Thursday, February 23, 2012

Unstuffed Baked Sweet Potato with Polenta Portabella Ragout

I was feeling in the mood for a light dinner and since it's tax season, it's usually dinner for just me. But I somewhat enjoy making myself dinner, thinking up creative things & this dinner just kept giving me more ideas as I was going on. It started with just a baked sweet potato with sour cream, scallions, and sauteed onions. But then I added fresh spinach, mushrooms (tax season is when I can enjoy mushrooms the most since Avi won't touch it!). Then I saw my trusty log of Polenta in the pantry and decided to cube it and add it to the "ragu." This way it's hearty enough yet light at the same time. I've modified the recipe for 2.

Unstuffed Baked Sweet Potato with Polenta Portabella Ragout
-2 sweet potatoes
-1 onion, diced
-3 cups fresh spinach
-1 large portabella mushroom cap, cut into cubes
-1/2 a polenta log, cut into cubes
-olive oil, salt, pepper
-Sour cream or Earth Balance for the sweet potato
-Chopped green onion

-Pierce a sweet potato with a fork or knife a few times, wrap in tin foil & bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.
-Saute 1 small onion in a few drizzles of olive oil, add salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of sugar. Saute on medium-low so that the onions slightly caramelize. Add 1/2 a chopped portabella mushroom cap, stirring, adding a touch more oil if necessary.
-Push the mushroom/onion mixture to one side of the pan and add the polenta, and season the cubes with salt & pepper. Let it get brown before tossing/turning them (it might be annoying to start turning each cube so just move them around in the pan after a few minutes of sauteeing on one side)
-Add the spinach, roughly chopped, to the onion/mushroom and saute just until wilted. Incorporate the polenta. Season with more salt & pepper to taste.
-When the sweet potato is done, carefully make a slice down the middle, not going all the way through and push the sweet potato open. Season with salt, pepper, green onions, & sour cream on the side :-)

I am off to eat!! (again, sorry about my phone pictures, terrible quality.. Waiting for an Iphone so that my blog pictures don't look so sad! I take pics with my regular camera but when I want to post immediately, I have no patience for uploading!)

E

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