Recipe Round-Up: Blissful Basil

Continuing on with rounding up some recipes from Blissful Basil by Ashley Melillo. Last time, I posted all smoothies, but now we can move into some other things. I was going to say all solids, but there are some soups here! You can see all my previous posts from this book here.

Bright Morning Citrus Salad with Herbed Syrup: This is a bright and tangy way to start your day, or have some fruit for a snack. The citrus is orange and grapefrui, and the syrup has fresh rosemary and herbs in it. I made a half recipe of the syrup and used one large orange and one grapefruit. It was a lovely combination, espcially over some oats and vanilla yoghurt.
Rating: :)



Avocado Toast with Burst Heirloom Tomatoes and Balsamic Drizzle: A fancy take on your usual avocado toast, except I made it a bit less fancy by just mashing the avocado onto the toast rather than slicing and arranging it an a fancy fashion. The tomatoes are sauteed in a mix of dried herbs, though I did need to gentle smoosh them a bit to help them on their way to bursting. It is then drizzled with a very easy to make balsamic reduction (make sure to give it time to cool if you are making it the same day to get the best flavour), and sprinkled with fresh herbs. It was meant to be basil but I only had fresh chives, so chives it was. I made a 1/4 recipe to put onto one piece of toast, but I would recommend at least two pieces for a decent serving.
Rating: :)



Blueberry Muffin Energy Bites: These are you standard sort of bliss ball, though with the fun addition of dried milberries in the mix, as well as dried blueberries. They also have some hemp seeds in them, which I could definitely taste in the finished product. But otherwise they had a nice flavour, and not too sweet. I appreciate that, as most bliss ball type things I find super sweet. The recipe said it makes 12, but I got 15 balls following the instruction. Hurrah or bonus balls. Hee.
Rating: :)



Creamy Cauliflower and Turmeric Soup with Smoky Shiitake Bacon: This sounds like it should have been amazing, but it was kind of meh I'm afraid. The recipe calls for some vinegar, and the flavour of that just really overpowered the soup. Leave it out or decrease it by a lot. Thankfully I was able to salvage it by adding a load of nutritional yeast, the saviour of everything. The shiitake bacon is yummy and easy to make, though it goes soggy the instant it hits to soup. But is still a nice flavour.
Rating: :|



Carrot and Coriander Bisque: A much more successful soup. I made a half recipe for this and had it with a toasted cheese sandwich for dinner. Part of the liquid is orange juice, which gives it a nice tang alongside the sweet carrots. It took a while for this to blend smooth, but it did happen and then it was so nice and velvety. I definitely recommend the optional coriander and pomegranate seed garnishes.
Rating: :)



Buckwheat, Green Apple, Cranberry, and Avocado Salad: A half serve of this made for one big satisfying dinner (along with some sauteed slices of Apple Sage Field Roast sausage that I added after the photo). The salad calls for peppery greens like rocket or water cress, but I used baby spinach because that is better. It has a lovely lemon and mustard vinaigrette which is great with the sweetness in the salad and the creaminess of the avocado.
Rating: :)



Mediterranean Millet with Lemony Hummus: The start chapter of the book is really the bowls chapter. This particular bowl is wonderfully refreshing, with a millet salad full of cucumber, olives, parsley, tomato, sun-dried tomatoes, and sunflower seeds (I left out the raw onion) and doused in a herby vinaigrette, topped with a big splodge of lemony hummus and some pita.
Rating: :)



Flourishing Fiesta with Taco Crumbles, Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, and Shiitake Bacon: This bowl requires a bit of advance preperation, as you need to make Shiitake Bacon, Cilantro-Lime Crema, and Walnut Taco Crumbles (plus Quick Pickled Jalapenos if you wish, I did not) before you can get started. But it is well worth it for the lovely combination of flavours. The base of the bowl is a cilantro-lime brown rice, which is then loaded up with all the above toppings and more. I just used some shredded lettuce for the greens, and didn't bother with the rocket or cabbage, and I left off the red onion from the pico de gallo.
Rating: :)



Comforting BBQ Pulled Hearts of Pale, Crispy Kale, and Parmesan Polenta: This is a really great combination. I don't use hearts of palm often, as they are hard and expensive to get here. They were a bit hard to shred, but this was a nice way to use them. I also served this over some spinach, which is underneath the cheesy polenta. One thing I will mention for this and the above bowls, while the book says they serve four they really only serve three.
Rating: :)



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