Pumpkin Polenta with Roasted Vegetables

Creamy pumpkin polenta enriched with aromatic healing spice turmeric served with seasonal vegetables – beets and sweet potatoes roasted in the oven with sweet and sour balsamic dressing.  This pumpkin polenta with roasted vegetables is super easy and delicious dinner ready in no time.

Polenta – corn grits or corn porridge once was essential food on our grandparent’s table. Today, this very healthy and nutritious dish is completely lost in our modern cooking. We rarely cook polenta. Maybe sometimes for breakfast and we usually serve it with plain milk, yogurt or sometimes with bacon. So polenta, as a very simple dish remained in our memories sadly as a boring dish. I admit it, I rarely prepared myself, and it is precisely for those reasons. Polenta is so boring and simple you certainly would never serve it for dinner. Am I right?

As I changed my lifestyle, I changed my views on certain foods, and so my opinion concerning polenta has changed. Polenta is very healthy and nutritive food. It can be served instead of pasta, rice or potatoes. Polenta contains lots of dietary fibers that benefit our health, helping with digestion. Polenta also contains small amounts of proteins and fat, several B vitamins, as well as a small amount of vitamin E. Polenta is also gluten-free so it can be consumed by people sensitive to gluten.

The more I read about nutritive properties of polenta, the more I thought about how to enrich its taste and make it more attractive to eat on any occasion. And so the idea to completely modernize polenta was born. With today’s recipe, I intend to completely change your way of thinking about polenta and encourage you to incorporate this very healthy dish into your menu more often.

Pumpkin Polenta with Roasted Vegetables

For those who have never prepared polenta, here are brief instructions on how to cook it. It’s very simple but it may take some time. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil, lower heat and add salt. Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of polenta, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken. Depending on which type of polenta do you use, it may take up to 45 minutes for polenta to be cooked. If you are busy like me, you can use instant polenta, which is done in 5-8 minutes. If you want a richer flavor of your polenta, instead of water you use vegetable broth. In that case, you don’t need to use extra salt. Once the polenta is cooked add some olive oil to enrich it slightly.

Thus prepared polenta is actually a base, and now I will tell you how I made my polenta more interesting. When polenta was cooked I added a homemade pumpkin puree to enrich the taste of polenta and make a dish more nutritive. Also, I added some turmeric powder, which gave polenta delicious aroma but also a beautiful yellow-orange color. As for serving, I decided to serve polenta with seasonal vegetables – beets and sweet potato enhanced with extra virgin olive oil and fresh rosemary and then roasted in balsamic vinegar and sweet syrup sauce. Sweet and sour balsamic roasted vegetables beautifully complemented salty and creamy polenta and made my dish just yummy.

What did I tell you? From boring simple polenta to super healthy dinner.  Still find polenta boring? Let me know did you changed your mind about it when you try this recipe. 

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Pumpkin Polenta with Roasted Vegetables

Creamy pumpkin polenta enriched with aromatic healing spice turmeric served with seasonal vegetables - beets and sweet potatoes roasted in the oven with sweet and sour balsamic dressing.

Course Main Course

Cuisine International

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 2 servings

Author Natalie

Ingredients

For roasted vegetables

• 2 - 3 medium-sized beets
• 1 big sweet potato
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• fresh rosemary
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon syrup or honey

For polenta

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup instant corn grits
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Instructions

For roasted vegetables

1. Preheat the oven to 395F (200C).
2. Peel vegetables and cut them into medium size pieces. Put vegetables in a bowl, add olive oil, fresh rosemary, and salt. Stir until well combined.
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spread vegetable onto the baking tray and roast for 20 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl combine balsamic vinegar and agave syrup or honey. Stir well until combined.
5. Take vegetable out of the oven and stir. Coat with balsamic dressing and roast for another 20 more minutes.
6. Serve immediately with hot polenta.

For polenta

1. In a medium saucepan bring vegetable broth to boil. Gradually add the polenta whisking continuously.
2. Lower the heat to low and continue whisking polenta until the mixture thickens and the polenta is soft (for about 5-8 minutes).
3. Remove from heat. Add olive oil, pumpkin puree and turmeric powder and stir until well combined.

Xoxo, 

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