For some time, my hubby and I have been talking about starting a recipe series for quick, easy meals that can be made in about 30 minutes or less. What has been holding me back you may ask? Well, 2017 was an extremely busy year for Ful-filled. We hosted 4 workshops and worked with a long list of brands & makers, so starting this new recipe series was not something that I had a lot of time for. The ironic thing is that now, it feels like I have even less time with two upcoming workshops before our move to Greece. But, I am so excited about starting this series, that I just had to squeeze it in because I could not wait to share it with you guys! It is also my solution to keeping connected with you guys through the blog. This quick & easy recipe series will include super straight forward blog posts, which means I will still get to share recipe inspiration with you even though I am going crazy behind the scenes!
Now let’s break down this lemony polenta with peas, radishes & yogurt:
POLENTA – if you use instant polenta this recipe will only take about 25 minutes from start to finish, but if you use normal polenta, it will take about twice that time, so if you have normal polenta on hand, a great solution is to make a large batch of polenta that you can then quickly re-heat to eat throughout the week
PEAS – I made our very favorite pea recipe, but you could feel free to substitute asparagus or baby broccoli for example. I used frozen peas because they are super convenient and truth be told, I somehow had 4 bags of frozen peas in our freezer (two of which were open)…am I the only one who does this with frozen veggies?!
RADISHES – I used radishes because I love their pretty pink color and I get so much joy out of preparing food that is beautiful! Make sure to wash the radishes very, very thoroughly because we are eating the whole root, leaves and all in this recipe and the leaves are notorious for holding onto dirt. A quick sauté in some butter and salt and you have a delicious no waste veggie that doubles as a beautiful garnish!
YOGURT – We have been substituting thick, Greek or Icelandic yogurt in applications where creme fraiche or sour cream would be called for and, let me tell you guys, it is SO good. Lately we have been using Siggi’s whole milk plain yogurt and we love it. If you want to keep this recipe completely dairy free, you can substitute vegan yogurt or cream.
LEMON & OLIVE OIL DRIZZLE – If you follow me on Instagram then you may have noticed that we have SO MANY lemons right now! We use lemon all the time in our cooking because it brightens dishes in the most perfect way and that is exactly the case with this recipe, we are very generous with the lemony drizzle!
There you have it! A gorgeous, healthy meal that is quick and easy to pull together and would be great for breakfast (maybe with a poached egg?), lunch or dinner!
Do you guys like this quick & easy recipe series?! Let me know in the comments if you want to see more posts like this! And if you try this recipe out I would love it if you shared your thoughts with me!
PrintLEMONY POLENTA WITH PEAS, RADISHES & YOGURT
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
FOR THE POLENTA:
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup regular polenta or instant polenta
- 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
FOR THE PEAS
- 8oz frozen peas
- 1 large leek
- 2 tbsp high quality butter or subsititute vegan butter to make it dairy free
- 1 tsp fresh mint, finely chopped at time of serving
- salt to taste
FOR THE RADISHES:
- 2 bunches radishes with tops, thoroughly rinsed clean & sliced in halves
- 4 tbsp high quality butter or substitute vegan butter to make it dairy free
FOR THE GARNISH:
- 1 cup thick yogurt (we like Siggi’s)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- zest & juice of 1/2 a lemon
- salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a heavy saucepan bring water and salt to a boil.
- While you wait for the water to come to a boil, prep your leeks, radishes and mint.
- In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tbsp of butter & add leeks, cooking over medium heat until leeks are soft and just starting to caramelize (about 5 minutes)
- At this point the water should be boiling. Gradually whisk in polenta in a thin stream. Cook polenta over moderately low heat (it should be barely boiling), stirring every couple of minutes, until very thick and pulls away from side of pan, about 15 minutes for instant polenta (40 minutes for regular polenta).
- Add peas to the leeks and cook until peas are heated through (about 5 minutes)
- While the peas cook, in a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest & juice with a pinch of salt, reserve
- Season the peas with salt to taste, remove from pan into a bowl & mix in fresh chopped mint, reserve
- In the same pan, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat, add halved radishes with tops to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes, tossing so the radish tops cook evenly, season with a pinch of salt, reserve
TO SERVE:
- Spread about 1 cup of cooked polenta on each plate or low bowl, top polenta with peas, radishes, a dollop of yogurt & sprinkle with cracked black pepper. Finish by generously drizzling each plate with the lemony olive oil & enjoy!
This is beautiful, and a creative way to make a healthy dinner with pantry staples. I also love how radishes taste when they’re cooked — they’re like sweet little nuggets!
Thank you so much Karen! Yes, I love cooking radishes, it makes them such a different experience…and their greens are SO good too!
We made this the other night and followed your recipe to the “T”. It was AMAZING!!!
And to answer your question, YES, we’d love it if you did more quick and easy recipes like this!!
To be able to whip a glamorous and fabulous healthy and nutritious and WAY beyond delicious meal like this for our family is immensley valuable to us with our hectic schedule!!
In fact, it would be pricelss, not only for our health to be able to eat at home more, but also pricelss for our pocket books, this meal was cheaper to make at home than for the family to even go thru a freakin drive-thru, if you can believe that, it’s TRUE, and WAY more gourmet for us to eat at home like this!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!
I’m going to make this dish sometime this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I see that you spread the polenta on the dish vs. baking it. Do you think it would be too dry if I baked the polenta and added the other ingredients?
Yay! So exciting! Well for this dish, you are going to want to cook the polenta on the stovetop and serve it as a creamy base to all those vegetables!
I’m going to make this tonight or tomorrow.
I hope you guys like it as much as we did!
I’ve made this recipe at least two or three times a month for the past few months as a quick and delicious lunch. A couple weeks ago I decided to add some protein for a heartier dinner. Seared scallops have been my go-to. Their salty-sweetness really pairs so nicely with the whole dish and now I’ve got a new dinner staple as well!
This makes me so happy! I love the idea of adding scallops to this dish! I can’t wait to try it that way :) thank you for sharing!