So for everyone who hasn’t got me on Twitter, this week I managed to get myself a job! I’m now a waitress at Mezzet near Hampton Court, which is a fantastic Lebanese restaurant that do really incredible food (I had a falafel wrap for my lunch today, it was soooo good) – which is really hard work with quite long hours, I didn’t get home until 11pm last night. But it’s a fantastic opportunity to watch a kitchen in full swing, and be able to help run a busy restaurant, seeing as food is a primary goal for me career-wise, yesterday I even got to help plate up and decorate the little dessert baklava and strawberries they serve for free with the bill, which was really exciting!
Anyway, I got back at about 7pm today and was really shattered and hungry, so I wanted to find an evening meal to eat that would only take me about 10 minutes to cook, because after being on my feet for ages, I just wanted to sit back and not care about cooking anything lengthy (especially as I’m already cooking bread, which is rising as I type this, for a post about my trip to Nepal last year that I’ll probably do on Thursday) – so I looked through all of my vegetarian cookbooks and found this really nice one in 101 veggie dishes, for a polenta dish with quark (a sort of soft cheese) and light vegetables.
Polenta with Quark and Baby Veggies
Ingredients
425ml of vegetable stock
About 90g of quick-cook polenta
50g of quark
Half a 125g jar of vegetarian pesto
50g of baby corn, halved lenthways
50g of baby carrots, trimmed
50g of runner beans, thickly sliced
50g of peas
Zest of half a lemon
One tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
Half a garlic clove, finely chopped
Method
- In a saucepan, bring the stock to the boil, then shower in the polenta in a steady stream, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in the quark and cook over a low heat for a further 5 minutes.
- Steam the vegetables over a pan of simmering water for 3-4 minutes. Remove the polenta from the heat and beat in the pesto. Spoon onto the plates, and serve the vegetables on top. Scatter over the lemon zest, parsley and garlic last.
Serves two
Where do you find a good vegan quark? Do you have a recipe to make it yourself?
I’m not sure to be honest, this is dairy quark, as sometimes I eat cheese and stuff… Sorry x
Congrats on your new job! And I can’t believe you put together that dish in 10 minutes – I’ll have to keep this on hand :)
Thanks :)
Yeah it is ridiculously simple, and polenta takes no time at all x
I haven’t had polenta since I left the States and the ready-made version was readily available. I’ll have to learn to make it from scratch!
This looks great. Not sure what polenta will taste like. I was a vegetarian years ago and we recently decided to have a meat free house, so am looking for some quick, easy, yummy meals. Thanks!! Kat :)
Ooh congrats for going veggie! Polenta’s got quite a nice, smooth texture, but it is quite bland, that’s why it tastes so nice mixed with the pesto in this recipe. You can also buy it pre-cooked, cut it into slices and pan-fry it with chilli :D x
I’ve always made polenta with water but awesome tip about using vegetable stock!
I find polenta quite bland without it :) x
well done you!
Congrats on the job! Well-done! What a truly appetizing dish!
Thank you :D It tasted great x
Congrats on the job! It sounds exciting to work in a restaurant! And ohh, I do like good polenta =)
I’m so glad to be there, it’s so exciting to be that busy all the time :) x
This looks wonderful! Congratulations on your new job!
Thank you! Working from 5pm to 11pm tomorrow, wish me luck :\ x
You will do well and learn alot during the dinner hours!
Sincerely,
judy