VEGETABLE STEW OVER POLENTA

Earth Day Portland



What a glorious day today was.
Quite appropriate for Earthday.

I love Portland. As in most cities accross the US, Portland had its celebration of all good things for the earth, found locally, built sustainably, with respect to the earth and all its inhabitants, in music, artful displays, bringing together young and old, two legged, lots of four legged...what a party! And when time came to eat, we found a vegan hot dog stand! Pretty cool or what? Most of the other choices were mostly vegetarian (there was one stand barbecuing animal parts). We had three options: Vegan kielbassa, beer brat and regular hot dog, all made by Tofurky! With all the toppings of course. And on the way out, a few hours later, a vegan bake sale that raised money for several animal sanctuaries. Usually, we try to cut down on sweets, but given the cause, We had to pitch in, someone has to do it! It is my story and I am sticking to it.

Once home, we had a craving for something stewy. I had a few vegetables, some cornmeal. Plenty enough to make a nice vegetable medley with some rich polenta (we had rice the day before!)

VEGETABLE MEDLEY INGREDIENTS:

1/2 onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbl balsamic vinegar

1-2 Tbl soy sauce

1 medium zuchini diced

2 medium tomatoes diced

1 pepper (bell or poblano)

1 can of white beans rinced

1 cup of firm tofu diced

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp oil

salt & pepper

VEGETABLE MEDLEY PREPARATION:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and stir.
2. After 1 minute, add the balsamic vinegar and stir to caramelize them. Add salt, garlic, stir some more.
3. In a separate frying pan, heat a little oil, and pan fry the pepper and the tofu and the cumin.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the tofu is browned and the pepper lightly softened, remove from the heat.
5. Add the tomatoes and zuchini to the onion mixture and gently heat up for a few minutes.
6. Add the peppers. Turn heat off and cover.

7. Now time to prepare the polenta

POLENTA PREPARATION:

3 cups of water

1 cup of cornmeal

1 Tbl vegan butter

1 cube of vegetable bouillon

2 Tbl nutrtional yeast

salt & pepper to taste

1. Bring the water, broth, vegan butter, salt and pepper to a boil, turn down to medium heat.
2. Add the polenta in a thin, steady stream, stirring constantly. Don't add it too quickly, because you risk making the polenta lumpy.
3. Cook slowly, stirring constantly, over very low heat. Be careful because the hot polenta will take on the appearance of molten lava and may spatter as it cooks, so use a long-handled wooden spoon and long sleeve (just kidding for the sleeves). It may take up to 15mn for the polenta to be cooked.
4. Try it and if it tastes gritty, it isn't ready.
5. Add the nutritional yeast at the very end when it is cooked, this will provide a cheezy taste to it and lots of vitamin B.
6. Immediately spoon the polenta while it is soft next to the vegetables.

 Bon appétit