Polenta Madness

When I made the fried polenta a few weeks ago, we only used less than half the tube of pre-made polenta. The question then became: what to do with the rest of it? The husband got online and found an interesting casserole that seemed to fit the bill.

Polenta and Black Bean Casserole
What you need:
1/4 c salsa verde
3 minced garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp cumin
a polenta roll, cut into 18 rounds
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 15 oz can hominy, drained
3 cups of your favorite mexican-inspired cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray some oil on an 11-inch in diameter casserole dish. Mix the salsa verde, garlic, and cumin together in a bowl.
2. Arrange half of the polenta rounds evenly on the bottom of the casserole dish. Then add half the beans, hominy, and salsa mix over top of that. Sprinkle with half the cheese.
3. Layer the remaining polenta rounds evenly over that, followed by the remaining beans, hominy, salsa, and cheese. Cover the dish with its lid and bake it for about 20 minutes.
4. Next, overcover the casserole dish and bump up the overn temperature to 475. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
5. Serve and gorge yourselves on your clever mexican-inspired lasagna.

You can also top it with spinach according to the original recipe, and next time, I would definitely top it with kale, just for more color and nutrients. However, this one was quite tasty as is. The salsa versa is tangy and pairs well with the solid but plain polenta and the sweet base flavor of the beans. Delicious.

Polenta and Cuban Bean Patties (sort of)

We've been meaning to try polenta, and this past week, the husband nabbed some pre-packaged on sale. Due to this find, we had some difficulty in the kitchen. It started when I couldn't decide what to eat with polenta. I even googled something along the lines of "What to eat with polenta?" that led me to ask.com and a bunch of strangers instructing me that crusty bread is the ticket. Excuse me if I didn't get on board to eating my carbs with a carb.

In the end, I went with what I know: black beans go with cornbread. I found a recipe to adapt heavily for some black bean veggie burgers and set up shop to fried up some polenta.

Polenta

To make polenta the easy way, go to the store and buy a hamburger-like tube of the stuff. 

Then, just slice it into 1/2 inch rounds and fry it in a big skillet. Instant mushy cornbread. Of course, it doesn't fry up like a patty of anything. It fries up like a lump of dough, which is essentially what polenta is. This makes them hard to flip and impossible to salvage the outer layers that, inevitably, end up adhered to the bottom of the pan. Even so, at the end of the kitchen mayhem, there was polenta.

Of course, eating polenta by itself wouldn't be a very well-rounded meal. For that, you need protein and veggies. Thus, I became work on the black bean burger side dish.

Cuban Black Bean Burgers
What you need:
2 cups (1 can) black beans, drained1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt 

1 large egg white 

• 1/2 cup shredded mexican mix cheese (or whatever your cheese preference) 
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot 
• 1/4 cup cornmeal 
• olive oil 
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

• 1. Mash beans, garlic powder , onion powder, cumin, and salt in a bowl with a fork. Place 1/2 cup of the beans and the egg white in a food processor and process for about 30 seconds. 
• 2. Add bean puree and the cheese to mashed beans in the bowl and stir until combined. Divide into four equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. 
• 3. Put cornmeal in a separate shallow bowl. Coat both sides of the bean patties in the cornmeal.
• 4. Heat pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties and cook 3 minutes on each side until they are browned.
• Of course, these instructions only work if you remember to drain the beans. If you don't drain the beans, they will be too watery, even after you add the cornmeal directly to them, to fry into burgers. They will cook but remain fairly nebulous.
• To construct the final meal, I put three slices of the polenta on a bed of lettuce. Then, I plopped a bean non-patty (thanks to the non-draining thing) on top of it. Then I topped the whole in sour cream, because sour cream makes everything better. (See image above recipe).
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Of course, they make good tacos too, which is what my husband and our son did for their supper.

And for dessert:

Godiva hot chocolate made with almond milk,

topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

Because what sour cream can't make better, Godiva and whipped cream always can.