The farmers market is now open outside in all its glory. I am beyond ready to embrace warm weather and all the food choices that come with that. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy all weekend ultimately leading to comfort food craving. Enter: parmesan polenta with lemon thyme mushrooms. Gorgeous mushrooms from the farmers market sautéed with shallot, garlic, thyme and lemon on top a bed of creamy, cheesy polenta. Yes please. A little side of farmers market greens and this was one comforting, vegetarian, gluten-free meal.  Sidebar- this polenta is pretty full proof and would be great with a number of hats including shrimp, chicken, spinach, etc.

Inspired by JoyfulHealthyEats

You’ll need:

For Polenta-

2 tablespoons olive oil

0.75 cup finely chopped red onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart chicken stock

1 cup cornmeal

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt/pep

3 ounces parmesan, grated

For Shrooms-

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced (I used mandolin)

1 garlic clove, minced

2.5 cups mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini)

Juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
For Polenta:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large saucepan (I used a dutch oven) heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add red onion and pinch of salt and cook for 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add garlic, and sauté 1-2 minutes. Don’t burn garlic.

Increase heat to high. Add chicken stock and bring to boil. Slowly add in cornmeal while continually whisking. Cover pot and place in oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes, whisking every 10 minutes to prevent lumps. Remove from oven add butter, salt/pep (season aggressively maybe a few teaspoons of salt) and parmesan.
For Shrooms (I started cooking this when there was roughly 15 minutes left until the polenta was done):

Heat a large non-stock sauté pan over medium high heat. Add olive oil and sliced shallot.

Saute for 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Immediately add in mushrooms. Saute for 10 minutes. Off the heat, add lemon juice and thyme.

For heaven:

Fill a bowl with a polenta pile. Top with a solid amount of mushrooms, a sprinkling of thyme (if extra’s around… I know thyme is just awful to pull off those little twigs) and some more parmesan.