We love to top polenta bowls with aged balsamic vinegar. If you can afford it, balsamic that has been aged has a much lower acidity than non-aged, and the result is a syrupy and sweeter vinegar. Sometimes we’ve lived in places that have specialty stores that focus on olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Having been exposed to multiple producers has given us a real appreciation for tasty balsamic. One of our absolute favorite balsamic vinegars is apple balsamic from Rockridge Orchards and Cidery which is unfortunately only available at their farm stand in Enumclaw, Washington or at some Seattle farmers markets. The reason we include vinegar in this dish is the acidity can lift other flavors. When we don’t have access to aged balsamic, we use lemon juice, and it is delicious as well. If you have extra funds and like vinegar, we encourage experimenting with the many different types of balsamic!
Serves: 4-6
Time: 1hr with Instant Pot (or pre-cooked beans)
Ingredients
1 serving polenta
aged balsamic vinegar
For the broccolini
1 bunch broccolini
salt
oil
For the butter beans (lima beans)
1 1/3 cups (or 1 can) cooked butter beans*
For the Peppers and Onions:
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 bell peppers, cored and sliced,
salt
oil
For the Chard:
1/2 bunch chard
3 cloves garlic
salt
oil
Make the polenta & cook the beans*.
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Cut the ends of the broccolini. Slice the peppers and onions. Mince the garlic for the chard and de-stem the chard and cut into small ribbons.
Toss the broccolini in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven. Flip the broccolini after 15 minutes and cook a total of around 25 minutes at which point the broccolini should be bright green but with parts of it golden brown and crisp.
Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil. Add the onions and salt them. Cook for about 10 minutes (stirring regularly) or until they are starting to soften and add the peppers. Cook for an additional 10 minutes and set aside in a bowl.
Add 2 tbsp of oil to the hot pan. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute since the pan is hot). Add the chard, toss with the garlic and sprinkle the whole thing with salt. Once the chard is wilted (about 2 minutes) you are ready to assemble the bowls.
To serve, layer polenta, brocolini, peppers & onions, and chard into a bowl. Drizzle the entire meal with some aged balsamic vinegar and enjoy!
*Cooking butter beans (lima beans) from dry:
In the Instant Pot:
To cook the butter beans in an Instant Pot, add 3/4 cup of dried butter beans to the pot. Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp cumin, 4 garlic cloves, and 1/8 tsp cayenne. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 15 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.
On the stove:
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook butter beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.
Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt.
For this recipe, also add 1 tbsp cumin, 4 garlic cloves, and 1/8 tsp cayenne to the butter beans as they cook. Cook the beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours). We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: butter beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!