A creamy polenta recipe with melty goat cheese and sweet and savory roasted vegetables. Make this for a comforting winter meal.
If you’ve had cheesy polenta before, you know how good this is. I’ll bet you want to dive into the bowl right now!
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If you’ve never made polenta at home, you’ll love how easy it is. It might just replace you standard rice or potatoes as a delicious side.
In this creamy polenta recipe it takes its place as the star of the meal, holding its own as the base to a roasted vegetable topping.
It’s pretty basic, spruced up with creamy and sharp goat cheese. Friends, that mixes perfectly with the sweet veggies. You’ll see!
I’ll tell you how to cook polenta so you never fail!
I opted for quick-cooking polenta in this recipe. I like this option for a weeknight dinner. It has been par-boiled so reconstituting it to a soft side dish is much faster.
Quick cooking polenta comes together in just a few minutes. It’s as simple as whisking the polenta into simmering broth or water and letting it reconstitute to perfection. You can’t fail with this!
I like the mix of broth and water, rather than straight water, when I cook polenta. It imparts a bit more flavor to go along with the light corn taste.
Regular polenta, or course ground cornmeal, takes quite a while to cook, needing almost constant stirring for 40 or more minutes. This is because it needs to fully absorb the liquid or it will be crunchy and not so great.
Both quick-cooking and regular taste like sweet corn when cooked properly. And truthfully you don’t need to buy a package labeled polenta, you can find any coarse or medium ground cornmeal.
Even fine corn meal works in a pinch. It will have a softer, mush-type texture. Hey that is just great when added cheese and a fantastic topping are involved!
My secret for how to roast vegetables in the oven:
I really love roasting root vegetables in the oven. Root vegetables including beets, fennel, carrots and onions.
One thing I run into with a mix of root veggies is the beets, bleeding all over my other vegetables. It tends to look like a beet juice mess!
My trick for keeping the other veggies vibrant and unstained is to roast the beets in foil, by themselves!
They don’t get lonely, and they get soft and delicious because they are steaming as well. See the recipe below for my method. It all goes in the oven and is hands off until everything is ready to eat.
Roasted vegetables are one of my comfort foods. I love how they get even sweeter and delicious in the oven.
Try my Roast Parsnips with savory sage butter as a great side dish.
I roast a medley of veggies and drizzle them with Orange Thyme Dressing for the holidays.
Spring vegetables get roasted for my Ricotta Tarts, perfect for a light meal or brunch option.
Never tried polenta? This rich is a fresh alternative to mashed potatoes. A creamy polenta recipe with melty goat cheese and sweet and savory roasted vegetables.
- 2 beets
- 2 carrots diced
- ½ red onion sliced
- ½ large fennel bulb sliced
- 3 parsnips diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup quick-cooking polenta
- ¼ cup (2 oz) semisoft goat cheese
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
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Heat oven to 400°F. Wrap beets in foil and roast for 15 min. Meanwhile, place carrots, red onion, fennel and parsnips on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Add to oven with beets and roast for 20 min until vegetables and beets are tender. Peel and dice beets.
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In a large pot bring chicken broth and 2 cups water to a boil. add polenta gradually, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, about 2 min.
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Remove from heat, stir in goat cheese, milk and butter until smooth. Top with roasted vegetables and extra goat cheese.
Crumble extra goat cheese on top for an added burst of flavor.
Make this vegetarian by using vegetable broth in place of chicken broth.
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Recipe Tara Teaspoon and Megan Weiss, Photography Yunkee Kim, Food stylist William Smith, Prop stylist Paige Hicks. Originally published LHJ 12/11 1/12
Recipe by Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in the food publishing business for over 20 years, creating recipes and food styling for magazines, books, television and advertising. Find out more about me!
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