Blog

Polenta Cakes

• February 2020
• Vegan Recipes

I love polenta, and I especially love the firm, creamy on the inside, polenta cakes I get sometimes at restaurants. I just could not figure out how to get mine like that, and spent a lot of time cooking it on the stovetop as per internet recommendations. Finally a friend of mine suggested baking the cooked polenta, and voila, that’s the ticket! This all takes a bit of time overall, but you’re not actually doing much during that time. I love making some for dinner and then keeping the rest in the fridge for snacks or quick meals. For snacking, my favorite is using my silicone mini muffin trays. I store the little polenta disks in the fridge, and they are great just plain, or with anything else you want to throw into a tupperware and take out to the crag or for lunch. For dinner or breakfast use, I most like using my rectangle silicone loaf pan and slicing the polenta into large squares or slices. It’s also really good cut up into small cubes to add to your salad, either hot or cold.

1 cup polenta
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1 T Earth Balance (if desired)

Mix the cup of polenta into the water and bring to a boil. I like to use a thick-walled Calphalon saucepan, as it seems to distribute the heat better, but you can use any saucepan. Lower the heat as low as possible and cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring every once in a while. The longer you cook it, the more the polenta will plump and absorb the water. About 30 minutes in, add salt and pepper until it tastes good to you. You can also stir in the Earth Balance if you wish. Preheat the oven to 350.

You could certainly go ahead and eat this polenta right now if you wanted! But if you’re still gunning for the cakes, now pour about half of it into a silicone loaf pan (it will be about 1 1/2 thick inside the pan), and spoon the rest of it into a silicone muffin pan: I get 6 rounds if I use a standard size muffin pan, and 12 if I use mini muffins. You could also use it all for the muffin trays, either regular or mini: totally up to you!

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the polenta has firmed up: mini muffin sizes will be done sooner than regular muffin and loaf pan. The polenta may still feel a little soft when you first take the pans out of the oven, but don’t worry. Let it cool in place for 15-20 minutes before you pop it out of the pans. It will firm up more as it cools, and it will also firm up more if you store some in the fridge.

You can go northern Italian style and make some mushroom gravy to eat with this, or you can use it as your base for roasted vegetables or a veggie stir fry. I love it on salad, and it also goes great with tofu scramble (or eggs) and veggie sausage for breakfast. And, it’s delicious just plain. Enjoy!!