SPRING INTO SPRING WITH ‘POLENTA VEGETABLE BAKE WITH THAI STYLE SALAD’

FOOD BY HELEN WESTWATER OF LA OLA FRESCA

##Before the heat turns up, Spring is the essential tonic after the chills of winter. A time of cleansing and renewal, to look after the gall bladder and the liver (in Chinese medicine the organs of the wood element). The moment to expel negative emotions and renew and balance your immunity for the rest of the year. As we unfurl into spring we are warned to “keep one foot in Spring and one in Winter”. This recipe for Baked Polenta and vegetables with Thai salad topping does exactly that!

Polenta is made from ground cornmeal and is a great calming source of gluten-free carbohydrate that will give all that energy for the upward growth of Spring. Mixed with lots of vegetables, busting in vitamins and fibre plus an extra boost of Vitamin B rich nutritional yeast and topped with a special zip-zappy ginger, lime and vinegar dressed salad to cleanse and wake up your senses!

On Saturday 27th April come and discover more healthy recipes like this in our monthly ‘Cook, bake, speak English’ class – open to native English speakers as well as students of English.

Polenta Vegetable Bake with Thai Style Spring Green Salad

For the bake

4 cups of Organic fine ground Polenta Cornmeal

8 cups (approximately) boiling water

2 tsp good quality vegetable stock

1 tsp cumin

Olive oil for frying

1 red onion finely diced

4 carrots diced

1 courgette diced

1 broccoli, heads thinly chopped

1 handful of sundried tomatoes

1 dessert spoon Nutritional Yeast

2 dessert spoons Flaxseed

Salad

Cucumber peeled and chopped

Black sesame seeds

1 Avocado chopped

1 handful raw broad beans

Crisp green lettuce

Mix of coriander leaves and fresh mint

Dressing

1inch fresh ginger root

2 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon coriander

1 scant teaspoon chilli flakes

200 ml boiling water

1 scant dessert spoon panela brown sugar

50 ml rice vinegar or cider vinegar

Splash of fish sauce (optional)

1/2 lime

Method

Heat the oven to 180c 350f

First, slice prepare the dressing for the salad. Slice the ginger, coriander root and the garlic cloves roughly.

Boil the water with the ginger, garlic, coriander root and sugar for about 5 minutes. Leave to cool and infuse.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan, then gently sauté the chopped vegetables so they are lightly cooked. Place a lid over the top so they preserve their moisture. Mix in the nutritional yeast.

Next, prepare the polenta. In a saucepan, add the boiling water with the cumin seeds and the vegetable stock little by little so that all the polenta is wet and you have a thick sauce consistency. About the same consistency of mashed potatoes.

Mix the vegetable into the polenta. Take a rectangular baking tray and place some baking paper in the bottom greased with a little oil. Take your polenta mix and spread over the tray packing it down tightly with a spatula. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven. This base will keep for several days.

When ready to serve, mix the salad with the cooled dressing. Squeeze over the lime juice and sprinkle with sea salt. Heat the polenta base in a frying pan with a little water if it looks dry. Top with your salad and sprinkle a few black sesame seeds over the top.

The perfect balance to put a spring in your step! Happy Easter Holidays.

¡EN ABRIL ACTIVIDADES MIL! @ La Ola Fresca

18 THURSDAY 20:00h ‘Speak English’ Special ‘POEM IN MY POCKET’

20 SATURDAY 16h Hot cross bun workshop and tea party: peques y padres 5 euros

21 SUNDAY 11h-14h EASTER BRUNCH SPECIAL (reserva con anticipación)

23 TUESDAY 19h San Jordi ‘I book you’ (intercambio/Books/meet up)

Travel special – Presentation by Amy Baker of her book ‘Miss-Adventures’

27 SATURDAY

10.00h-12:00h Art workshop in English with Tina McCallan 10 euros

‘DREAMS and the life of surrealist artist and novelist Leonora Carrington

Cosmética Natural KALAPAS KULTURA

17h ‘COOK, bake, speak English’ – HEALTHY SPRING RECIPES 10 euros