Sunday, November 28, 2010

Pumpkin Polenta

Blog #19 for the vegan MoFo 2010 challenge!

I love Autumn and making meals with pumpkin. I came across a recipe for pumpkin polenta from a gluten free blogger and was enticed. It had a combination of coconut milk and pumpkin, topped with a tomatillo salsa. The pictures on the blog were so beautiful and the pairings of flavors sounded delightful. I am not a huge fan of pumpkin, or any squash for that matter, being made with a sweetener, so lessened the amount of agave nectar.



I got out all of my ingredients and got to work following the instructions. The recipe called for a full tablespoon of agave nectar, but I only used about a teaspoon. The end result of the polenta was just beautiful. It looked so rich that I couldn't wait to try it.



I then got to work on the tomatillo salsa. This recipe also called for agave nectar and I did not want to add it here either. I am sure it tastes great just as the recipe was written, but was not in the mood for a sweetened salsa. So, I just added a dash of the agave nectar.



After all of the preparation, I placed the polenta in a bowl and served it with several spoonfuls of the salsa. I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor of the polenta and salsa, but not together. I ate all of the salsa off of the top and then enjoyed the polenta alone. It had such a rich pumpkin flavor and warmed me inside. I can certainly see us making the polenta for a meal again. I also see us making the salsa in the summer to serve with chips.

Sometimes recipes and meals don't always work out as planned, but we learn from the ones that aren't perfect. After cooking for so many years, I tend to know what I like and when to leave out an ingredient. I am almost certain that if I would have put in the full amount of agave nectar, I wouldn't have liked the meal at all. My point is that the more you take the time to make meals, from scratch, the more you will learn.

Happy vegan and gluten free cooking!

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