Posted by kathryn in Vegetables, Legumes, Recipes, Grains, Autumn and Winter

I made a wonderful dinner last week – polenta covered with greens and chickpeas and then topped with tahini sauce. It was an experiment, and I wasn’t actually expecting it to be as beautiful as it actually was.

I have a small polenta fixation, but I rarely cook it as you seem to need so much fat and dairy in order to make the stuff tasty. My normal method uses milk, butter and cheese, so I’ve been wanting to find a dairy free version which doesn’t involve quite so much FAT for a while.

Needless to say I broke the two cardinal rules of food writing – I didn’t take a photo and I didn’t write the recipe down. So treat the recipe below as an outline, an idea that you can follow and then tweak and change, as required.

There are a few stages, and it might seem like a bit of a palaver to make, but it actually came together quite quickly. I made the tahini sauce, while the greens cooked. And then left the greens on a low heat while I cooked the polenta and served as soon as the polenta was done.

Polenta with Chickpeas, Greens & Tahini sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, cut in half and then thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed & roughly chopped
• 2 – 3 bunches of greens, washed & roughly chopped – I used a small bunch of silverbeet, the greens from half a bunch of beetroot, a bunch of choy sum and about half a bunch of basil.
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained (about 250g cooked)
• A batch of this tahini sauce – I made a slightly thinned down version & added 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 litre really weak stock – I use a stock powder at about a quarter of the strength recommended
• 1 cup quick-cook polenta

To cook the greens: Put a large frying pan or pot on a medium-low heat – you need something big which can handle the pile of greens. Pour in the olive oil and once hot add the onions. Saute gently, for about 5 minutes, until the onions are starting to soften and turn translucent. Add the garlic and cook for about another minute. Turn the heat up to high and add the greens. You may need to do this in stages, depending on the size of your pan, as you want the greens to wilt quickly. Once the greens are wilted, turn the heat back down to medium-low, add in the chickpeas and about half a cup of water. Put the lid on top and leave to cook for 10 – 15 minutes.

While the greens are cooking make the tahini sauce.

Cook the polenta: Pour the stock into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Slowly pour in the polenta, stirring with a wooden spoon as you go. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the polenta is thick and comes away easily from the edges of the pan.

To serve: Spoon the polenta into a serving dish. Top with the chickpeas and greens and then pour the tahini sauce over the top. As you serve the three layers get mixed together and the tahini sauce flavours and enriches the polenta – no dairy required. It’s utterly, utterly delicious.

Photograph by PhilipMatarese.

30 May, 2011