Creamy Polenta With Mushrooms

Creamy Polenta With Mushrooms, Sage, And Garlic

This Creamy Polenta with Wild Mushrooms, garlic, and sage is a life saver! A simple, easy meal that can be made in under 30 minutes.

Ingredients:
Creamy Polenta

4 cups veggie or chicken stock (or sub water with 1 tsp salt)
1 cup polenta (ground corn meal)
___1/2 cup cheese-optional (goat cheese, white cheddar, parmesan, romano, vegan cheese) or leave it out!
1–2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
Shallot

Salt and pepper to tasteShallot,  

Sauteed Mushrooms

3 cups mushrooms, cleaned -chanterelles, morel mushrooms, button mushrooms, cremini, miatake, shitake or portobellos
1–2 tablespoons oil or butter (a mix is nice)
1 shallot, diced
2–4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
2–3 tablespoons wine- totally optional(cooking sherry is nice- sherry wine, not sherry vinegar!)
1 tablespoon fresh sage (or sub rosemary or thyme)
finishing salt
Garnish- a drizzle of truffle oil ( optional- but worth it! )

Directions
Make the Polenta: 

Heat the stock in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, turn the heat down to low and gradually whisk in the cornmeal to the hot liquid while whisking vigorously to avoid any clumping.

Bring to a simmer, cover and let simmer gently on low heat for 10 minutes, then give a good stir. (Start the mushrooms below!) Cover again, simmer 10 more minutes, give another good stir. If using fine cornmeal, this should be close to done, if using a coarse polenta, you may need to cook a tad longer until grains fully open.

When the polenta is tender and cooked through, add your choice of olive oil, or butter, cheese, white pepper, stirring until fully incorporated. TASTE and adjust salt. Turn off heat, cover until ready to serve.

Mushrooms: 

While the polenta is simmering, saute the mushrooms. Heat oil over med heat, add shallots, garlic and mushrooms, cook 6-7 minutes until mushrooms release their liquid, lowering heat if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Let the liquid cook off and allow the mushrooms to brown a little. At this point, you could splash with a little wine, letting this cook-off too- optional. Add the sage leaves right at the end and cook for one minute. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
Serve the mushrooms atop a bed of delicious creamy polenta.
Drizzle with Truffle oil if you like!

NOTES


I also love adding wilted baby spinach to this for extra nutrients. Feel free to add the spinach to the mushrroms towards the end, letting it gently wilt. So tasty!