Description
A wintry breakfast bowl that breaks from oats and quinoa and all those traditional grains. Start your day with a rainbow of color to wake you up and sustain you at least to lunch.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 1/4 C dry polenta (instant or traditional; NOT pre-cooked)
- 6 1/4 C vegetable stock or water (or per polenta cooking instructions)
- 1 1/2 T of your favorite olive oil
- Sea salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- 6 to 8 oz. baby spinach
- Arils (edible fruit) from 1/2 pomegranate
- 1/3 C pine nuts or sunflower seeds, toasted
- Fresh basil leaves, torn (optional)
Instructions
- Make the polenta. For traditional polenta (follow package instructions for quick cooking polenta), bring stock or water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Slowly pour in dry polenta as you stir. Let it come back to a boil about 15 to 30 seconds, then reduce heat to medium low, or until the polenta is barely bubbling. Stir almost constantly until polenta is soft to the bite and thickened, but pourable, about 45 minutes. Stir in olive oil, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and black pepper to taste. Distribute amongst five resealable, microwavable containers.
- Add enough water to a saucepan (the same one you used for the polenta, cleaned, to save dishes) that the steamer basket sits just above it. Bring water, with empty steamer basket, to a boil over medium high. Add spinach, cover, reduce heat to just below medium, and steam for 6 to 8 minutes, until beginning to wilt. Turn off heat and uncover spinach after another minute. Use tongs to distribute amongst the five containers, then sprinkle each with salt and pepper to season spinach.
- Each day, reheat bowls in the microwave at power level 7 or 8 until warm as desired. Top with pine nuts and pomegranate arils, which are best stored in separate containers until serving.
Notes
If you don’t have a steamer basket and don’t want to buy one, you can blanch (briefly boil) the spinach. Drain well, pressing out the water, so it doesn’t make your bowl watery as it sits in the fridge all week.
The recipe is vegan, gluten free, egg free, and can easily be made nut free. For a nut free substitution, top bowls with toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds.
Using traditional polenta, I ended up with about 3/4 cup cooked polenta per bowl. Check the package if using instant polenta, to make sure you’ll have enough cooked polenta for all five bowls.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 55 mins
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: Vegan