Crispy Polenta Two Ways

What if I told you that you could make crispy polenta not one, but two ways? Baked, crispy polenta is such a nice meal. Don’t get me wrong, regular cooked polenta is lush. But shaped like chips and crunchy? Oh yeah. I’ll be taking you through the steps of making polenta first. Then how to get it to crispy by just baking it in the oven. What’s more? We’re going to serve it up in two different ways. Crispy polenta chips (or fries) and a polenta fillet to pop in a sandwich.

Polenta treats anyone?

Polenta

Polenta is a dish made with cooked corn meal. It’s very typical around parts of Italy, France, Switzerland, and some other spots. Delicious and a great gluten free option too! Although you could just cook it and be done with it, you can also bake it. Or fry it! But we’re going for oven baked here to save ourselves the hassle.

Cooked polenta ready to cool.

Let’s start with cooking the polenta in part water, part milk. Of course, I mean a plant-based alternative to milk. We’ll season the liquid, bring it to a boil, and pop in the polenta. With polenta, it’s important you keep stirring while it thickens up. This should only take about 3 minutes, maybe 5. We’ll season the cooking liquid with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, nutritional yeast, and a bit of nutmeg.

Brush with oil and sprinkle with polenta for extra crispiness.

Crispy polenta

To get the polenta nice and cwispy (looking at you, Joshua Weissman) we’re letting it cool first. Then, we’ll cut it into the shapes we want, cover with a bit of oil and sprinkle on some more polenta. Bake it at a high heat, and ta-da! Crispy polenta. Soft, tender in the middle.

Fresh from the oven, ready to eat!

We’ll serve the polenta chips with a bit of mustard, ketchup, any dip you fancy! The polenta ‘fillets’ I decided to put between two slices of sourdough. A spoonful of aioli (recipe found here). Also going on there: spinach, fresh mint, sun dried tomatoes, and red onion.

Dig right in!

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Crispy Polenta Two Ways

Crispy baked polenta from the oven, two ways! Both chips and a crispy polenta 'fillet' for a delicious sandwich.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

resting time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Servings: 2 people

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 300 ml water 1 cup
• 300 ml oat milk 1 ¾ cup (or any other alternative you prefer)
• pinch of salt
• pepper
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 187.5 grams polenta (1 heaping cup)
• 2 tbsp polenta (for dusting)

Equipment

• Pot
• oven

Method

 

1. Start with getting the water and milk to a boil. Add all the seasoning; salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, nutmeg, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast.
2. Once it's boiling, add the polenta, turn the heat down, and keep stirring until it's thickened up. Only do this for about 3 minutes.
3. Transfer the polenta to a baking sheet or tray and spread out to about an inch (1.5 cm) thick. Put in the fridge for an hour.
4. Once the hour is over, pre-heat your oven to 220 °C (428 °F). Brush the polenta with olive oil and cut into the desired shapes. Dust with polenta and pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
5. Enjoy!!

Crispy Polenta Sandwich

1. Take two slices of bread, spread on aioli on one side, add spinach, add the polenta, sun dried tomato, pickled red onion, a bit of coconut sriracha, salt, pepper, and some fresh mint.

Notes

Polenta is gluten free. If you use gluten free bread, this is entirely GF.

Keeps in the fridge for a few days but best eaten straight away.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!