Chicken and Butterbean “Ratatouille”

Hello dear friends! The recipe I’m sharing with you today came about rather by accident, due to a new-found love of the incredible, vegan-friendly (although I am not a vegan, or even a vegetarian) ingredient, aquafaba. Aquafaba is the liquid you drain from a can of beans, for example, butterbeans, chickpeas, kidney beans or cannelini beans, which you would usually just drain down the sink, but which, in fact, provides the most incredible egg substitute for making mousse or baked goods where egg is traditionally called for. If you put the aquafaba in a stand mixer and whisk it, it yields the most astonishing pile of beautiful, aerated mousse, and in a fraction of the time it takes to whisk an egg! This recipe does not include aquafaba however, but I wanted to make a fantastic recipe for pudding by Marie at The Raw Berry which does use it, so I decided I needed to use a tin of butterbeans in something, just so I could access the aquafaba!

As it happens, the recipe came out perfectly. We all really enjoyed it, and I know it’s a good one if Husb liked it too! It’s full of yummy veggies and creaminess, and if you want to make it vegetarian simply omit the chicken and perhaps add some mushrooms. In fact you could add mushrooms anyway if you like.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• Tin of butterbeans, drained
• 1 onion
• 1 courgette
• Punnet cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 tray purple sprouting brocolli
• 1/2 tub cream cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method

Chop the onion, courgette, brocolli and cherry tomatoes in preparation, as in photo. Put a large, heavy-based frying pan on the hob on a medium-high heat with a lug of olive oil. Add the onion and cook for five or so minutes until it is softening and becoming golden.

Place the chicken breast in the centre and continue to cook for five more minutes, turning the chicken so both sides become golden. Add the courgette and cherry tomatoes, season then put the lid on and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring reasonably often, so the cherry tomatoes break down and make a sauce.

Turn the heat down to medium-low then  add the brocolli and cream cheese, stirring well to combine the cheese and cherry tomato sauce. Check the chicken is cooked through, then remove and set aside. Replace the lid, allowing the cheese and brocolli to warm through whilst you shred the chicken breast.

When the brocolli is looking a lovely vibrant green (after around three minutes), return the chicken to the pan until warmed through, then serve with a side of roasted veggies (see below).

I served my “ratatouille” with a side of Deliciously Ella Whole Roasted Cumin and Date Carrots from her latest book Deliciously Ella with Friends, which, lucky for you, can also be found here. They complemented the ratatouille absolutely perfectly, so I totally recommend you make these to go with it too!

I am fully aware that I’ve published rather a lot of recipes which rely upon a sauce made of broken-down cherry tomatoes lately! They are just the best way of making a tomato-based sauce which is simple but so tasty. I do promise to think outside of that box in future though (scratches head…), and also to talk a lot more about aquafaba, so keep looking and follow my Facebook page for more frequent little bites of foodie inspiration.

Thank you so much for reading 🙂

xxx Sam