I’ve been cooking my way through Rip Esselstyn’s The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet: Eat Plants, Lose Weight, Save Your Health, and every single recipe is a winner. Highly recommended! For instance, here’s my version of one of his recipes that I made for dinner tonight—
Mexican Polenta Bowl
Serves two, generously
1 cup dry polenta
¼ cup nutritional yeast
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you use it…we don’t)
4 cups water
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup salsa
1/4 cup tomato sauce (no salt, no sugar)
1/4 teaspoon each onion and garlic powders
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tomatoes, diced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
½ cup cilantro, large stems removed
1/2 avocado, diced (allow ¼ avocado maximum per serving)
Juice of 1 lime
In a small bowl, combine the polenta, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt (if using), and 1 teaspoon jalapeño or more to taste.
In a small saucepan, add the black beans, salsa, tomato sauce, onion and garlic powders, and cumin. Heat until thoroughly warmed.
In a medium pot, add the water and heat over medium-high heat until bubbles start to surface. With a whisk in one hand and the bowl in the other, slowly pour the polenta mixture into the hot water—whisking all the while. Once all the polenta is added, the mixture will be thick and paste-like. Turn the heat to low. Whisk for about 5-15 minutes to ensure there are no lumps and the mixture is uniformly thickened.
Pour the polenta into 4 bowls and serve topped with black beans, tomatoes, green onion, cilantro, avocado, and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice.
Based on a recipe by Rip Esselstyn. The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet: Eat Plants, Lose Weight, Save Your Health (p. 242). Grand Central Publishing. Kindle Edition.