A satiating, yet healthy, no-guilt vegan dish
I feel the responsibility to make it clear up front. Beware, this is basically a drag and drop cooking process… you can’t find any easier to make – yet tasty – recipe 😀
1. Ingredients
- 150 gr cornmeal
- 600 ml water
- A bit of salt (approx. 1 tbs)
- Spices of choice. Mine (black and red pepper, garlic, thymian, basil)
- Some tabasco drops (if you want it spicier)
2. Preparation
In a medium heat bring the water (almost) to a boil but make sure to pour the salt and the spices after the water is heated up and slightly before it starts to boil.
Pour the cornmeal in the pot with the (almost) boling water and stir continuosly to thicken the content and to avoid a granulitic texture.
At this point, lower the heat and continue cooking the content for 10-15 minutes. Stir from time to time to make it a consistent texture.
3. Tips-Top(ing)s and side dishes
I used to eat it for breakfast – Yes! you read it right! – and I got addicted. I could have the exact same breakfast, every day, in a row, for a month. The reason is because it kept me full during the whole day (cornmeal is loaded in fibres), I had a comfy belly that didn’t disturb me on my daily activity, in winter (& winters in Germany are not a joke) I prefer warm breakfasts and I happen to like corn, it somehow gives me the feeling of lightness yet nourished.
In the beginning, as I was experimenting, I really kept it simple, no spices, and simple toppings such as fresh tomatoes / baked mushrooms or baked bell peppers / olives.
As I started to get bored of the same taste I tried playing around with the spices. Garlic! – Oh yes, my favourite. For me it was a big discovery. As for now I cannot imagine my polenta without garlic. I added the rest some days after and I should say it, in every food, especially the vegan one, spices are the key. They make the dishes so delicious. So add your favourite ones!
I like my food to be hot (I know, my food is always hot, but this time I mean it in terms of taste) so I add a bit of tabasaco at the end, useful as a decoration tool too.
Perhaps the weather change made me forget polenta as a breakfast and move it to a dinner dish. I tend to have light lunches (fruits, crackers) because I am on the move and far from the kitchen; therefore, my dinners are sacred! I like to cook when I go home. The current topping is my favourite sauce, the drag and drop of every type of veggie vitamin you can find in the vicinity (I mean kitchen 😀 ) + a lot of fresh tomato sauce.
(Did I tell you about my favourite drink (apart smoothies and natural water)? I guess nope. And I didn’t write yet on which is the best, a fresh tomato or a fermented one (tomato paste) – a knowledge which got “fattened” by some interesting information I gathered / saw in Expo 2015 (Milan.) You see, you have to keep reading me 😉 .)
As a side dish I use colorful salads. Perhaps this will also evolve, as the toppings did 😀
***My to-go porridge substitute are corn crackers (I will blog on them soon 🙂 .)
***One of the 1000 … 000 benefits of being vegan (my type of vegan 😀 ) is also the fact that you don’t need to find a nice way to address the cleaning-the-dishes process to anyone. I can talk about this later, but in this case it is very easy to clean a pot where you cooked the polenta. Take the food out, fill the pot with a bit of water, cover and let it rest. After some minutes the polenta grains will un-stick by themselves and there’s not much left for you to do.
Enjoy!
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