Pizza Polenta Bowls

It’s the first Thursday of the month which means that it is time for another installment of 30 Minute Thursday!!  I was so tempted to give you another Mexican recipe but I dug deep and went with Italian this time.  If you aren’t familiar with 30 Minute Thursday here is a little bit of info about it: On the first Thursday of each month I get together with some of my food blogging friends and we all come up with 30 minute meals to share with you!  See bottom of post for the links to all of their delicious recipes 🙂

Have you guys ever cooked with polenta before?  Up until a few months ago I had only ever bought the logs of polenta at the grocery store and fried it up in a pan.  I had never even had the idea to cook my own at home and I definitely didn’t know how easy it was.  You can use the corn grits to make classic polenta that holds together really well, or you can use them the way I did and make more of a cereal version that you can eat in a bowl and top with delicious ingredients

This is a pretty simple dish so it is important to use really great ingredients.  You could always pour some bottled tomato sauce over the top, but I think it makes it really delicious to make your own chunky sauce for this recipe.  Tomato sauce can sound intimidating but it is so easy to make and much more flavorful than the canned stuff.  I love black olives on my pizza so I chose them as one of my toppings for these Pizza Polenta Bowls, but you could also top these with any other pizza topping options that you like.  This is a great recipe for a busy weeknight where you don’t have a lot of time to cook but you want a delicious dinner with lots of flavor!

Pizza Polenta Bowls

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• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

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Ingredients

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• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 small red pepper, diced
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes, slightly drained
• 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence or dried oregano
• 1 large handful baby spinach leaves
• Optional toppings: fresh parsley, sliced black olives, any other pizza toppings you desire!

Polenta:

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup corn grits
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance, or butter (optional)
• 1 – 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

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Instructions

1. Add 3 cups of water to a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. While water is coming to a boil, heat a large pot over medium heat and add olive oil, red pepper, green pepper, onion, salt, pepper and herbs de Provence. Cook vegetables until tender, 3-5 minutes. Next add the garlic and cook for another minute. Using your hands, carefully squeeze the tomatoes into the pot and then add a little bit of the leftover liquid, depending on how thick you want your sauce to be. Bring sauce to a simmer and stir occasionally.
2. While sauce is simmering, make the polenta. Add the corn grits and salt to the boiling water. Reduce heat and cook for about 5 minutes, whisking frequently. Once polenta has thickened, whisk in the butter and nutritional yeast and set aside.
3. Turn off the heat for the tomato sauce and stir in the spinach. Divide the polenta into 4 bowls top evenly with the tomato sauce. Top with fresh parsley and black olives if desired, or your favorite pizza toppings.

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Category: Entree, Gluten Free, Vegan