Chilli & Parmesan polenta with green beans recipe
A light and bright side dish with crispy polenta, green beans and a fragrant basil oil dressing.
Recipe from The Really Quite Good British Cookbook, images copyright © Lizzie Mayson, recipes copyright © Cat Ashton. Nourish Books.
Ingredients
For the salad- 400 g green beans
- 100 g blanched hazelnuts, roasted
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 0.2 tsp chilli flakes
- 100 g rocket
- 0.5 lemon, zest only
- 625 ml vegetable stock
- 125 g coarse polenta, plus extra for dusting
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 75 g parmesan, grated
- 0.5 lemon, zest only
- 0.5 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 large bunch of basil leaves
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 pinch of salt
- 125 ml olive oil
- 1 punnet edible flowers (marigolds, violas, nasturtiums)
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Polenta
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 35 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- For the basil oil, place the basil, garlic and salt in a food processor and blitz quickly until finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly pour in the oil, season, and leave in a cool place for the flavours to develop.
- For the polenta, bring the stock to the boil in a large pot with salt to taste, and whisk in the polenta grains.
- Cook on a low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Add the butter, Parmesan, zest and chilli and season to taste.
- Pour the mixture into a shallow tray lined with greaseproof paper. Set aside to cool fully. Cut into rectangles, or any desired shape.
- For the salad, blanch the green beans in a large pot of salted boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain and cool quickly in bowl of ice water to prevent them from cooking. This will keep them bright green and tender.
- Smash the hazelnuts and mix with the olive oil and chilli flakes; set aside.
- Heat a little bit of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry up the portioned polenta until crispy.
- Warm the green beans and toss with the rocket, zest and smashed nuts. Place on top of the polenta, spoon over the basil oil and garnish with the edible flowers.
This recipe is adapted from The Really Quite Good British Cookbook, images copyright © Lizzie Mayson, recipes copyright © Cat Ashton. Nourish Books.
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