Summery Sauté Dinner with Basil Sauce

Step 1

Add the veggies, broth, and seasonings to a pan

Step 2

Simmer and sauté until broth has disappeared

Step 3

serve with millet, tofu, cilantro, and basil sauce

Whenever we enter a new season Scott and I say to one another, “I wonder what new types of meals we will discover this year?” It’s an exciting time. We bring home some of the new season’s produce, we make favorite name-stay meals from past seasons (in this case, summers), and we eventually will get creative and try something new.

I’ve been doing summer veggie sautés in vegetable broth for a few summers now, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I attempted it with cherry tomatoes. I usually take the zucchini and corn approach, but we ran out of corn. It is almost always when we run out of an ingredient that would have allowed us to make something tried-and-true that we discover something new and delicious. I subbed in cherry tomatoes and was amazed by their transformation. They create a thin but very flavorful sauce and deepen in flavor so significantly.

I made a cashew cream beforehand and found it needed a more mediterranean, or Italian, spin to help it go together with the sauté. I added fresh basil, and truthfully, it tasted too sweet. A little splash of apple cider vinegar with some garlic and the flavor became balanced and delicious. Eaten together, these two recipes created something really satisfying and light.

To round out the meal without adding too much weight, because summer nights feel like they require meals to be a bit lighter, I added crisped tofu for a legume and cooked millet for a whole grain. Millet is one of my favorite grains, it is in between quinoa and brown rice in texture, with a flavor unique to itself. I highly recommend picking some up to try if you haven’t, you can see my post here too on how to cook it if you need some guidance.

I couldn’t get around cilantro being absent from my meal because I love it in the summertime. It actually pairs really well with the basil sauce and the sauté too. Adding something fresh to the plate brightens it a bit and helps to add to the herbaceous flavor of this dish.

I hope you love this dinner if you give it a try — and that your meals are bringing you plenty of connection and joy this year. Dinner is such a special time for us to slow down, connect, and breath. Especially in the beautiful summer light. Enjoy friends.

x Jessie

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SUMMERY SAUTÉ W/ BASIL SAUCE
Makes 2 servings, with extra sauce.

the sauté
1 medium zucchini
1 medium (yellow) summer squash
10 cherry tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, minced
sea salt, to taste
1/2 to 3/4 cup vegetable broth

basil sauce
1 cup cashews, soaked 4 hours
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
sea salt, to taste
1 lightly packed cup of fresh basil leaves
optional: 1 garlic clove

to serve
cooked millet view how-to here
crispy tofu cubes see below directions
lemon juice
chopped cilantro
freshly cracked black pepper

1. Trim each end off of the zucchini and summer squash. Slice into quarters, lengthwise, and dice into 1 inch pieces. Place these in a large skillet. Quarter the cherry tomatoes and add to the skillet along with the garlic powder (or minced clove), sea salt, and vegetable broth (the broth should fill the base of the pan by a 1/4 inch).

2. Spread the veggies out evenly, making sure each pice of zucchini is touching the bottom of the pan. It is okay if the cherry tomatoes are more-so sitting on top, they will cook still.

3. Set the pan over high heat on the stove to bring to a boil. Let cook undisturbed for the first 6 or 7 minutes. Then give everything a stir and let cook until the vegetable broth is no longer detectable, just the juices from the cherry tomatoes. This will take somewhere between 5 and 8 minutes longer, on average.

4. While the sauté is cooking, make the basil sauce by draining the soaked cashews and adding them to a high speed blender with the remaining ingredients for the sauce.

5. Blend on low, slowly increasing to high as the cashews break down and thicken the sauce. Once smooth and creamy, transfer to a jar and set aside until ready to serve. This will keep in the fridge for 5 days.

6. Cook, or reheat, the the millet according to my method here.

7. Serve the sauté over warm millet and top with crispy tofu, chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lemon juice, a few spoonfuls of basil sauce, and freshly cracked black pepper.

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CRISPY TOFU — I get asked often how I cook my tofu and it is really very simple. I have a ceramic non-stick pan I use to cook it oil free. I heat the pan over medium high heat and cube extra firm tofu. I add the tofu to the pan once the pan in fully preheated and do not flip it until a nice crispy, brown layer has coated the side cooking. I do this on four of the six sides of tofu and we love it this way! Feel free to cook your tofu whichever way you enjoy most — and to use a little oil when cooking if not using a ceramic nonstick pan.