Bettina Campolucci Bordi - 7 Day Vegan Challenge: Featuring Over 70 Tasty Recipes and Menu Plans

Bettinas attention to detail is only rivalled by her passion for helping people to put good food into their bodies she does the hard work of creating easy-to-follow and delicious recipes that everyone can cook, whether youre just trying to eat more veg or refocus your diet. She is one to follow and learn from, and Im lucky to be her friend. Derek Sarno, co-founder of Wicked Healthy and Executive Chef and Director of Plant-based Innovation at Tesco Bettina has done it again an inspirational cookbook filled with delicious, beautiful and flavoursome recipes. Chantelle Nicholson, Chef Patron, Tredwells, Group Operations Director, Marcus Wareing Restaurants Simple, delicious, vegan recipes for anyone who wants to give this healthy way of eating a go. Bettinas dishes are a delight. Gennaro Contaldo, Chef and TV Presenter CONTENTS To really understand my background and where my love of food began, Im going to go back to the very beginning.

My father is Norwegian my mother Bulgarian-Danish. And me? Well, I was born in Denmark, but spent the first 11 years of my life in Tanzania, East Africa, before my family relocated to Sweden. In Tanzania, we were very connected with the food that was put on the table; I used to go with my mother to the markets to pick our fruits and vegetables for the week, and quickly learned the art of haggling for best quality and price. All of our dairy products would come from local small holdings, and on the journey home from the farm, I would sit in the back of the car with a bucket full of fresh milk that my mother would then magically turn into butter, cream and yoghurt. So in all this, I learnt early on that good things were worth waiting for in fact, there is a running family joke about my father taking his time to cook, because by the time the food is ready we are all starving, such is his meticulousness in preparing every element of a dish. Most of our holidays were spent in Bulgaria with my grandmother and auntie, who were both amazing cooks; I used to sit at the kitchen table at my aunties house watching her make pineapple upside-down cake, creme brle, stews and breads baked from scratch.

The rest of our summers were spent in Sweden with my other grandmother. Again, she was an amazing cook with green fingers, too, and had all sorts of wonders growing in her garden and a tiny summer house in the woods. Jams, cordials and pickling were her speciality. All this is to say that I come from the sort of family that does not remember visits to museums or art galleries my holidays were filled with food experiences. We travelled extensively as a family, gathering food memories and that have stayed on with me to this day. I love travelling, sampling and experiencing cultures and countries through food.

There are so many untold stories everywhere, and they often play a huge part of our lives thats how I initially caught the cooking bug that has blossomed into a life-encompassing passion. I began working in the wellness industry over seven years ago when I started running health retreats in Spain. Following some struggles with personal health issues, including Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Endometriosis, I soon discovered that what I ate made a significant impact on my physical health, to the point that it helped me manage my conditions and made a profoundly positive effect on my mental wellbeing, too. Despite doctors prognosis, I was able to fall pregnant and bring my beautiful daughter into the world in the following years. Cooking became a way of inspiring people to include and cook with ingredients that can sometimes be daunting. I wanted to show others how cooking from scratch is the single most powerful thing you can do for yourself and your family.

Cooking at retreats started as a hobby, but it quickly transformed into a career as a chef in plant-based cuisine. From that point, I began to specialise in gluten-free and free-from cooking, which form the foundations of recipes and workshops to this day. I went on to study courses at the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy in Los Angeles to expand my cooking skills and knowledge, and travelled extensively to discover how other cultures use plant foods. I started sharing recipes on Instagram, and slowly but surely it gathered pace: Bettinas Kitchen was born, and today encompasses culinary, yoga and mindfulness retreats, plant-based cooking workshops, recipe development, food writing, and most recently, my cookbooks: the first, Happy Food, the second being the book you are holding in your hands. Everything I do honours my own beliefs around food and wellness and aligns with my philosophies: that we should eat seasonally, locally and from farm-to-table as much as we can, support small businesses within our communities, and use roots, shoots and all. Cooking waste free is particularly important to me, and I truly believe that we must let our veggies do the talking the best plant food is fuss-free, simple, easy, inexpensive and speaks for itself.

My knowledge of and passion for plant-based foods continues to grow and I am constantly on the hunt for delicious solutions to the belief that eating plants is boring, expensive and time consuming. I hope that I can help to inspire you to incorporate more plants into your diet, provide a starting point for your journey and show you just how easy cooking with plants can be. I believe we can start now to positively influence the next generation in the importance of true self-care and choices so that, unlike us, they dont have to relearn them later in life. This includes sourcing local ingredients in any shape or form, preserving traditions, eating seasonally and cooking from scratch. The term vegan is said to have been coined in the 1940s by Donald Watson, the founder of the Vegan Society, as a way of describing non-dairy vegetarians. Collins English Dictionary defines a vegan as a person who refrains from using any animal product whatsoever for food, clothing or any other purpose.

Most of the labels like pescatarian, freegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian are created to identify ones way of eating. Vegan, on the other hand, is not something related to food only, but to a whole way of living aimed at reducing any sort of animal exploitation with regard to your lifestyle and the materials you use on a daily basis. So is this a pro-vegan book? The short answer is no, this is not a vegan lifestyle book. Its an inclusive book that embraces everyone from the full-on vegans to those who know it makes good sense to eat more veg. Its a pro-plant book that simply gives you the tools to try vegan food for 7, 10, 21 or any number of days that you wish. If you decide to go vegan after giving it a go, thats entirely up to you.

I make no judgement! I am a firm believer in helping you find out what suits you and giving you the freedom to go with what makes you feel good. If anything, I just hope this book gives you the inspiration to add as many plants as possible to your diet in an easy and delicious way. Have you heard a lot about the benefits of going vegan? And about the downsides? Are you interested in giving it a try? Or perhaps youve made your decision but arent quite sure how to go about it. The challenge is to go vegan for seven days simple! This book will help you by offering up three different menu plans to choose from: plan, which covers recipes that are quick to cook from scratch when needed, but might require putting a bit more effort in than just making a sandwich although dont get me wrong, this book has those too. Regardless of what plan you choose, 7 Day Vegan Challenge is filled with easy recipes, accessible ingredients, short methods and most importantly, plenty of options. Whatever your motivation, the