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First, let’s meet Elizabeth:
What is your background? Have you always been interested in food?
I worked in the fashion/accessories industry for several years but knew that my passion was elsewhere. The truth is, I’ve had a passion for healthy food from a very young age. I went back to school to become a holistic nutrition counselor and never looked back.
What made you start Purely Elizabeth?
While attending the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, I started experimenting with a gluten-free diet and found that I felt much better without it. But as so many gluten-free eaters know, baked goods are one of the hardest things to give up. I scoured the market for mixes that I could recommend to clients and use for myself but frankly there was nothing that I would touch. It was aggravating that there wasn’t a healthy option on the market. All of the mixes and most products were using nutritionally void flours like potato starch and white rice flour and filled with refined sugar. So I got in my kitchen and started baking. I ended up making these delicious healthy blueberry muffins for a local triathlon and had amazing feedback. People wanted to know where they could buy the products and when they would be on the market. That was my first indication that maybe I was on to something.
Where do your best ideas/recipes come from? When you are feeling a little “stuck” what helps you get back to being creative?
Getting out of the house and exercising usually gets me back on track to creativity. Or going to the farmers market and looking at all the beautiful fresh produce.
What are your top 5 tools or ingredients?
5 ingredients I always have stocked in my kitchen- leafy greens, grade A dark maple syrup, frozen berries, tamari and brown rice.
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake?
Because I’m always in the kitchen baking and testing out new sweet recipes, I love to make a really simple salty dish. At the end of the day I need the salt to balance everything out! Some brown rice, leafy greens, beans and a tamari sauce, very macrobiotic.
Your favorite shops/online destinations for supplies or food?
Now that we are coming into the summer, the farmers market is my favorite. I feel so lucky to be in New York City where there are natural food stores everywhere. Westerly’s (54th and 8th) is one of my favorites. They sell lots of small, up and coming food brands that are hard to find elsewhere.
What is your most favorite recipe and why?
Probably my mom’s berry and peach crisp (I’m definitely a fruity dessert girl). The recipe has evolved over the years with our changing dietary needs, but the taste still remains the same. To me there is nothing better then this simple, fresh, not too sweet dessert. It reminds me of summer, celebrating with friends and baking in the kitchen with my mom.
Other than yours, whose recipes or food tips do you love?
I love Ina Gardner’s Barefoot Contessa books. Lately I’ve really been enjoying Clean Food by Terry Walters (a fellow Integrative Nutrition alumni).
