Deliciously Ella is back with a brand new cookbook – these are our favourite recipes (2024)

If you’re one of the 2.3 million of Ella Mills’ (@deliciouslyella) Instagram followers, chances are you’ve:

• Drooled over a date brownie
• Tagged a friend in a peanut butter-topped overnight oats bowl
• Bookmarked a veggie stew, never to revisit the post in your many collection folders

Deliciously Ella wrote her first, of many, cookbooks 10 years ago. It became the fastest-selling debut cookbook ever. And now, she’s published her seventh book, Healthy Made Simple, which features more than 75 simple, vibrant, plant-based recipes that feature no more than five simple steps, and contain 10 ingredients or fewer.

‘Healthy Made Simple is the summary of everything I’ve been cooking at home. It’s all the goodness, none of the fuss,’ she says.

‘This is a book dedicated to delicious flavours packed with goodness that will help you get healthy food on the table in less time, with less work and with fewer ingredients.’

To save you from scrolling, we’ve chosen our favourite recipes from the book for you to print off, stick on your fridge and try yourself at home.

They all take less than an hour and a half and can be boxed up for easy meal prep lunches for the rest of the week. Win, win.

3 Deliciously Ella plant-based recipes to try from Healthy Made Simple

Comforting Udon Noddle Bowls with Mushroom and Coconut

‘Whenever I’m feeling a bit run down or coldy, I make these bowls. They’re so cosy, comforting, really nourishing and absolutely delicious. You want to serve them with lots of lime so that they’re nice and zesty, and be generous with the miso for that rich umami flavour.’

Serves 2 | Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 × block of firm tofu (about 300g), drained and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3 shallots, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
• small chunk of ginger (about 15g/2cm), peeled and grated
• 200g mixed mushrooms (use shiitake mushrooms if you can find them), sliced
• 3 tablespoons brown rice miso paste
• 1 × 400ml tin of coconut milk
• 500ml hot vegetable stock
• 2 servings of udon noodles (about 50g per person)
• 3 large handfuls of baby spinach (about 150g)
• grated zest and juice of 1–2 limes
• sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan set over a medium–high heat. Add the tofu and cook for 10–12 minutes, turning every 2 minutes or so, until crisp and golden all over. Remove from the pan and set aside on some kitchen paper.
2. While the tofu is cooking, set a large saucepan or wok over a medium–high heat and add the remaining oil. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger and mushrooms and cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring often, until softened and fragrant.
3. Next, whisk in the miso, coconut milk and vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Add the noodles, cover with a lid and cook for 8–10 minutes or until the noodles are just cooked.
4. Stir through the spinach and tofu, then divide them between bowls, add the lime juice and scatter over the zest.

‘This is a great base recipe that you can adjust based on what you’ve got in the fridge. Add greens, such as bok choy, with the mushrooms, a little turmeric for more colour, or extra chilli for more heat.’

15-minute Black Dhal

‘This is a shortcut recipe for a quick, creamy, deeply flavoursome dhal. Traditional black dhal uses black urad dhal (lentils), but cooking those from scratch takes a long time, so we’ve swapped them for pre-cooked Puy lentils so that you can get lunch on the table in 15 minutes, making it an easy option for a quick lunch. The chilli, ginger, red onion and coriander give it a punchy flavour that’s equally warming and invigorating.’

Serves 2 | Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• small chunk of ginger (about 20g/2cm), peeled and finely chopped
• 1 long green chilli, finely chopped
• 1 × 250g pack of cooked Puy lentils or 1 × 400g tin of green lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée
• 125ml coconut cream, plus extra to serve
• 2 teaspoons medium curry powder
• 2 large handfuls of spinach (about 100g)
• juice of 1⁄2 lemon
• 1⁄2 bunch of coriander (about 10–15g)
• roughly chopped sea salt

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a saucepan set over a medium heat. Set aside about a third of each of the chopped onion, ginger and chilli, then add the remainder to the pan. Cook for 8–10 minutes, until soft and fragrant.
2. While the onion is cooking, add 2 tablespoons of lentils, the tomato purée, coconut cream, curry powder and a pinch of salt to a food processor or mini chopper and blitz until completely smooth.
3. Add the spice paste to the onions and cook for another minute, then add the remaining lentils and 200ml of boiling water. Bring to a simmer then add the spinach and lemon juice, stirring until the spinach has wilted. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed.
4. Divide the dhal between serving bowls and scatter over the reserved onion, ginger and chilli, followed by the coriander, a pinch of salt and an extra spoonful of coconut cream.

‘If you don’t have any coconut cream, swap it for coconut yoghurt, stirring it all in at the end.’

Creamy Leak, Spinach and Butter Bean Bowls

‘I’m always thinking about different ways to get more veggies into my meals and this recipe is such a great way of upping your greens, with spinach in both the sauce and the broth. It’s delicious as a light supper and feels like a mix between a soup, broth and a stew; equally serve it with brown rice or another grain, a toasted piece of sourdough, a jacket potato, roasted veggies or pan-fried greens.’

Serves 4 | Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 leeks, cut into 1cm slices
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 2 × 400g tins of butter beans
• 4 large handfuls of spinach (about 200g), roughly chopped
• grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• sea salt and black pepper

For the sauce

• 100ml oat milk
• 1⁄2 teaspoon brown rice miso paste
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• large handful of baby spinach (about 50g)

Method

1. Set a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil is warm, add the shallots, leeks and a pinch of salt. Cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they soften. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes, until it’s golden and fragrant.
2. Next, add the stock cube and butter beans, along with the liquid from each of the tins. Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, until thickened.
3. While the beans are cooking, make the sauce. Simply put the oat milk, miso, nutritional yeast and the baby spinach into a high-speed blender and blitz until perfectly smooth.
4. Once the beans are ready, pour in the sauce and add the spinach, stirring until it’s wilted. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Scatter over the lemon zest before serving.

‘For anyone that grows fresh thyme, definitely add it to this recipe, just add a small handful of picked leaves with the garlic at the start.’

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