up, in a nutshell, the type of food you make?

Eloise:

Tasty, tasty, tasty! And generally plant-based, wheat/gluten-free, sugar-free and with a focus on using healthy oils. Some of my recipes contain fish or sheep-based dairy. I don’t use damaged fats for cooking.

The Avenue:

Sounds great, we can’t wait to put some of these ingredients to the test!

Do you still do the detox retreats?

Eloise:

I now work freelance, and, since qualifying as an acupuncturist I split my time between nutrition 1-2-1’s, acupuncture, and catering. Often cooking on yoga retreats, but not limited to this.

The Avenue:

Wow, busy busy! So where do the healthy cooking classes come in?

Eloise:

Over the last year, I’ve focused on bringing my expertise in this area to a broader audience. Guests and clients were always asking me how I made this food! So I got thinking about that rather over-used, but still valid proverb:

‘give a man (or woman) a fish and he can eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he can feed himself and family for a lifetime.’

That’s what I want to do; this type of cooking is really about learning new skills to replace old habits, and how to make simple changes to the ingredients we use so that our health is also improved. I want to reach more people than just the handful of guests on our retreats.

The Avenue:

Sounds fab! So what next?

Eloise:

Obviously, the obligatory cookbook! But for now, I’m teaching these healthy cooking classes in Brighton and at The Avenue Cookery School in London. All details are on our websites.

 

 

If you’d like to know a little more about Eloise and her foodie journey, visit her website here!

Anyway, without further ado, let’s crack on with today’s recipe!

Eloise’s Choco- chia pudding!

Ingredients:

30g chia seeds
300ml water (or coconut water) for soaking seeds
100g coconut cream
2 medium ripe avocados
5 drops vanilla stevia or natural vanilla essence
5 heaped tbsp organic cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
6 tbsp agave nectar or maple/date syrup
1 punnet of fresh cherries; de-stoned and chopped in half, or berries of choice, whatever is in season

Method:

Add chia seeds to a large bowl, cover with the soak water and stir well.

Leave to absorb the liquid for 30-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the flesh and stones from the avocados and add, along with the remaining ingredients (except berries), to a Magimix.

When the chia seeds are thick and gooey, add to the avocado’s in the Magimix and blend until all the ingredients are well married together and you have a pudding consistency.

Taste and add more chocolate or sweetener if desired.

Now mix in half the berries by hand, pour the mixture into a large bowl or individual ramekins, sprinkle the remaining cherries on top and chill for 1 hour.

Enjoy 🙂

Even more delicious with some cashew coconut cream drizzled on top, or chopped toasted hazelnuts and honey… get creative!

Let us know how you get on – we want to to see your wonderful creations! Don’t forget if we love your recipe pic THAT much, you could win an Avenue Gift Voucher this month… Competition ends soon, don’t miss out! 😉

Need some inspiration? Check our instagram!

Have a great week folks… hope it’s not too blue!

The Avenue x