summer green bean, garlic + ‘parmesan’ buckwheat noodle nest

Today’s recipe is a super quick and easy everyday dish, green beans, garlic, pine nuts and noodles with a coconut based parmesan(esque) cheese. I literally could eat this green bean and pasta/ noodle dish every single day of my life, it just hits every spot it’s so good, so quick to make and SO satisfying. Buckwheat noodles make for a really light but filling and nutritious meal. Green beans are just a delight, this was the first green bean dish I made of the summer and really it was just a no-brainer.  I have used a bought version of the cheese, which I recently discovered and love. I don’t eat many such things but this I really liked and summer dishes are great when they’re super easy to throw together. I have made the dish very garlicky as I am a real garlic fiend, you can tone it down if you like, but I really do recommend it, especially at this time of year the more garlic the less insects like you! Also wild garlic would be delicious! Wilt it with the garlic and nuts and have a wild feast!

With everything that’s going on at the moment in this crazy world (not talking about THE REFERENDUM…AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH), things can get a little overwhelming (which gives us a small insight into living through real social unrest, which must be so incredibly painful). In such times we need food that’s going to give us both fuel and a hug which will make us feel grounded and good. For me this pasta/ noodle dish really does that. We so often turn to such food for comfort. It’s carb packed and full of flavour, goodness, good olive oil, and treats like pine nuts and this a-bit-naughty-but-very-nice parmasen-y cheese. If you don’t want a pre-made version such as this one I enjoyed, check out these whole food parmesan-y cheese recipes, here and here. I haven’t tried them yet but I’m looking forward to messing around with my own version and now have dried garlic lined-up ready!! All the recipes I’ve seen have been for a simple grated style ‘cheese’, made from nutritional yeast, salt and ground nuts, sesame, almond or walnut.

And when the world get’s too much, do what Dan and I have done this week, put a tent up in your garden or somewhere safe and snuggle in with all your cushions and blankets, and see the it all from a different perspective. It was such a nice way to experience midsummer too. At the moment the grass is long, and just a few metres from the house it felt like being in a new place, it was wonderful. We took the laptop in with us and watched our current favourite tv series into the night (Dan is currently obsessed with zombies and so it’s been this for us, so relaxing…). We sat by a fire and watched evening blend into night as the bats come out and whizzed about, and ate bowls of this gorgeous green bean garlic noodle dish and drank our rowanflower citrus cordial, whilst gazing at the flames, feeling their heat with the rich redolence of wood-smoke filling the air.

You can substitute the buckwheat noodles for your favourite noodles or pasta, the pine nuts for sunflower seeds, and the vegan parmesan-y for the cheese of you choice, I recommend a strong flavour and dry texture, which makes the parmesan effect perfect. I’m going to work on my own version so watch this space cadets!

(and delicious!)

Enjoy this dish hot or cold, on a hot Summer day or a rainy afternoon, it’s just gorgeous comforting food to make you feel fantastic, inside and out ♥

SONG OF THE WEEK  The Pharcyde ‘Runnin’