Recipes: Focus on the small and easy wins for a healthier life

ELLA Mills – who created the Deliciously Ella empire – gets why the stranger aspects of wellness tend to hit the headlines.

“I completely understand that – I really do,” Mills, aged 32, says.

“What’s interesting to talk about tends to be slightly weirder, wackier or more out there – like the millionaire that’s trying to reverse age himself… It’s fascinating. It’s so interesting.”

And yet she also appreciates that these wild stories don’t give wellness the best name – and taking care of yourself doesn’t have to involve spending millions a month and undergoing blood transfusions from your teenage son (à la Bryan Johnson, that biohacking millionaire).

“A lot of the conversation around wellness has been focused more on the niche, more on the things that feel wildly out of reach for all sorts of reasons – as well as the financial, but also the practical implications of getting up at 3am every day and doing four hours of wellness before you do a desk job or a shift job. It just doesn’t feel relatable in any shape or form,” Mills says.

Whereas the simpler ways to take care of yourself aren’t quite as widely covered – and Mills realises that it’s harder for “a carrot or a lentil or chickpea” to hit the headlines. Whether it’s eating one extra portion of veg a day or trying meat-free Mondays – it’s “unbelievable” the impact small changes can have, she says, but “we just don’t focus on it enough”.

Plus, she wants to move away from an ‘all-or-nothing’ mindset that seems topermethe wellness industry.

It’s OK to go out and have a pizza and a beer, and then the next day to batch cook a lentil bolognese for the week, or take your beef bolognese that you’ve made forever and do half lentils – so upping the fibre and reducing the environmental impacts.

“It’s not going to have to be eating kale from here on out. I think that’s too much of our association, and we need to shift that.”

While meat substitutes and vegan cheeses don’t necessarily come cheap, the base elements of a plant-based diet can be significantly better for your bank balance: “Because obviously if you’re replacing your animal protein with protein like a lentil – a lentil is a lot cheaper.”

It’s been nine years since Mills exploded onto the public stage with her debut cookbook, Deliciously Ella, becoming the poster child for plant-based eating – and going on to become a bonafide brand, launching food products and restaurants.

Things have changed a lot since 2015, with Mills saying: “Now, we’re gently starting to shed some of the preconceptions that were there before – I remember when I first started cooking this way, people would look at me and they’d be like, ‘What will you eat? Are you some kind of alien?’ And it was all very confusing – now it’s become much more widely accepted, and there’s a realisation that you can have a meal that is filling, satisfying, that tastes really good and is vegetable based.”

And it’s not just the wider world that’s changed – things are totally different for Mills herself too. Since her first cookbook, she got married to partner and Deliciously Ella CEO, Matthew Mills, and had two children, Skye, now four, and May, three – and this is her most “personal” cookbook yet.

“The first [cookbook] was like, ‘This is what healthy eating could look like’, and this one is – by the way, this is how you actually do it. 

Because every year over the last decade, my life has got busier and busier with the business and also being a mum now to two small kids – you have literally no time ever, but yet you need more energy than you’ve ever had.

“I spent the last four years, really ever since my first daughter was born, almost relearning how to do the job.”

Wellness on Instagram and TikTok has an unrealistic veneer of perfection, but Mills wants everyone to know she still gets overwhelmed “all the time” – particularly thinking of the period after her first daughter was born, when she would so often revert to having toast for dinner.

She says: “Everyone does – god, there are days that are so overwhelming and the business is very demanding. We’ve got almost 100 people in Deliciously Ella, we’ve just taken on our own manufacturing sites, we’ve now got our office, we’ve got a restaurant, we’ve got a factory so we can produce all our own products now. It is super full-on – we’ve launched in the US, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland – it’s a really big outfit now.

“So the day you’re finalising a deal for the factory, you’ve got a chickenpox outbreak at nursery. Or you need a shepherd’s costume and you’re in really busy meetings.”

Mills has realised that “the only certainty is uncertainty” in life – so there’s no point putting things off.

“We are in this mindset of like, I’ve got to do it right, to do it at all. And I think we often live with this [idea] of when life is really easy, I’ll take up running. When my kids are at this life stage, I’ll start exercising again – or when I get through this period at work that’s super full-on, then I’ll start cooking again and taking care of myself.

But the problem is, life doesn’t work like that. You’ll get through one busy period, then you’ll go into the next one – it might be even more busy.

Instead, Mills wants us to focus more on the easy wins – whether that’s squeezing in two 15-minute at-home workouts a week, or batch cooking on a Sunday.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect – it really doesn’t – but small,” she adds.

Deliciously Ella: Healthy Made Simple by Ella Mills is published by Yellow Kite. Photography by Clare Winfield. Available now.

Lemony Pea and Broccoli Pasta

YOU can get this speedy midweek dinner on the table in 15 minutes.

“I make a variation of this for my kids a lot, using whatever greens I have in the fridge – green beans, asparagus, spinach etc. It’s exceptionally simple yet super-satisfying,” says Ella Mills, the brains behind Deliciously Ella.

Ingredients (Serves 2) 

2 servings of pasta; I like orecchiette in this dish (about 75g per person)

 1 small head broccoli (about 300g) cut into small florets

 100g frozen peas 

Large handful of cashews (about 50g, see note below)

 1 vegetable stock cube 

1tsp Dijon mustard 

1tbsp nutritional yeast 

Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons 

1 × 400g tin of butter beans, drained and rinsed 

Sea salt and black pepper 

Method:

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook according to the instructions on the pack, adding the broccoli and frozen peas for the last three minutes of the cooking time. Cook until the pasta is al dente, the broccoli is tender, and the peas are defrosted, then drain and return to the pan.

2. Meanwhile, put the cashews and stock cube into a bowl with 100 millilitres boiling water, let the stock cube dissolve and the cashews soak for five minutes.

3. Put the mustard, nutritional yeast, the juice of both lemons and half the zest, and half the tin of butter beans into a high-speed blender along with the cashews and their soaking liquid. Blend until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Pour the sauce over the drained pasta and veg, adding the last half of the butter beans. Stir to combine and top with a little extra lemon zest.

Note: To make this nut-free, swap the cashews for sunflower seeds.

Crispy Potato and Paprika Tray Bake

WITH minimal prep, this dish delivers max flavour.

“Crispy, crunchy, hearty and super-simple, this tray bake is the ideal recipe when you want something satisfying without lots of prep, mess or brain space!” says Ella Mills, the brains behind Deliciously Ella.

“The zesty harissa yoghurt is really versatile too; it makes for a great dip or dressing with any veg.” 

Ingredients (Serves 2) 

3 floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper (about 350g), with their skin

 ½tbsp olive oil

 2 red onions, halved and finely sliced

 2tsp paprika 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes (about 200g)

 1 × 400g tin of butter beans, drained

 ½ bunch of coriander (about 10–15g), roughly chopped 

Sea salt 

For the harissa yoghurt:

4tbsp coconut yoghurt 

2tbsp harissa

 Grated zest and juice of 2 limes, plus wedges to serve 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C fan and bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.

2. Cut the potatoes into one-centimetre cubes then add them to the boiling water. Meanwhile, put the olive oil into a large flat baking tray and place in the oven to heat up. Simmer the potatoes for five minutes, until softened slightly and a knife pierces them easily, then drain well and add them to the preheated tray along with the onion, paprika and a pinch of sea salt. Toss to combine, then bake for 20 minutes, tossing occasionally so that the potatoes cook evenly.

3. Add the cherry tomatoes and butter beans to the tray and cook for a further five minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the potatoes are crisp.

4. Meanwhile make the harissa yoghurt by mixing the coconut yoghurt, harissa, lime zest and juice together in a small bowl, seasoning with salt to taste, then transfer to a small serving bowl.

5. Once the potatoes are ready, remove from the oven, sprinkle over the coriander and serve with the harissa yoghurt on the side.

Creamy Black Bean and Harissa Stew

THIS is the perfect meal to batch cook on a Sunday night and eat throughout the week.

“It’s hearty and cosy, with lovely spices from the harissa, sweetness from the coconut and maple syrup, and a delicious nutty flavour from the almonds.”

 Ingredients (Serves 4) 

1tbsp olive oil 2 shallots, halved and finely sliced 

1 aubergine, finely diced into 1cm cubes 

4 garlic cloves, crushed 

1 × 400g tin of black beans, drained and rinsed

 3tbsp harissa, plus extra to serve

 1 × 400ml tin of coconut milk

 400ml hot vegetable stock 

2 heaped tbsp smooth almond butter

 2tsp maple syrup 

Grated zest and juice of 2 juicy limes 

Sea salt and black pepper 

Method:

1. Put the olive oil into a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the shallot and aubergine and a pinch of salt and fry for five minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, black beans and harissa and fry for two minutes, until fragrant.

2. Pour in the coconut milk, stock, almond butter and maple syrup. Bring to a boil, then put the lid on the pan and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

3. Stir in the lime zest and juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Swirl an extra tablespoon of harissa through the stew to serve (if you’d like a little extra spice).

Note: To make crispy roast cauliflower, simply chop your cauliflower into small florets, place them on a baking tray with a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and roast in an oven preheated to 200ºC fan for about 20–25 minutes, until golden and crispy.