Categories: Healthier Options

Polenta with sautéed vegetables and Review of “Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook

To be very honest, on receiving the American Heart Association Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, I was not very excited about cooking from it. I love and actually look forward to pictures in my cookbooks and this had none except for the cover photo. If you are more of a visual person, like me, then this book will leave you a little disappointed. Having no pictures to get tempted and cook a particular recipe, I did have some difficulty in choosing something to make.

I do appreciate the idea behind the book though but having being spoilt for choice by Food Network’s the Best and the Lightest (which I have reviewed here), I think my expectations were high. I am sure the book has some good recipes and the one I am sharing today- polenta with vegetables, was one that my mom and I enjoyed for our dinner. V unfortunately isn’t a fan of this type of cooking or the cuisine and prefers more spicy (read Indian and the occasional thai and chinese) food, so it was a nay from his side. And that’s why although I like the idea of this book, and did find a few interesting recipes for healthy appetizers and salads, this cookbook will not have much of a place in our kitchen.

I had cooked the Tuscan style chicken recipe as well from the book and that recipe is something that I would not be visiting again. To be fair having grown on butter chicken and spicy chicken curries, the tuscan slow cooker fell a little flat. I used the leftovers to make sandwiches, which were good though.

What I did like about this cookbook was the information in the starting few pages and I found their section of healthy hints pretty helpful and informative. Overall though, this cookbook did not speak too much to me.

Polenta with sautéed vegetables and Review of "Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook

Recipe Type: main

Serves: 3

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 small yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch strips (you can also add a small eggplant but I did not)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup low sodium fat free vegetable broth
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
for the polenta
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, coarse grained
grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

Heat the oil over medium high heat. Sauté garlic for a few seconds. Dont let it burn.
Add the vegeatbles and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until tende. Stir occasionally. If the vegatbles are sticking you can add a little water, a tbsp at time, and cook vegetables till tender.
Add tomato sauce, the 1/2 cup broth, oregano and salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to simmer and let cook partially covered on low heat for 15 minutes.

To cook the polenta:

In a saucepan heat the milk and broth to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium and gradually whisk in all of the polenta. Continue whisking for 1-2 minutes, or until the polenta reaches desired consistency.
To serve, spoon the polenta in the bottom of the bowl and top with the vegetables. Grate the parmesan on top.

3.5.3208

Disclaimer: “I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.”