Deliciously Ella: ‘Broccoli is great – but broccoli isn’t the answer to everything’

Plant-based cook Ella Mills chats to Prudence Wade about juggling family, work and healthy living.

Often seen as a poster girl for wellness, Ella Mills – otherwise known as ‘Deliciously Ella’ – actually isn’t too keen on the term.

“I do think the conversation has become quite charged, quite loaded,” she says thoughtfully. “Even the word ‘wellness’ sometimes makes people think of weird and wacky things in LA, with shamans and cleanses. When you hear it, you don’t necessarily think of going for a walk and then making a bean chilli, which feels more within your remit.

“The wonderful and wacky make more interesting stories, which I so appreciate,” she adds, “but the reality is, I think in most people’s eyes, what we need is a meal that’s pretty easy to make and you can make a really big batch of, and then just chuck in the freezer.”

With her latest cookbook, Deliciously Ella Quick & Easy, Mills wants to help make wellness healthy eating feel less alienating. And the fact it’s built around speedy recipes is no coincidence – she and her husband and business partner, Matt, welcomed her first child, Skye, last year.

The book may be all about ease – but it was born out of blood, sweat and tears. Mills is honest about her struggles writing it, saying frankly: “This cookbook has actually been on a personal and emotional level, the hardest project I’ve ever done. I went back to work with it four weeks after Skye was born, so I was pretty all over the shop at that point.

“She came onto the shoots with us and I had her in a sling and was feeding her on set – so I was breastfeeding and food styling at the same time.” Mills loves the end result though, “because it really feels truly reflective of such an important time”.

With a baby, another on the way, and a business to run, Mills has a new appreciation for how simple wellness should – and can – be. “It’s going on a walk or doing a five-minute meditation,” says the 29-year-old. “It’s not the big, expensive, complicated, time-consuming things, it’s the simple, everyday practices that you can have in your life to help you feel happier, calmer, healthier, more energised.”

She emphasises how cheap and easy things like chickpea stews and lentil daals can be, and her efforts to make recipes that are more accessible are admirable.

Still, some might struggle to shake their preconceptions of Mills as the granddaughter of Lord Sainsbury, and the fact her first book back in 2015 was seen as a big part of the widely-criticised ‘clean eating’ movement – something she has since distanced herself from.

The majority of the recipes in this book involve affordable, hearty ingredients – but this is still Deliciously Ella ; you can’t help but notice the odd thing many people probably wouldn’t be able to get at their local corner shop, like tapioca flour and tahini.

Food is obviously a big part of Mills’ ethos, but she’s started seeing it as just one part of a bigger picture. Each chapter in the new book explores a different issue, whether it’s mental health or the environment – wider interests which have been piqued by her podcast series interviewing various experts.

“The way that we eat is so linked to so many other things,” Mills explains. “We too often look at our diet and the way we eat in isolation, and actually, I’m not sure that’s helpful to any of us. The way we live and the way we eat is so reflective, and often when people think about getting healthier and making a change in the way they’re eating, they go first and foremost to their diet. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s what I did as well. But at the same time, there’s so much more to it. Broccoli is great, but broccoli isn’t the answer to everything.”

Instead, Mills says she’s interested in wellness (for lack of a better word) as a whole – how your mental health can affect your gut, the impact sleep has on your wellbeing, even analysing your relationship to people and the world around you as a whole. “I think it’s increasingly important to look at all of it in context, and not get too overly focused on one thing or another,” she says.

So, if you do want to have a healthier lifestyle, it’s worth looking at all aspects of it – not just diet. Mills’ top piece of advice for making positive changes and sticking to them is finding what works for you. “Only you know what works for you,” she adds. “So much comes back to what you actually enjoy, because nothing lasts if you don’t enjoy it. Nothing is sustainable for the long term in your life if there’s no pleasure in it, and I think that’s the fundamental difference between trying to eat well and taking care of yourself for the long-term, and a diet.”

On a personal level, Mills thinks “eating well is more important than it’s ever been before”, since becoming a parent. “Because we want to cook with, and encourage our baby to enjoy home-cooked food and make that a part of what she knows and what she does, but also to have the energy to juggle 7,000 things at any one day! The only way to do that consistently is to make it quick and easy – it has to be genuinely doable on a day-to-day basis.”

So what else can you expect from her latest book? Deliciously Ella fans will see all her signatures – comforting vegan food taking inspiration from a variety of cuisines, but with more of an emphasis on batch-cooking and quick recipes.

Ultimately, Mills is looking to the future: “Our mental and physical health isn’t something we want for the next week. It’s something that we want for decades.”

Deliciously Ella Quick & Easy: Plant-based Deliciousness by Ella Mills, recipe photography by Nassima Rothacker, is published by Yellow Kite, priced £25. Available now.

Words by Prudence Wade, PA

Pictures credit Sophia Spring/PA

 

Nassima Rothacker/PA

Mushroom and walnut ragu, serves 4 with a little left over

INGREDIENTS

• 20g dried porcini mushrooms
• 250ml boiling water
• 100g walnuts
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• Olive oil
• 400g chestnut or button mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
• 1tsp dried thyme
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 1tsp dried rosemary
• 1 × 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1tbsp tomato purée
• 2tbsp tamari
• 1–2tbsp nutritional yeast
• 4 portions of pasta (about 80g per person)
• Salt and pepper
• Handful of chopped parsley, to serve

METHOD

1. Start by soaking the dried mushrooms. Put them into a bowl with the boiling water and leave for 20 minutes. Once soaked, drain well (but keep the liquid), then cut the mushrooms into small pieces.
2. While the mushrooms are soaking, chop the walnuts into tiny pieces – they need to look like large breadcrumbs. Place them in a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat and toast for about five minutes, until golden, stirring every now and again. Once toasted, remove from the heat and spoon into a bowl. Place the frying pan back on the heat.
3. Add the onion, garlic and celery to the frying pan, along with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook for five to 10 minutes, until soft. Add the fresh mushrooms and red pepper, with the thyme, oregano and rosemary, and cook for about five minutes, until soft.
4. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, tamari and dried mushrooms with their water. Leave to simmer for 10–15 minutes – you want the ragu to be thick and have lost the excess liquid. Stir in the walnuts and nutritional yeast and leave them to cook in the sauce for a final five minutes.
5. While the ragu is simmering, cook your pasta in a pan of boiling water, following the instructions on the packet. Drain well then stir into the ragu once both are ready. Serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

 

Nassima Rothacker/PA

Spinach and chickpea curry, serves 4 with rice

INGREDIENTS

• 1tbsp coconut oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 250g spinach
• 1 × 400g tin of coconut milk
• A 2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1tsp mustard seeds
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1tbsp medium curry powder
• 1tbsp ground cumin
• 24 cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 2 × 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 lemon
• 2tbsp plain yoghurt (we use a pure coconut yoghurt)
• Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
• Salt and pepper

METHOD

1. Put the coconut oil into a large saucepan with the onion, garlic and celery, and some salt and pepper, and let them cook on a medium heat for five to 10 minutes, until the celery and onion have softened.
2. In a separate pan, wilt 100g of spinach with a splash of boiling water.
3. Once wilted, add half the coconut milk and use a hand blender to blitz the spinach, so that it’s smooth.
4. Once the celery and onion have softened, add the ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, curry powder and cumin.
5. Let the spices toast for a minute or so before adding the puréed spinach, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas and the rest of the coconut milk, plus a big sprinkling of salt and lots of pepper.
6. Turn the heat up so that it starts bubbling, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 15–20 minutes, adding the rest of the spinach for the final few minutes.
7. Once the spinach has wilted, add a squeeze of lemon and the yoghurt plus a sprinkling of chilli flakes, if you’re using them, and serve.

 

Nassima Rothacker/PA

Chocolate banana muffins, makes 12

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large overripe bananas (about 350g, peeled weight)
• 150ml almond or oat milk
• 3tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 4tbsp cacao powder
• 200g spelt flour
• 100g coconut (or brown) sugar
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 80g dark chocolate (we like 70% cocoa solids)
• About 12 walnuts (or pecans), roughly chopped or broken (if you want to make these nut free leave these out)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to fan 180°C fan and line a 12-hole muffin tray with cases.
2. Chop the dark chocolate into chunks, roughly the size of a chocolate chip.
3. Mash the bananas in a large bowl using a fork, until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the almond milk, coconut oil, cacao powder, spelt flour, coconut sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt, then stir until a smooth batter forms.
5. Stir the dark chocolate into the mixture. I always keep a small handful of it back so that I can put it on top of the muffins, as it makes them look even more chocolatey and delicious.
6. Spoon two tablespoons of mixture into each muffin case, scatter over some walnuts, if using, and add a little piece of chocolate to the top.
7. Bake for 25 minutes, then leave the muffins to cool for 10–15 minutes before serving.

Deliciously Ella Quick & Easy: Plant-based Deliciousness by Ella Mills, recipe photography by Nassima Rothacker, is published by Yellow Kite, priced £25. Available now.