Before I bought a Thermomix, I had never cooked polenta. The instruction to ‘stir continuously for 20 minutes’ kind of put me off. My Thermomix makes cooking polenta a breeze, as it does the stirring for me.
However, my beloved Thermi is in Thermomix Hospital right now, and since I had a hankering for polenta, I decided to have a crack at cooking it on the stove-top. A quick Google search revealed that continuous stirring isn’t necessary for good polenta, which fortunately turned out to be true.
(If you’re not familiar with polenta, it’s a cornmeal porridge that’s popular in northern Italy. It can be eaten ‘as is’, or baked until crispy which was my dinner choice.)
Ingredients:
Polenta
5 cups water
1 cup polenta
1/3 cup savoury yeast flakes/nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion granules
Mexe-beans
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 small mild chilli, seeded and minced
1/2 cup water or low sodium vegetable stock
1/2 red capsicum, seeded and diced
Kernels from 2 cobs fresh corn/1 cup frozen corn kernels
4 cups finely shredded kale
2 medium zucchinis, diced
2 cans no added salt diced tomatoes
2 tsp Mrs Dash Southwestern Chipotle or other no-salt Mexican seasoning mix*
3 tbsp diced sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
1 1/2 cups cooked or drained, canned pinto beans
3 tbsp no added salt tomato paste
Method:
Polenta
Bring water to a rolling boil. Add polenta slowly, whisking continuously. Turn heat down, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, whisking every couple of minutes.
If you have a Thermomix, bring water to the boil then set Thermomix to speed 6 (leaving it at 100°C setting), and trickle polenta through the lid hole. Turn heat down to 90°C and cook for 15-20 minutes on speed 4 or until polenta is smooth and no grittiness remains.
Stir in yeast and onion powder, and pour polenta into 2 moulds – I used round Pyrex baking dishes. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight if you have time.
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper or a silicon baking mat.
Using a spatula, carefully loosen polenta and invert onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 30 minutes, then flip, cut into wedges and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until crispy on the outside.
Mexe-beans
Place a large, heavy-based frying pan over high heat until it reaches the ‘mercury ball stage’ – when you flick water into the pan, it forms a ball which rolls around the surface of the pan before evaporating.
Add onion and sauté for 4-5 minutes or until onion is beginning to brown. Add garlic and chilli and sauté for 20 seconds.
Deglaze the pan by carefully pouring water into the side of the pan, stirring to lift the onion juices off the bottom of the pan. Turn heat down to medium and continue cooking onion mixture for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly and adding more water if it starts to stick.
Add capsicum, corn, kale, zucchini, tomatoes, Mrs Dash and sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer, covered, for 8-10 minutes, stirring regularly and adding more water if it starts to stick.
Stir in tomato paste and beans, and continue cooking until beans are heated through.
Serve polenta wedges with Mexe-Beans.
* I order Mrs Dash seasonings from iHerb; if you don’t already have an iHerb account, use the coupon code UTE208 to get $5 off your first order.
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