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Chickpea Satay Casserole

This peanut sauce is flavorful yet lightened with pureed fresh vegetables. Once the sauce is made, it’s an easy dish to pull together with chickpeas and chopped vegetables. Bake and serve with rice, and dinner’s done!
Servings 4 -5 people

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce

  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped carrot
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped red yellow, or orange bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup peeled roughly chopped zucchini or more carrot or bell pepper
  • 1-2 cloves garlic peeled
  • 1 tablespoon peeled and chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup or coconut/date sugar optional
  • 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper optional; see note
  • 1 cup water divided
  • 1/4 - 1/3 cup natural peanut butter see note
  • 3 tablespoons tamari
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons natural ketchup

Casserole

  • 2 14-oz cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 2 cups small cubes red yellow, or orange bell peppers
  • 1 cup small cubes zucchini
  • 1 cup chopped fresh or frozen green beans or more zucchini

Garnish (optional)

  • Chopped green onions
  • Chopped peanuts

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  • In a high-speed blender, combine all the ingredients for the sauce, starting with 1/2 cup water. Puree until smooth, then add the remaining 1/2 cup water and puree again.
  • Pour the sauce into a 13 × 9-baking dish. Add the chickpeas, bell peppers, zucchini, and green beans and gently stir.
  • Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil, stir well, re-cover with foil, and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a final 10 minutes, stirring once or twice during this time, until the sauce has thickened and the vegetables are tender. Garnish with green onions and peanuts, if desired.

Notes

Peanut Butter Note: You can use as little as 1/4 cup in this sauce, but 1/3 cup will give you a richer taste. If you want to swap out peanut butter, try using almond butter or cashew butter—or, for a nut-free version, about half-and-half sunflower seed butter and tahini. Keep in mind that almond and cashew butters are naturally sweeter than peanut butter, and all are sweeter than seed butters. Taste the sauce after it begins to thicken and adjust with maple syrup if needed. Finally, do check that your nut butters don’t already have sweeteners. If they do, you may not want any added sweetener.
Red Pepper Note: If you’re serving this to kids or anyone who prefers a milder sauce, omit the crushed red pepper. You can serve individual portions with hot sauce for those who like the heat!
Serving Suggestions: Serve over a cooked grain like brown basmati rice, jasmine rice, quinoa, whole-wheat couscous, or millet. With a grain, this dish serves 5-6.