Dinner from the Bottom of the Vegetable Basket

The day disappeared yesterday while i was busy in the garden and when I arrived in the kitchen clutching an armful of spring greens I discovered there was very little else in the vegetable basket. Two small sweet potatoes, a handful of carrots that had seen better days and the butt end of a butternut squash. The family began to look slightly agitated, wondering if dinner was going to happen, so i had to do some quick thinking

I turned the oven on, peeled the veggies and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into the oven to roast. Next I put a pot of water to boil, weighed out some polenta (ground maize) and grated some parmesan. as soon as the water boiled I whisked in the polenta. I let it cook for a few minutes before taking it off the heat and beating in the Parmesan cheese and a knob of butter, salt and pepper.I poured it onto a large tray and left it to cool. The spring greens were rinsed under the tap and cut into ribbons. I chopped a couple of cloves of garlic to stir fry with the greens. By now the veggies were just about cooked so I whacked on the grill pan to heat, cut the polenta into wedges and drizzled with a little olive oil.This is where the multi tasking kicked in. Once the grill pan was hot I put the polenta wedges on to cook and lit the gas under the wok for the greens. For the greens I added a little oil and a scanty teaspoonful of flaked chilli, a teaspoon of fennel seeds and the chopped garlic. These got a quick whirl before I threw in the greens to stir fry and then I flipped the polenta to cook the other side. Once the greens had wilted down I added a little soya sauce and a splash of water to finish them off.

Onto the plates went a pile of chilli greens, a couple of wedges of polenta and a little heap of roasted veggies, To top it off I dropped a spoonful of Greek yoghurt on top and drizzled a little rocket pesto around.

It looked pretty posh and tasted delicious!