Basil and Peach Dreams: A Summer Treat for the Soul

A Note on Eating Green

The Heart Chakra responds to the colour green — the colour of growing things, of spring, of life continuously renewing itself. This week's menu is full of it.

Fresh asparagus and its bright yolk at breakfast. Dark charred broccoli over creamy roasted pepper tofu at lunch. The cool pop of green grapes at dinner. And a basil and peach ice cream that smells like a summer garden.

Cook with an open heart this week. Make something for someone else. Eat outside if you can. Say the affirmation before you sit down.

I open my heart to give and receive love.

This week's recipes — follow the links below:

• Asparagus Soldiers with Soft Boiled Egg

• Charred Sprouting Broccoli with Romesco Whipped Tofu

• Green Grape Salad with Cream Cheese & Pecans

• Basil and Peach Ice Cream

Welcome back to Cook in Colour, where we cook by chakra, eat by season, and let the ancient Celtic Ogham calendar guide what lands on our table each week.

This week we open the heart. We move into the soft, lush green of the Heart Chakra — Anahata, meaning "unhurt" or "unstruck" in Sanskrit. And we do it in the full, generous shade of the Oak — Duir, whose broad canopy reminds us that true strength is not hardness, but the capacity to shelter others.

It's a week for green food. Fresh, vibrant, alive food. Food that nourishes gently and asks nothing back

This Week's Menu

Breakfast — Asparagus Soldiers with Soft Boiled Egg

Simple, beautiful, and impossibly satisfying. Soft boiled eggs with asparagus soldiers is one of those dishes that feels like a small ceremony — the tap of the spoon on the shell, the dip of the first soldier, the bright yellow yolk catching the morning light.

Asparagus is one of the great green vegetables of early summer, and at its best right now. It's earthy, sweet, and slightly grassy — perfect paired with the rich, silky yolk of a properly soft-boiled egg.

Heart Chakra connection: Asparagus is rich in folate, which supports emotional balance and serotonin production. There's also something quietly joyful about this dish — it takes a few minutes, rewards patience, and invites you to slow down at the start of the day. That gentleness is pure Anahata energy.

Lunch — Charred Sprouting Broccoli with Romesco Whipped Tofu

This is a showstopper of a lunch. Charred purple sprouting broccoli — dark at the edges, tender in the middle — laid over a thick, silky romesco whipped tofu made from roasted red peppers, toasted almonds and smoked paprika. Herby roasted new potatoes on the side.

The recipe comes from BBC Food and it's rated five stars for good reason. The tofu is blended until smooth with the roasted peppers and almonds — it's nothing like the tofu you might be wary of. It's rich, warming and deeply flavoured. Don't skip the feta or plant-based cheese to finish.

Heart Chakra connection: Green cruciferous vegetables like broccoli are among the most nourishing foods for Anahata. They're high in sulforaphane, which supports the liver in processing old emotions that no longer serve us. A powerful, beautiful plate.

Dinner — Tinned Fish, Green Grape & Cream Cheese Salad

This one is surprising, and it shouldn't be overlooked. Green grapes are one of the most underused ingredients in savoury cooking — their cool sweetness is an extraordinary foil for the saltiness of good tinned fish and the tang of cream cheese.

Think of this as a composed salad: flaked tinned fish (sardines, mackerel or tuna all work beautifully), halved green grapes, a generous spoonful of cream cheese, a squeeze of lemon, some cracked pepper and fresh herbs. Serve on salad leaves or with good bread. It's ready in ten minutes and tastes like something you'd order at a restaurant.

Heart Chakra connection: Green grapes are a classic Anahata food — cooling, hydrating, and associated with the softening of the heart energy. Tinned fish provides omega-3 fatty acids, which support both cardiovascular health and mood regulation. A dish that's good for you in more ways than one.

Treat — Basil and Peach Ice Cream

This is the recipe that gave the week its name, and it earns it. Fresh basil infused into a creamy ice cream base, then churned with ripe chopped peaches. The result is something you wouldn't quite expect — cooling and floral, with a gentle herbaceousness that makes the peach taste more like itself.

The recipe uses a clever technique of cooking a cornstarch-thickened milk base with a little cream cheese, which gives you that premium ice cream texture without needing a huge amount of cream. Churn it, fold in the peaches at the end, and serve with plenty of fresh fruit.

Heart Chakra connection: Basil has long been associated with love and devotion in many herbal traditions — it's the heart herb. The soft green of fresh basil leaves, the summer sweetness of peach — this ice cream is, in every sense, a treat for the soul.

The Heart Chakra — Anahata, The Middle Cauldron

Chakra: Anahata · Element: Air · Colour: Green · Seed Mantra: YAM · Affirmation: I open my heart to give and receive love.

Located at the centre of the chest, the Heart Chakra is the bridge between the lower, earthier chakras and the higher, more ethereal ones above. It governs love — not just romantic love, but the wide, patient, unconditional kind. Compassion for others. Compassion for yourself.

When it's balanced, you feel connected, forgiving, and genuinely glad to be alive. When it's blocked, there's tightness — in the chest, in relationships, in the ability to let things go.

The antidote? Eat green. Breathe deeply. Cook something for someone you love — or simply for yourself.

Oak — Duir — The Door of Summer

We are still in the season of the Oak, Duir — that great, patient tree whose roots go as deep as its branches reach wide. The Oak doesn't rush. It grows slowly, deliberately, across centuries.

The wisdom of the Oak this week feels particularly fitting for the Heart Chakra: true endurance is not about hardening yourself against the world, but about rooting deeply enough that storms pass through you without breaking you. You can be strong and soft at the same time. The Oak knows this.

The Oak shelters everything beneath it. This week, so can you. 🌳💚

This post is part of the Cook in Colour series — seven weeks of chakra-aligned recipes following the Celtic Ogham tree calendar. A new colour, the Ogham tree, a new set of recipes every week.