Dish up blistered tomatoes and chickpeas on a bed of creamy polenta for an easy, vegan-friendly meal. This plant-based dinner for two from Instagram sensation, Natalia Rudin, is a great way to use up ripe tomatoes, and won’t break the bank either.
- Budget-friendly ingredients: “Polenta is a bit of an underdog – it’s not used enough these days but it’s a wonderful ingredient because it’s cheap and cheerful and a little goes a long way,” says Natalia. “It is, of course, rather plain and needs help in the flavour department, but nutritional yeast or cheese and lots of butter will remedy that.”
- Flexible recipe: This recipe works with Parmesan and butter for vegetarians and omnivores. To make it plant-based use nutritional yeast and vegan butter. The quantities for both options are listed in the ingredients.
Recipe taken from Cooking Fast And Slow by Natalia Rudin (Penguin Life £25) and tested by delicious.
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Ingredients
- 270g cherry tomatoes on the vine
- 400g tin chickpeas, roughly drained (a little bit of liquid is welcome)
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500ml vegetable stock
- 150g polenta
- Generous knob of vegan butter (or butter, if you don’t need it to be vegan)
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast or finely grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
- Handful basil leaves
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Method
- Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5. Put the tomatoes, still on the vine, on a baking tray with the chickpeas and unpeeled garlic cloves, then drizzle with the olive oil. Gently mix so everything is glossy, season with salt and pepper, then roast for 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes are bursting.
- Meanwhile prepare the polenta. In a pan, bring the stock to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and pour in the polenta slowly, stirring all the time. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it’s soft and thick (add more liquid if needed). Remove from the heat, then stir in the butter and nutritional yeast (or parmesan) and season to taste.
- Once cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins into the tomato tray (discard the skins). Spoon the polenta onto warmed plates, spoon over the tomatoes, garlic and chickpeas and drizzle over any leftover juices from the baking tray. Top with basil leaves and an extra sprinkling of nutritional yeast (or parmesan).
Nutrition
- 785kcals Calories
- 24g (5.5g saturated) Fat
- 31g Protein
- 98g (11g sugars) Carbs
- 25g Fibre
- 1.9g Salt
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