Fried Polenta With Sweet Garlic-Greens

"Tasty vegetarian dish easily made vegan (leave out parmesan cheese). Based on my favorite dish at Bela's of Northampton. Dried sweetened cranberries make the greens sweet. My husband prefers an alternate topping to this - covering it with spaghetti sauce. Also good, but in that case, could probably save the effort and skip most of the other ingredients besides the greens. Use two large frying pans."
 
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Ready In:
35mins
Ingredients:
11
Yields:
8-12 slices
Serves:
2-4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Prepare greens by rinsing well in water. If using chard, separate stems and leaves and chop stems into ~ 1 inch pieces, leaves can be torn or chopped. If using baby spinach, just chop off bottom to separate leaves.
  • Chop onion into thin slices or mince.
  • Cut polenta into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.
  • In one frying pan with ~1 T oil over medium heat, fry onion, chard stems if using chard, and garlic. After a few minutes, add 1/4 cup water and cover to partially soften stems by steaming.
  • Remove cover and add chard leaves (or spinach), cranberries, and pine nuts. Cook until greens reach desired consistency (tender-crisp to soft). Add lemon juice.
  • Meanwhile, in second frying pan, fry polenta slices in 1 teaspoons to 3 T olive oil (depending on how crispy or healthy you want it) until browned.
  • Top polenta with greens and parmesan cheese and pepper to taste.

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Reviews

  1. I kept seeing those polenta logs at the grocery store, and my family likes polenta. I wanted to make an easy week night side dish on "fish night". This was perfect. Thanks so much, it is easy and can be adjusted to fit your family's tastebuds. Reminds me a bit of my southern mother's "fried grits", which was all cheese frankly. Love the recipe, thanks for submitting it.
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I usually take dishes I love from restaurants or friends and add my own twist. I live with my husband, twin babies and four cats. I'm a part-time scientist and part-time stay-at-home mom, which keeps me busy and happy these days. I try to eat and cook healthy, whole grains and veggies and fruits and avoid processed food (and I make all my babies' food that way). However, I have a weakness for white ciabatta bread dipped in olive oil, bacon, potato chips, and ramen noodle soup, meaning I don't always stick to my own rules.
 
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