A beautiful vegetarian dinner board complete with a crostini bar you can have on the table in 20 minutes.

This was one of my favourite boards to create for the On Board in 20 series.  You can read more about the series here but the gist is every month I share a recipe for a meal you can make your family for dinner in about 20 minutes, always served on a board.  I was so excited to share this one.

What I loved is that what you find on this board, you could find in so many pantries - an assortment of seemingly unrelated ingredients.  The beauty of the board is that these unrelated ingredients come together into something quite beautiful - and ultimately delicious - with just a hint of creativity.  When I created this meal I literally pulled odds and ends out of the refrigerator.  A couple radishes, a handful of grapes and tomatoes, a half empty bag of frozen peas...then over to the pantry.  A can of beans and a can of coconut milk.  It was bordering on an episode of Chopped.

But dinner doesn't always need to be a protein plus a starch plus a vegetable occupying equal pieces of real estate on a white plate.  As my Little gets older (and as a result busier) we are finding dinner times can be a bit rushed.  And while I cherish the sanctity of the dinner "hour",  I do think it needs to be open to interpretation.  This board sat on the edge of my kitchen island while we stood around and literally broke (and dipped) bread.  We made crostinis to our personal preference while debating who last saw the soccer shin pads.  Maybe not riveting, but real.

With each On Board in 20 meal, it is my desire to inspire you to inject a sense of ease, simplicity and a dash of creativity into your family meal times.   A day old baguette, tomatoes about to get soft and cans of beans that probably were in danger of moving out of the non-perishable category can become creamy coconut bean soup accompanied by a whipped ricotta, smashed peas and blistered black grape and vine ripened tomato crostini bar.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear about dinner times are your house - frantic, leisurely? What are your biggest dinner time challenges?

For all the details and the recipe for the On Board in 20: Coconut and Bean Soup with Crostini Bar click here.

Enjoy!