Meatless Monday: Oven Baked Polenta, Poached Eggs and Sauteed Baby Spinach

cornmeal

Today’s Meatless Monday post typifies how meatless meals happen in our house.

Full disclosure: We are big fans of the egg in this house, we eat eggs for dinner at least once a week.  Scrambled eggs are the most requested with bird in the nest toasts coming in a close second.  Marco and I eat a fair amount of omelets and frittatas because they make good use of leftovers.

This polenta recipe requires a bit of forethought, I usually put it in the oven when the kids get home from school.  I do love the concept of a no-stir polenta.  You could use fried eggs instead of poached and if sauteed spinach is not your thing substitute asparagus or broccoli or a saute of bell peppers.

The lesson here is to give meatless a try, it is not as tough as it may seem.

This recipe is adapted from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert.

Oven-Baked Soft Polenta
Serves 6.

2 ½ cups milk
2 ½ cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 cup coarse grind cornmeal (labeled for Polenta)
2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Generously grease a 12-inch oven-proof casserole dish with butter.

2. Add all ingredients to the casserole and stir with a fork to blend.  Bake uncovered for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and stir and season to taste with more salt and pepper. For a firmer polenta, cook an additional 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

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