Polenta veggie bowl

We are fully loving spring and asparagus season. We are sharing a spring veggie polenta recipe with you today. We used broccoli greens instead of swiss chard this time because we had a lot from our spring broccoli harvest.

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 1/2hrs

Ingredients

1 batch basic polenta

1 batch of shittake bacon

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 bulb fennel

1 bunch asparagus

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 red onion

1 small head of broccoli

1 bunch of swiss chard (feel free to substitute other spring greens)

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar

---

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Begin to make the basic polenta and shiitake bacon.

Cut the fennel into slices and the broccoli into florets. Toss them with olive oil and spread on a lined baking sheet. Salt. Roast in the oven about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Slice the onion and saute until caremilzed. Mince the garlic and cut the chard into thin strips. Fry the garlic until fragrant, no longer than 2 minutes, add the chard and salt to taste. Saute until wilted. If you have multiple frying pans these steps can be done simultaneously.

Set the oven to broil. Trim the ends off the asparagus and put on a baking sheet with olive oil and salt. Broil for 7 minutes, flip, and broil for another 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with lemon juice.

To assemble, place polenta in a bowl and then add a bit of each element. Finish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

Harissa Tofu with Polenta Crusted Potatoes and Fried Broccoli

This week we are combining two previous recipe to make a full plate meal. Enjoy this tofu and potatoes with broccoli on the side!

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 1/2hrs

Ingredients

1 batch of polenta crusted potatoes

1 batch of harissa tofu

1 bunch of broccoli

olive oil

salt

---

Cook the polenta crusted potatoes and harissa tofu. Cut the broccoli into florets and cut up the stem into small pieces, removing the first inch which is very fibrous. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil and stir fry broccoli until soft (about 5 minutes). Add salt to taste. To serve assemble potatoes, tofu, and broccoli on a plate and enjoy!

Alfredo Lasagna

We love alfredo pasta and we love lasagna, so we decided to put them together and use up some of the larger zucchinis we’ve had access to this summer!

Serves: 4-6

Time: 2 1/4 hrs (1 3/4 hrs active)

Ingredients

1 large head broccoli, cut in small florets

2 med zucchini, cut in half coins

3 cups chopped wild mushrooms

8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

oil

1 box lasagna noodles, gluten-free option

4 large chard leaves, cut into ribbons

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

salt

For the sauce:

1 cup cashews soaked for at least 30 min

3 cups water, divided

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/2 tbsp garlic granules

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1 small onion, sliced

2 tbsp white wine (optional)

5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

---

Put cashews in water to soak. Boil a pot of well salted water. If you aren’t sure how much salt to use, the water should taste similar to seawater. Once boiling, add pasta and cook to desired consistency (follow instructions on pasta package). Once pasta is done, strain and thoroughly cool down with cold water. Add a little bit of oil to keep the pasta from sticking.

While the pasta is cooking, cut your veggies. Cut mushrooms into small pieces. Cut broccoli into small florets and cut the stem into pieces the size of a penny. If you aren’t using a garlic press, mince the garlic. Cut the chard into ribbons and slice the onion.

Fry the mushrooms in oil at medium heat until you start to get browning. Set the cooked mushrooms aside and cook the broccoli the same way until some of the florets start to get browned. Then add 8 cloves of garlic, minced, or press the garlic straight into the broccoli and cook another couple minutes so the broccoli is browned and the garlic is fragrant but not burnt. Set aside. In the same pan, saute the zucchini until browned. Cook the zucchini long enough that most of its moisture has been removed, otherwise it will release the moisture while baking and make your lasagna soupy. Once this is browned, set aside.

Drain the soaked cashews. Add the cashews, 1 cup of water, lemon, garlic granules, nutritional yeast, salt, and red pepper flakes to a blender and blend until smooth. To test the consistency, put a small amount of sauce on your finger and rub your fingers together. If it is completely smooth then you are there! If it feels at all like there is some sandiness, keep blending.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Re-heat and add some oil to the pan you used to cook the vegetables. Saute the onion until it caramelizes and turns a beautiful brown color. You will need to stir less at the beginning, but as the onion starts to break down you will need to be stirring non-stop. When the onion is close to done add the garlic, and stir for another 2-3 minutes. If the onion starts to stick, de-glaze the pan with a bit of white wine (optional) or water. Add the cashew alfredo sauce to the pan and stir until slightly thickened. Add the remaining 2 cups of water to the blender and pulse briefly to clean out the blender and then add this to the sauce. Once the sauce is slightly thickened, turn off the heat.

Set aside 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. To layer the lasagna, start with a bit of alfredo, then layer pasta, alfredo, broccoli and chard, pasta, alfredo, zucchini and mushrooms, and then repeat. End with a layer of noodles and cover with the reserved 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, swirl it into the top layer of sauce, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top starts to crisp a bit.

Enjoy!