Today I am sharing a recipe from one of my favorite new cookbooks “Feast” by the lovely Sarah Copeland (who’s first book was the Newlywed Cookbook). I have to share this with you because when I first laid eyes on this book, I just seriously FREAKED OUT. It is so stunningly beautiful down to every last detail. The photography is amazing and the recipes are outstanding. I seriously can’t believe how many I dog-eared to make. Her flavor and ingredient combinations are just so similar to how I think about food, but with a twist that is Sarah’s signature Edible Living Style.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that Feast is a vegetarian cookbook?! Somehow that made these recipes even more interesting and intriguing, and I never once missed the meat in these recipes. They all just seem so fresh and flavorful- I truly struggled to decide which one to make.
Finally I settled on this beautiful polenta dish because I just love how comforting and hearty it is, while still being packed with delicious wilted winter salad. And a runny poached egg on top? Unbelievable.
I made a few little changes, based strictly on my kitchen staples. I subbed frisee lettuce in the winter salad for curly kale, and I omitted a chunk of blue cheese on top for some aged sharp white cheddar. Great flavors, but I am sure the original recipe ingredients are divine!
I get to share this recipe with you here today, compliments of Sarah, but I am also going to giveaway a copy of this book to one lucky reader because I just want someone else to get to enjoy it.
To enter to win this book, simply leave a comment telling me your favorite meat free dish!
This contest is open to US residents only and closes on Saturday night at 12PM, January 25th. The winner will be chosen at random. I will announce the winner here and on facebook on Sunday morning. Please leave one comment and male sure that you use a valid email address for me to reach you. If you do not respond within 24 hours, I will choose another winner. Good Luck!
Ok, so this is how you make this Polenta with Winter Salad and Poached Egg:
Bring 3 cups of the water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Slowly add the polenta, stir with a wooden spoon and add the salt.
Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until the polenta is fully cooked and tender, about 20 minutes. If at any point the polenta feels like it is becoming too dry, add ½ cup of water and stir and cook until it has evaporated.
Add 2 tablespoons of butter, the milk and the cheese to the polenta and stir well over medium low heat until it is completely combined and soft enough to drop easily from a spoon. Cover to keep warm.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the tomatoes and cook until they burst, a few minutes and then add the radcicchio and the kale and cook until wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, remaining butter and a few tablespoons of water and toss everything together. Let it simmer until the sauce has thickened, another minutes.
Serve the polenta in bowls, with the hot salad over the top. Add the cheddar cheese and the poached egg and sprinkle the top with fresh black pepper. Serve immediately.
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Recipe: Polenta with Winter Salad and Poached Egg
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups water
- 1 cup polenta
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 ounce aged white cheddar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 handful cherry tomatoes
- ¼ head of radicchio, torn into bite sized pieces
- 1 cup curly kale, torn into bite sized pieces
- dash of balsamic vinegar
- 4 large eggs, poached
- 2 ounces aged white cheddar
- kosher salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Bring 3 cups of the water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Slowly add the polenta, stir with a wooden spoon and add the salt.
- Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until the polenta is fully cooked and tender, about 20 minutes. If at any point the polenta feels like it os becoming too dry, add ½ cup of water and stir and cook until it has evaporated.
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter, the milk and the cheese to the polenta and stir well over medium low heat until it is completely combined and soft enough to drop easily from a spoon. Cover to keep warm.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the tomatoes and cook until they burst, a few minutes and then add the radcicchio and the kale and cook until wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, remaining butter and a few tablespoons of water and toss everything together. Let it simmer until the sauce has thickened, another minutes.
- Serve the polenta in bowls, with the hot salad over the top. Add the cheddar cheese and the poached egg and sprinkle the top with fresh black pepper. Serve immediately.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 25 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
This dish is SO my style! I adore meat-free meals and am always looking for super-flavorful, “don’t miss the meat” recipes to serve my family!!
My favorite meat-free recipe is actually vegetarian tacos! Two heated up corn tortillas filled with: quinoa, black beans, corn, grilled zucchini/yellow squash, topped with pickled shallots & pickled red cabbage, fresh cilantro, crumbled cotija plus a wedge of lime. Totally love any combination of veggies in this taco. Most essential items are the quinoa, the pickled veggies, cotija & lime. Any type of salsa goes great drizzled on top but truly isn’t necessary. The flavor! The crunch! The pop! Totally awesome!
I love polenta, this looks so comforting and flavorful! My favorite meat-free dish is plank-grilled zucchini with couscous and spinach.
This dish sounds like proof that vegetarian can be nourishing, satisfying, and utterly delicious. For me, as long as a dish is full of flavor and has an adequate amount of protein, healthy fat, and varied ingredients, I probably wouldn’t miss the meat. Vegetarian lasagne and hearty salads are some of my favorites!
What a gorgeous dish!!
Red chile cheese enchiladas – book looks lovely!
That looks scrumptious and the cookbook looks beautiful! I just got a Vitamix and made the TORTILLA SOUP with tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mushrooms, yellow squash, red pepper, cabbage, corn, black olives, taco seasoning and cumin. Served it with tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream. It was delicious and my 17 month old and 3 year old gobbled it right up too!
This looks like the perfect comforting winter dish!
My go-to meat free meal is a warm grain salad with beets, brussels & goat cheese
Polenta! Gotta love polenta! For dinner we have polenta with marinara and sauteed mushrooms. For a decadent treat polenta with marscapone and apricot jam is unreal.
Pappardelle with spring vegetables ! My husband and I just gobble this up whenever I make it 🙂
http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/content/pappardelle-spring-vegetables
Oh wow, does this look good. I’ve been wanting to try polenta dishes, and this will be my first! And wow, that cookbook! Gorgeous! My go-to meat-free dish is a Spanish Tortilla, lots of potatoes, red bell peppers, and eggs, with some yummy ancho chile pepper sauce and whatever else is in my fridge or pantry.
This sounds really great! Polenta is so wonderful as is anything with a poached egg on top!
Going with comfort food I would choose homemade Tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich (which I have been known to sneak some sautéed greens in!) Delicious! I need to check this book out – thank you for sharing the recipe!
beautiful photographs, will try this tonight!
I love making chana saag…so flavorful and delicious!! I would love to get my hands on a copy of this book. The cover alone is stunning!!! 🙂
Beautiful dish! My favorite meatless dish is pesto pasta or anything with pesto.
Thanks Heather!
I don’t get to make too many meatless dishes, hubby seems to think its not a meal without meat. But anything with pasta and hearty mushrooms seems to keep him from complaining too terribly much,but its guaranteed he will sneak in a … “it would be better with some chicken” comment in there!
Looks so delicious, Heather. I think I’ll make it right now (still picking curly kale from our garden–mid January!) Yum.
One of my favorite meatless dinners is a super simple comfort-food staple in our house: sauteed onion and lots of mushrooms (salt, pepper, red pepper flakes), add broth and half a green cabbage, sliced. Cover until tender. Good like that but if you stir in sour cream or yogurt at the end it’s kind of like beef(less) stroganoff.
My favorite meat free dish is cous cous with morroccan spiced veggies… I’m working to get my hisband to accept some more meat-free dishes, i’ve converted him to spaghetti squash, maybe this could be next!!
One of many favorites is vegetable soup with pesto, along with some homemade bread!
Fabulous!!! Love everything about this winter salad!!
My favorite meat-free dish is a bit decadent – tagliarelle pasta with cream, truffle butter and chives with a bit of parmesan sprinkled on top – divine!
This recipe looks tasty and a good way to get some fresh veggies into your family mid-winter.
Well…..I have two favs! My first has to be a veggie satue’ with zucchini, yellow squash, carmalized onions, browned mushrooms, spinach, pepper, LOTS of GARLIC and fresh parm on top! My second (tied for first!) I love a spinach, apple, dried cranberry and toasted pecan salad with a strawberry vinaigrette, I can eat this salad everyday for weeks….and I have! It’s so good! I recently found your site and I am loving it!! I grew up north of Seattle and your recipes bring me home! I am now living in Oklahoma, and I am always trying to make and create fresh Seattle style meals (unfortunately without seafood) for my meat and potatoes loving boys! Hahaha Thank you for all the great recipes!!
I’ve been in the mood for polenta, ever since I saw somebody make some on chopped last night. This has just inspired me more to make some. Great recipe 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Thank you for the chance, I would love to win this cookbook, particularly as I am learning how to cook better vegetarian meals! My favorite vegetarian meal right now is a colorful chili I make.
My favorite meat free dish is roasted eggplant rounds with homemade marinara and mozzarella cheese melted on top! With a side salad it is a wonderful meal, and the leftovers are even better!!
Oh, my! This is truly a comfort food meal!
My favorite Vegetarian dish is some good fresh pasta drizzled with a garlic brown butter sauce, a dash of red pepper flakes and some fresh basil and green onion. Yum Yum Yum!
I love a thin crust pizza with sauteed mushrooms, truffles oil, basil, fresh garlic and rosemary and of course large slices of fresh mozzarella cheese.
This seems like one of those dishes that is more than the sum of its part. I especially love the beautiful runny egg yolk–a perfect rich sauce!
Wow this looks DELICIOUS! I’ve heard so many great things about this book and this recipe looks divine!
I make a stir fry that is loaded with so many different vegetables that you are so busy checking out the veggies you don’t notice there is no meat. If I add tofu everyone will focus on the tofu and complain about the lack of meat.
i love a homemade cream of zucchini soup.
This looks like a fantastic cookbook! I want that for dinner soon! We eat vegetarian about 0% of the time and I have many favorites. One thing that comes to mind right now is Portobello burgers with tmatoes, basil, mozzerella dn garlic parmesan mayonnaise. Super good and makes me want it to be summer so that I can make them again!
My favorite meat free recipe is also wheat free, it’s my Zucchini Lasagne! It’s like you’d figure, all the delicious flavors regularly found on your typical lasagne: tomato sauce, basil, oregano, ricotta, mozzarella, and the lasagne noodles are thinly length-wise sliced zucchini. The reason I don’t miss the meat is the addition of sun (or oven) dried tomatoes and crimini or portobello mushrooms. Yum!
I love recipes like these – this looks perfect!!
I recently made a roasted mushroom, kale and millet dish from the Sprouted Kitchen cookbook and the flavors were amazing. And anything with an egg on it.
I have many meet free dishes, but one of my favorite dishes is Potato Enchiladas with asparagus.
Pasta al pomodoro!!
My favorite meat free dish is Couscous! Tonight I made it for dinner with vegetable stock, salt, tablespoon of butter, and then tossed in a couple of tablespoons of cilantro right before serving. My whole family loved it!
Vegetarian chili is one of my favorite go-to dinners. It’s so easy to throw together with whatever beans and veggies you happen to have on hand. Lately, I’ve been chowing down on lentil taco salads, as well. Mmm…lentils. 🙂
This looks so good!
I also appreciate how easy it is to alter. As a gluten-free, dairy-free college student, I have my work cut out for me when I try to figure out what to eat that is healthy, cozy, and adheres to my dietary restrictions!
I think my very favorite meat-free dish is a cold quinoa salad. I cook red quinoa and then I throw an even mixture of basil, mint, and cilantro into a food processor until it’s very, very fine, then I toss the quinoa in this mixture, add some cashews (or pine nuts, when I can get them) and sliced cherry tomatoes. It is so refreshing and yet such good comfort food. Plus, the quinoa is a great source of protein!
Yummm! I love a good tofu stir fry, or my husband’s homemade zucchini pizza.
My favorite vegetarian dish is butternut squash soup (low salt) served with cole slaw and Ritz Touch of salt crackers.
(I have to watch salt levels for medical reasons, and don’t miss salt at all in this menu!)
Love a big pot of lentils with onion, garlic, carrots and celery!
Looks delish….I love this quinoa sweet potato black bean chili recipes found on Pinterest, also a simple tofu veggie stir fry with coconut rice. The book looks gorgeous.
Beans and rice=meant to be together
My favorite meat free dish is probably stuffed mushrooms, or grilled vegetable sandwiches!
That looks so delicious!
This looks incredible! Takes me back to my northern Italian roots too! 🙂
What a fabulous meal!
As a vegetarian, every meal is a go-to vegetarian meal for me! My favorites are hearty salads made with barley or quinoa or other filling grains.
beautiful!
I just added Feast to my Amazon cart so I’m really happy I saw this post! My favorite meat-less dish is a one pot pasta. I love how the fresh vegetables really get a chance to blend with the pasta. It’s so simple but so flavorful!
This looks amazing!
I love making a veggie-stuffed tortilla: summer squash, black beans, onion, bell pepper, corn and salsa cooked, then piled into a tortilla with some cheese and grilled on the stove. Delicious!
Wow – the pictures look amazing! I love meat-free meals – particularly any sort of rice/bean bowl. But veggie lasagna is probably my favorite. thanks!!
One of my favorite meat-free recipes is a roasted cauliflower-olive-almond pasta dish. Thanks for the giveaway!
I love mushroom burgers!
At the moment, any thing with roasted butternut squash.
A very fresh egg salad sandwich on fresh homemade bread.
This looks delicious – I’ve actually never tried cooking with polenta, and you’ve inspired me!
One of my favorite vegetarian dishes is Curried Chickpeas & Tofu from my dog-eared ‘Moosewood Cooks at Home’ cookbook. The base is a savory, Indian-spiced tomato curry, inspired by chana masala. I serve it over basmati rice with steamed broccoli. It’s ridiculously easy to make, economical, colorful and tasty. Even my meat-loving husband likes it!
I think I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and be totally satisfied! Looks amazing!
YUM, cannot wait to try this! My absolute favorite meat free dish is Smitten Kitchen’s leek fried rice (with a runny egg on top too). It is one of our favorite dinners.
I will always and forever choose a salad over any other meal. So I guess my favorite meat free meal would be a yummy kale salad with lots of veggies and a briney dressing!
I have bookmarked so many recipes in Sarah’s book – I agree is is absolutely gorgeous. This is clearly another one getting added to my list! x
It is hard to pick my favorite meat free dish. I love potato leek soup and a hearty black bean soup on cold nights. I love a great citrus fruit salad mixed with jicama and chili flakes in warm weather. I also love a great margarita on the rocks made with fresh lime juice…no mix…sweetened with agava nectar. That’s a dish right?
My mom used to make a polenta recipe similar to this one… Polenta has always been a childhood favorite food of mine. I’m still trying to get my kids on board! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
I love make vegetarian or vegan meals, when people don’t realize there’s not meat. It makes me feel like I tricked my stomache, everyone’s taste buds, and I tricked a meat eater.
Thanks for the new recipe!!!
My latest favorite is a wilted kale salad with chili lime roasted butternut squash, red quinoa, avocado, fresh Mexican soft cheese, topped with pomegranates. It was a recipe I found online. It had another cheese, but I frequently have Mexican cheese at the house. I usually skip the dressing. Recipe called for a garlic sriracha.
I am new here, but will definitely be coming back. Ratatouille with polenta is one of my favourite meatless winter meals and this dish feels kind of like a polenta redux, which totally appeals for days when I was all of the substance of ratatouille, but more structure.
This looks divine! Can’t wait to try it.
With the cost of meat and health concerns lately, I have been looking for hearty, tasty meals to serve my family. I think this qualifies 🙂