Goat cheese is the ingredient of the week here at our house. The large, 11-oz. size was on sale at Whole Foods so I figured we could find a few recipes that called for goat cheese. Turns out there are many and that they are yummy. Especially this curried vegetable dish that I adapted from Naturally Ella. It’s easy-peasy to make and you won’t miss the meat – I promise!
The polenta takes a while to cook, so definitely get that started before you start on any of the other stuff. Once I had the polenta boiling, I chopped the veggies and mixed in olive oil and curry powder.
When the polenta had been on for about 20 minutes, I started the grill pan for the veggies. They were done sooner than the polenta, so we placed them in a bowl with the chickpeas, tossed everything together and then covered the bowl.
Serving is simple – polenta in the bowl, top with veggie and chickpea mixture and add some crumbled goat cheese. Yum-o! That char on the grilled veggies went perfectly with the creamy tang of the goat cheese.
- Polenta
- 4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock (I always have homemade bone broth on hand so I used it)
- 1 cup of polenta or stone-ground grits
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp butter (optional)
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
- 1 onion, sliced into rings
- 1 large zucchini, cut into strips
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tsp curry powder
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- Crumbled goat cheese
- Bring the stock and salt to a boil in a medium pot
- Add polenta and stir until it thickens, about 10 minutes
- Reduce heat to a simmer, continue cooking and stirring every 3-4 minutes until polenta is cooked - about 25-30 minutes more. (Polenta does thicken as it cools)
- Stir in butter just before serving
- While polenta is cooking, toss veggies with 3 tsp curry powder and 1 tbsp olive oil
- Heat grill (or grill pan in my case) and cook the veggies. I added the onions and peppers first for about 3 minutes before adding the zucchini since the former take longer to cook.
- Once cooked, transfer veggies to a cutting board and chop into chunks.
- Toss them back in the original bowl and add the chickpeas and the remaining 1 tsp. of curry powder.
- Serve polenta in shallow bowls, top with veggie mixture and add creamy goat cheese on top.
- Enjoy!