Yesterday felt like a long day. After a gentle morning baking and pottering in the garden I cycled up to my Granny’s new house to help with her moving in. Lugging around furniture, unpacking boxes and organizing is tiring work! I suppose it’s good practice for my own move in a few weeks’ time though!
After cycling home on a flat tyre, doubling the time my ride should have taken me, the last thing I felt like doing was cooking dinner. The lure of putting my feet up with a large mug of peppermint tea, some dark chocolate, and calling it a day, was pretty strong, but knowing that my Mum would be anticipating a meal on her return dragged me to the kitchen…
This quick recipe really shows how tasty a meal can be relying on fresh vegetables, herbs and simple seasoning, and in my opinion it certainly qualifies for my favourite food description: “Delicious and nutritious”! I was glad I made a little effort as I definitely felt better for eating a good, healthy meal…I still had my chocolate though 
As I hadn’t planned in advance I used canned chickpeas but I do usually prefer to cook them myself as it’s so much cheaper and I think they have a better flavour. Keeping a couple of cans on on hand is very convenient for times like this though.
This simple sauté came together in about 20 minutes, including the time it took for me to pop out and pick a courgette and some herbs from the garden- pretty speedy if I do say so myself.
Summer Vegetable + Chickpea Sauté:
If you have it definitely use coconut oil for this dish. It adds a delicious buttery flavour and lends a little bit of richness here.
1/2C Green beans, cut into 2” lengths
1/2C Podded broad beans OR edamame
1/2-1T Coconut Oil
1/2 Onion, diced
1 Medium courgette, diced (1C)
1/2C Corn
3/4C (1/2 Can) Cooked chickpeas
1/2T Lemon juice
1T Chives
2T Basil, julienned
Salt + Pepper
First steam your green beans and broad beans or edamame for 3 minutes. Pinch of skins from broad beans and set aside.
Meanwhile, warm coconut oil in a pan over medium heat and add onions. Cook for a few minutes until clear. Toss in diced courgette and cook, stirring every now and again, for about 5 minutes more. Toss in corn, chickpeas and steamed green vegetables, and continue to cook until all heated through. Season well with salt and pepper, turn off heat and stir in fresh herbs and lemon juice.
Serves 2
I pulled out a couple of pieces of leftover cornbread from the freezer for us to eat alongside this. Love freezer finds!
I’m submitting this recipe to the blog parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays and Wellness Weekends
What are your pantry staples for last-minute meals?
That’s a pretty looking summer vegetable dish! And yes, did I see some good cornbread with it? Miam miam! For pantry staples, we usually have a lot of grains, i.e., cous cous, quinoa, rice, grits (for polenta) and they are pretty useful to have for last-minute meals. We also have an outdoor grill (pictured in http://veganmiam.com/reviews/food-products/beyond-meat-southwest-chicken-free-strips) and make loads of grilled summer veggies (with a touch of light soy sauce or tamari and some good sunflower oil). Good example: http://veganmiam.com/recipes/salads/kaniwa-quinoa-salad-grilled-veggies-dressing and of course with cilantro-tahini dressing (in love with it….)
Ooooh thanks for the links Miriam
That grilled veggie quinoa salad, and especially the dressing, look amazing!
Do you have a recipe for cornbread, too? Would love to check it out!
I’ve made lots of different cornbread recipes. This one was a variation on the skillet cornbread from the book Veganomicon. I love the fresh corn scallion cornbread from Appetite for Reduction too
This recipe looks very nice. I would end up using it as a side dish (to please my husband).
Emma, it’s good that you had your chocolate. Dark chocolate is healthy as well as pleasant to eat.
Hehe, yes I feel I can justify my daily dark chocolate for the health benefits!
Emma, this is so colourful! Hope the move went well for your Gran!
Thanks Vicky! Yes, she’s all settled in now and seems very happy with the new place
I was aching yesterday!
I definitely have those days where I just don’t feel like cooking…but it always makes me feel so much better when I force myself to! This saute looks awesome!