

My daughter and I were out and came home with my wife and daughter hungry, so I got to work cooking right away. We picked up thin sweet potatoes from the farmers’ market this weekend, which I was anxious to cook.
I also got from the market a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts called kale sprouts; I described in March 2015 finding these in the market place as kalettes™ and really enjoyed them (today my family popped the raw ones in our mouths and loved them, stems and all). I’ve not found them more recently until I saw them this weekend.
I thought that I’d use kale sprouts for the main course. I wanted some sort of bean or maybe seitan to go with it and didn’t have any beans soaking. Luckily, for times like this, I have a few cans of chickpeas on hand. In order to bulk up the meal, I thought I’d use a tube of prepared polenta that I had on hand.
My wife recently returned from a trip to Bulgaria and found ample vegan options and great food choices. She brought back a spice called “savory”, which appears to be something like savory (chubritsa), a common table spice. I thought that I’d try seasoning with it. Here is what I did.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup onion cut into approx. 1/4″ x 3/4″ half moon slices
- 16 ounces polenta cut into approx. 3/8″ cubes
- About a quart of kale sprouts (alternate: chopped kale)
- 14 1/2 ounce canned stewed tomatoes
- 15 ounce canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- (optional) 2 t traditional Bulgarian spice mixture (alternative: favorite herbs)
- 3/4 t salt
- (optional) 2 T nutritional yeast
Process
- I cooked the main course waterlessly by putting, in this order, the onion, polenta, and kale sprouts into a large Saladmaster stock pan.
I cooked by covering the pan and heating on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 15 minutes. - I then opened the pan and mixed in the tomatoes, chickpeas, and spices.
Sweet potatoes cook in 10-19 minutes of pressure steaming, but I went with 9 minutes, serving five of these small sweet potatoes for each of my wife, daughter, and me. They were great! In fact, they could have been done in 8 minutes. But I liked the organic way in which the sweet potatoes were gently burst open. And the sweet potatoes were light, much less dense than Japanese sweet potatoes (my favorite variety). Since they were organic, as we usually buy, I ate them intact, skin and all. I also served green luobo radish, from the farmers’ market as well.
Results
Ideas for the future
Labels: Gluten Free, Instant Pot, No Added Fat, Saladmaster, Waterless cooking