What We Ate Wednesday--Lemon Tamari Yum over Polenta

 Hello lovelies! We seem to eat a lot of "whatever is left over in the fridge" on top of polenta lately...and that's ok! We call the these "fag end" meals because they are the remnants of other meals that aren't enough on their own, but together make something spectacular. 

This is what we had, but use whatever you have:

1 red onion

1 slice of red pepper as wide as three fingers

1 smallish sweet potato

tin of chickpeas

1 lemon

kale

polenta

I should just like to note that my computer keeps trying to auto-correct POLENTA into TADPOLE. This is a vegan blog....no tadpoles were harmed in the making of this meal! 

Lemon Tamari Yum over Polenta

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/ In a large roasting pan add the following:

1 red onion, diced

1 slice of red pepper as wide as three fingers, diced

1 smallish sweet potato, diced

tin of chickpeas,drained and rinsed

Juice of  half a lemon (save the other half for later in the recipe) 

1 TB olive oil

Mix all together and top with  pepper. Roast for 15 minutes then stir. Then roast for another 15 minutes.

When you start the second 15 minutes, work on the kale and polenta.

In a large pot cook 100g kale (a few handfuls) in a splash of water until bright green and reduced. Set aside with a lid to keep warm.

In another pot make the tadpoles  polenta.

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup polenta

splash of non dairy milk

batch Vegan parmesan cheese (3 TB nutritional yeast flakes, 3 TB ground almonds, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder) 

Bring the stock to the boil. I like to boil 3.5 cups water in the kettle and then add some stock powder/cube to 1/2 cup that you heat in your pot whilst the kettle boils. then add the boiled kettle and it all comes to the boil much quicker than waiting for it come to boil from a cold pot. Does that make sense? 

Stream in the polenta to the boiling stock and whisk constantly until it thickens. When it starts to spit, take it off the heat and add a splash of milk and the parmesan. If it seems too stodgy, add another splash of milk then return to heat and make sure it is heated and then remove from heat, add a lid and let sit until the veg is roasted.

When the veg is roasted:

Add it to the kale you already cooked and add the juice of the other half of the lemon and a good splash of tamari or soy sauce. Keep stirring until everything is hot. Serve over polenta. 

This was delicious--the polenta was savoury and the lemon and tamari gave the veg a real tangy taste. The chickpeas go all chewy and a bit crispy when roasted so it nice textures. Nom nom nom!