Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. It’s still possible to indulge in your favorite foods, while nourishing your body at the same time. Here we share clean versions of delicious recipes that will leave you feeling and looking incredible and not to mention, insanely satisfied!

Name: Bettina Campolucci Bordi

Instagram: @bettinas_kitchen

Job description: Cookbook Author, Cook, and Blogger. 

Favorite dish to serve at a dinner party: My Mexican inspired feast from my latest book Celebrate.

Favorite skin food ingredient and why: Greens, because they are such a great overall food to eat.

Top three Instagram accounts for inspiration: 

@shisodelicious

@rebelrecipes 

@halfbakedharvest 

Must-have cookbook: All my 3 cookbooks, Happy Vegan Food, 7 Day Vegan Challenge, and Celebrate.

Top three kitchen supplies you can’t live without: A good knife, a blender, and mandolin. 

Three things you always keep in your refrigerator: My pumpkin seed pesto, pickled red onion and plant milk.

Favorite online shop for kitchen supplies and / or specialty food items: I love Borough Market.

Go-to quick, healthy meal: Rice bowl with lots of veggies and a good sauce.

Favorite healthy treat: Booja Booja Chocolate (the salted caramel).

Skincare mantra: Less is more

Eat this recipe for: Comfort, deliciousness, and to beat the January blues.

Recipe: Sticky Toffee Pudding With Salted Caramel Sauce and Custard

Ingredients:

250 ml almond milk or other plant milk (see pages 137-139 of Happy Food for homemade milk recipes)

300g Medjool dates, stoned

80g coconut sugar

125ml coconut oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

95g gluten free flour

1 vanilla pod, scraped

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground clove

pinch of pink Himalayan salt

For the sticky toffee sauce

140g coconut sugar

250ml coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the custard

2 tablespoons very fine corn flour

500 ml coconut milk

3 tablespoons maple syrup 

1 whole vanilla pod, scraped

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Line a 20cm square cake tin with greaseproof paper or use a good quality silicone mold.

In a small saucepan gently heat the milk and dates for 5-10 minutes until the dates have softened. Once softened, set aside.

In a blender, blitz the coconut sugar and coconut oil until the sugar has mostly disintegrated. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the milk and date mix. It will start to fizz and bubble, but that is okay.

In a bowl, combine the flour, vanilla, spices, pinch of salt, coconut oil and sugar along with the date and milk mixture and give everything a good stir.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Once done, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the sticky toffee sauce

While the pudding is cooking, make the sauce. Heat a pan over a medium heat, add the coconut sugar and coconut milk and let it heat through.

Add the salt and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let it simmer for 20 minutes until the caramel has thickened. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn. A great way of knowing if it is ready is to see if it sticks to the back of your spoon.

Stir in a little more salt if desired and either use it straight away drizzled over your cake, or let it cool before storing in a glass jar – it will become even thicker as it cools.

For the custard

Blend the corn flour with a little coconut milk in a medium pan over a medium heat. Whisk until you have an even consistency.

Add the rest of the ingredients including the scraped vanilla pod. Whisk until the corn flour and vanilla are fully incorporated into the milk.

Whisk until the custard starts to thicken and then, as soon as the mixture begins to boil, take off the heat and let it cool.