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
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 Ella 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 way that we eat is so
PINA COLADA (THE ALUNA WAY)
linked to so many other things,” Ella 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, Ella says she’s interested in wellness 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.
On a personal level, Ella 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.”
Deliciously Ella Quick & Easy: Plant-based Deliciousness by Ella Mills, recipe photography by Nassima Rothacker, is published by Yellow Kite, priced £25.