Fried Polenta with Raw Beet Sauce

Polenta is a great alternative when you’re bored with pasta, rice or bread. It works well as a side dish but could also be served as a main course. As an added bonus it's gluten-free, which is very convenient if you're serving it to someone with allergies.

I got a little lazy so I did not cook and form logs of polenta myself; I used store-bought instead. The taste doesn't differ that much, except when I make my own, I usually add a bit of butter , cream and Parmesan cheese for extra flavor. The pre-cooked version is much healthier.

To ensure the success of this dish, the key is to make plenty of sauce to enhance the flavor of the polenta. This time around I made pesto, but with a twist. I made it with raw beets, then sautéed some button mushrooms and melted goat cheese. The combination of both mixtures made the perfect sauce for this polenta.

Beet Orzo Pasta Salad Recipe

Orzo salad is an easy one-dish, summertime meal. You could add anything you like, so you can adapt the recipe to fit whatever you find at the market. The most labor intensive work involved in preparing the salad is chopping all the ingredients. For this version, I added cherry tomatoes, broccoli, sugar snap peas, pickled carrots and canned black beans. The main event though, was the addition of the roasted beets. I prepped them in the morning and let them cool to room temperature.

We spent a very low-key, relaxing weekend and I didn't feel like cooking a ton, raising the temperature in the kitchen with the stove and oven during the afternoon, as the temperature got higher. This cold pasta dish was light, complete but still flavorful, and we got to enjoy it by the scoopful in our garden.

Beet Cream with Goat Cheese

I’ve used the combination of beets and goat cheese several times, and I think that it works incredibly well. The color is so vibrant it only makes sense to use it as an appetizer. To brighten up the purée, I added marinated artichoke as a garnish and covered it in crumbled goat cheese as a hint of what’s inside. Just serve it in small shot glasses along with some tasty black sesame crackers, and you’ll have an easy appetizer that still brings the wow factor.

It also goes great alongside the hummus that I published yesterday, so mix and match and have fun!