Garden Vegetables on Polenta

When I was a little girl, you would often find me sitting in a fruit tree or in the midst of the cucumber patch having a feast. When we had another family come we would take great delight in visiting with other children and leading them through the garden sharing with them as we went. I have many a memory of the look of utter shock when we arrived back to the adults and parents saw their children chewing on a leaf of kale or parsley! “They would never eat that at home!” they would exclaim. Wow, they had really been missing out. I had the pleasure of eating it every day! So now although our garden is much smaller than the one my dear Mother kept, I still just LOVE eating from our garden! At present, we still have eggplant and loads of basil and the choko vine is going wild! So here is our breakfast from this morning…

THE VEGETABLES

1 large onion, diced

1 medium eggplant, or 4-6 finger eggplants, chopped

1 large choko/zucchini, cut into small pieces (I normally use Zucchini but I have a surplus of choko at the moment and it worked really well)

1 red capsicum (bell pepper), diced

1 large bunch fresh basil, chopped

2 tsp celtic sea salt

4-6 cloves fresh garlic, crushed

1, 400g tin diced tomatoes (I use fresh ones when I have excess)

Olive oil for frying

Fry onion and vegetables in olive oil until soft, then add tinned tomato and leave to simmer while polenta cooks or for about 5-10 minutes.

Finally, add salt, fresh basil and crushed garlic and stir through and simmer for a further 2 minutes

FOR THE POLENTA

2 cups polenta

8 cups water

3 tsp herb salt

1 Tbs onion powder

Dash of olive oil

Bring water to the boil. Add olive oil and seasonings. Slowly pour in polenta, while stirring. Lower heat, cover and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally until cooked. The polenta should be thick and feel soft when squashed between your fingers. Once cooked add about 2Tbs olive oil and stir through for a nicer flavour.

Serve and Enjoy!

 

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

(Genesis 2:15)

 Posted By: Natasha Mansour