Pan-Fried Polenta with Corn, Greens & Goat Cheese

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Marianne 3 Comments

Another recipe from the spectacular Vegetarian Planet – you seriously should own this book!  This recipe is perfect for all of the CSAers out there – it uses three different vegetables, including greens. The most time consuming part of the recipe is making the polenta – it’s well worth it to make your own, but I am certain that store-bought would work well in a pinch (but you would be cheated out of the fresh corn in the polenta, which is amazing).

I managed to use two of my bunches of greens in this recipe – amaranth and collards. YUM!

Once the polenta is made, everything comes together pretty quickly. The polenta is pan-fried…

And layered with the tomatoes and goat cheese…

While the polenta is getting all gorgeous and brown under the broiler, the greens are sautéed…

And before you know it dinner is on the table. The polenta is served on a bed of sautéed greens and it’s quite pretty. Of course I had to go and do this to mine – YUM!

Pan-Fried Polenta with Corn, Greens & Goat Cheese
Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Planet

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 1/3 cups water
• 1 cup stone ground cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• the kernels from 3 ears of corn (or 2 cups frozen corn kernels)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• Greens – I used one bunch of amaranth and 1 bunch of collards
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 5 ounces goat cheese (I used 5 ounces, almost double what the original recipe calls for)

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 1 minute; don’t let the garlic brown. Add 3 cups of the water, and bring it to a boil.

While the water heats, whisk together in a bowl the cornmeal, salt, and 1 cup water to make a smooth mixture.

When the water in the saucepan comes to a boil, pour the mixture into it. Whisk constantly for 3 minutes to prevent lumps from forming. Turn the heat to low. Cook for 40 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes. Stir in the corn kernels and cook the polenta 5 minutes more. Stir in the pepper and Parmesan cheese. Pour the polenta into a lightly oiled 8×8 inch pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Chill the polenta in a refrigerator for 1 hour.

Cut the chilled polenta into 4 large triangles. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, carefully add the polenta triangles. Fry the polenta until it is golden brown on the underside, then turn the polenta over and cook it until it is golden brown on the other side. Arrange the polenta on a baking sheet.

Preheat the broiler on your oven.

Place the greens, red pepper flakes and 1/3 cup water into the skillet that was just used to fry the polenta. Cover the skillet and cook the greens until they are wilted.

Place the tomato slices on top of the polenta triangles. Sprinkle the goat cheese on top of the tomato slices. Broil the polenta until the cheese melts and the tomatoes begin to cook.

Arrange the kale on a serving platter. Place the hot polenta triangles on top of the kale and serve immediately.

In other news, I lost all of my receipts for the rest of last week and have no idea of how much money I spent (must have been the excitement leading up to the Folk Festival, which was awesome BTW).  I didn’t have any cash left, so I’m counting last week as an even $60.

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