I started reading Blissful Basil, Ashley Melillo’s vibrant food blog, a couple years ago. I was struck by Ashley’s creativity and attention to detail: every recipe felt consciously crafted, with no ingredient or instruction out of place. I loved how colorful and bright Ashley’s food was. And I admired her knack for turning whole, plant-based ingredients into dishes with major mainstream appeal. Now that I’ve read Ashley’s new cookbook, titled in honor of the blog, I have a deeper appreciation of her story and what led her to cooking in the first place.
Blissful Basil begins with an account of Ashley’s struggle with anxiety throughout her twenties. Ashley describes how she’d spent most of her teens “tending her facade,” worrying about externals and appearances, while her foundation, her inner self, went uncared for. By her early and mid-twenties Ashley was plagued with mysterious health ailments and maladies, which she tried to resolve with frantic Googling and a whole lot of worrying. Health fears piled up inside while Ashley tried to maintain a calm and collected front. It was a breeding ground for anxiety.
Ashley’s description of anxiety will resonate with anyone who’s dealt with it firsthand:
Ashley details the events that compelled her to begin accumulating a new self-care toolkit. For her, this meant getting back into therapy, regular exercise, and adopting a vegan diet. Over time, the anxiety receded, and she was able to fully inhabit her life again. It’s an inspiring story, but not a fairytale, and Ashley doesn’t credit her process to any single change. Rather, she’s grateful to an accumulation of choices that have helped her to feel better longterm:
I really like Ashley’s well-rounded vision of health and wellness, her understanding that healing is a process that unfolds gradually and changes all the time. It’s no surprise to me that her background is in psychology–she’s currently a school psychologist by day and blogger by night, which is a pretty impressive juggling act, if you ask me!
Ashley goes on to share the recipes that have helped her to thrive. Blissful Basil feels like more than a cookbook; it’s a tribute to the dishes that Ashley found along her healing journey. These recipes are as bold and flavorful as the ones on her blog, but they’re invested with a little extra heart and soul.
Nearly all of the recipes in the collection are gluten-free, all of them are vegan, and many others are appropriate for those with soy or nut allergies. I love Ashley’s creative flavor combinations–for example, her lovely buckwheat, green apple, cranberry and avocado salad, below.
There are plenty of tasty nibbles and small plate recipes for entertaining, including an herbed cashew cheese plate with roasted tomato jam:
And Ashley has a real knack for sweets and treats that have a wholesome spin. My favorite dessert is her seasonal fruit crisp (there are two options, apple almond and blackberry sunflower). But I’ve also got my eye on her cacao-tahini brownies and raw cannoli bars!
It’s hard to pick a standout recipe from a collection that’s so rich and playful: I’m really exited to try Ashley’s cauliflower tacos and creamy garlic mushroom risotto, among others. But right now, the recipe that’s calling to me most is Ashley’s easy does it Sunday evening chili. It’s a hearty mixture of legumes, walnuts, and tomatoes that can be simmered as you ease out of the weekend and prepare yourself for the week ahead. It’s perfect for winter, perfect for feeding a crowd, and perfect for freezing, too. (Ashley notes that it’s also perfect for a House of Cards binge.)
The chili embodies what Ashley does so well: she makes food that everyone wants to eat, and she does it using ingredients that are wholesome and nutrient-dense.
If you’d like to experience the cookbook for yourself, I’m happy to say that Ashley and her publisher are generously sharing a copy here today. Enter below to win — I’ll post the winner a week from today!
Big thanks to Ashley for sharing with us–and also for putting so much of herself into this book. It’s not easy to open up about anxiety or other struggles, but Ashley does it with a lot of humor and perspective. I’ve so enjoyed hearing her story–and I hope it’ll strike a chord with you, too.
See you on Sunday for the weekly roundup!
xo
This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. Visit my privacy policy to learn more.
Leave a Comment
I tried the chili last night… My kids and wife loved it! The smoked paprika was one of the best parts about it. Can’t wait to try these other recipes.
I always feel better after drinking a hot cup of chai tea!
Your blog is awesome and your pictures are so aesthetically pleasing; not to mention the fantastic recipes. Some good home baked bread is healing to me but I hardly ever get to make it unfortunately.
I’m always in awe of how your soothing presence and optimistic energy shines throughout your words, Gena. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this beautiful post. Thank you also for your constant kindness and compassion. It means the world. xo
any sort of soup or stew…so warm and comforting ๐
Oatmeal with fresh strawberries and some banana to make it creamy is comfort food like not other – it’s simple, it’s warming and it brings back happy childhood memories. And that makes it “healing” in my book. I tried this chili recipe over the weekend with my fiance and his boys (13 and 8). We tweaked it slightly as we didn’t want to add oil and I wanted to just toss it in a crock pot instead of cooking on the stovetop. The walnuts truly made the chili – they were surprisingly good! I’m vegetarian but the rest are meat-eaters – and there were NO leftovers at all. It was a major hit and has already been requested again! Thank you, Gena and Ashley both!
fruit and greens in my smoothies and veggies in my soups and stews helps me feel like I’m getting healing food on a regular basis ; )
toast! always toast, so nostalgic ๐
Sweet! This will be perfect for today!
Kale always feels healing to me!
Lemons
Lemon is my go-to healing ingredient in warm water ๐
ginger
Green tea! I love the flavor and that making and sipping a cup of tea forces me stop and have a mindful moment.
Raw Cacao Nibs are my vegan choice healing ingredient ๐
a nice cup of tea. and tahini on a good bread toasted.
Does tea count as an ingredient? Because I”m basically and old British woman who believes that tea heals all ailments, most especially those of the heart.
xo
Ginger is my go to ingredient when I’m feeling a bit off or under the weather
Chili looks so good! Can’t wait to try it.
Before I get to answering the question, let me just say that Ashley’s work truly is awesome and I’m so happy I discovered (and naturally, immediately subscribed to) her beautiful blog last year ๐ Also, her book looks and sounds nothing short of wonderful!
Now, onto the real deal though: Personally I’d say there are 6 foods/ingredients I find particularly healing (all for different purposes obviously); these would have to be turmeric, ginger (& ginger tea), apples, oats, spinach and cucumber.
Lastly, I just want to note one thing that I believe technically shouldn’t be an issue: You see, while I myself am not an American resident, my aunt lives in the U.S., meaning that, if I was to get lucky for once, I could provide you with her address. That would be okay, right?
My most healing meal is warm steel cut oats with organic maple syrup and fresh blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, topped with chopped, toasted walnuts and organic cinnamon. I have it every morning and it helps to keep me full until well after lunchtime.
Greens feel really healing to me. I know when I am craving them, it is nourishment I am craving and something green usually does the trick, whether it’s spinach, chard or broccoli. Adding green to my meal just feels right, every day.
Thanks for featuring this book. Sounds amazing and a great reminder of the everyday work that is needed to stay on course, whatever one’s course is….
Plants. Plants are always healing, for every meal and for every occasion. For fuel, for pleasure, for comfort, for survival and nourishment. There’s a right type of plant, always, no matter what one is craving or looking for. My only challenge is balancing out the plant intake everyday. For example, less cacao or coffee or peanut butter, and more broccoli, quinoa, and beans :). But at the end of the day, regardless of the type of plant, I find comfort and healing in plants.
For me, anything with turmeric is healing, it could be soup, or curry, or even just a turmeric broth with some roasted veggies on the side. I love Ashley’s blog!
hot water with ginger–it’s always comforting and tasty.
Eating a vegan diet is so nourishing, for my mind & body.
I find warm soups with parsley root or pumpkin feeling so healing from the inside <3
The cobbler looks AMAZING
Hi Gena,
Your question to enter the giveaway is not an easy one to answer. My ingredient or recipe entirely depends on what I am healing from, as different sources of pain/anxiety/sadness/weariness has a different healing dish for me. To add to the complexity, it’s ever evolving. To give you two examples:
For the days where I need to acknowledge sadness/weariness or minor anxiety, I make a fresh thai pesto with all the green vegetables I can get my hands on over top of noodles. For the days where I need to acknowledge stress, pain, sadness, or major anxiety, I make myself my favourite recipe from your upcoming cookbook ๐
All the best,
Katie
I really love your blog, but this question doesn’t really work for me. I don’t think any food ‘feels healing’ to me. Except maybe in a political sense – we’ve had a lot of hate in my country, and there was a rather brilliant campaign around the Australian/Middle Eastern (vegan) ‘halal snack pack’ (think – a Middle Eastern poutine, I guess). It was a nice way to remind people how much we are a nation of immigrants. http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/10/07/halal-snack-pack-goes-vegan
So – I know this page might fill with a chorus of kale smoothies and green virtue, but the most healing dish I’ve seen in the last year was page after page of online pictures of chips and falafel and sauces, and the love and acceptance for fellow humans apparent in every picture.
A bowl of ground oats cooked with soy milk feels healing to me. It is warm, easy to eat and nourishing to my body.
Soups!
fresh curcuma
I find massaged kale salad to be healing. Leafy greens + avocado makes me feel good inside.
Soup and bread is healing to me!