With fast-food, instant food, and all other variations of easy to make and assemble meals, it’s easy to lose touch of working with fresh produce. Thankfully, there’s a wave of healthy eating and living that’s taking over. You can take it up a notch and source all the ingredients for a nutritious meal right from your own backyard. Sure, your local farmer’s market needs your support, but there are some special days where it’s easier to get the ingredients for a full meal from your garden. If you’re wondering what you could possibly make using a few vegetables, here’s some inspiration.
- A sandwich
Ok, you honestly cannot grow bread at home, but statistics have shown that practically every American consumes up to 53 pounds of bread per annum. So, you probably have bread at home to make a delicious pesto salad sandwich or cucumber sandwich recipe. Cucumber is the star ingredient here, so if you have that in your garden, the rest is based on preference. Some other vegetables you can add lettuce and tomatoes too, the rest of the ingredients are basically a garnish.
- Sweet corn and black bean succotash
This is a basic salad recipe, but it’s undeniably filling and delicious. You can serve it hot, you can serve it cold or something in between. Either way, it’s a simple recipe that you can manage with a handful of relationships. All you need is some black beans, corn, bell peppers, onions, and cilantro. The rest of the ingredients needed for this masterpiece are a garnish, so have fun with it and play with flavors. After all, it is your succotash. Don’t fret, if you can’t plant all this on your own, services like Calloway’s Nursery will do all the heavy lifting for you.
- Green bean stir-fry
You can’t go wrong with a good old fashioned stir fry, or in this case, a simple Japanese dish. The beans are the star here and they taste amazing with the limited blend of ingredients that accompany them. All you need is some soy sauce, sesame oil, canola oil, and toasted sesame seeds. Even better is the fact that this is a low-calorie meal that’ll leave you satisfied. Eat it as a side with your favorite whole grain and you’re well on the way to leading a healthy life.
- Ratatouille
It’s a cardinal sin to have a garden and not grow all the vegetables needed for a classic Ratatouille. The meal is simple, it’s rich and incredibly popular thanks to the titular animated movie that was all the rage back in ‘07. All you need to make this tasty dish is a combination of early fall ingredients. Some tomatoes, squash, eggplants, and peppers are all you need to unlock worlds of flavor. If you really want to amp this stove top recipe, then up with some onions to bring in a new flavor profile. Altogether, it’s quite easy to make and the veggies are quite easy to grown and source from the comfort of your own garden.