POLENTA UPMA

POLENTA UPMA
Polenta was relatively very new to me. I have seen it prepared with cream by many chefs of Food network and I was thinking it to be porridge of some sort made with corn meal (am I right?). Recently at the Super Bowl party at a friend’s place, we were discussing about low-carb breakfasts and they suggested about having polenta for breakfast. They had some readymade polenta logs and offered us to try out. When I was checking out the label, it had only cornmeal and salt and the carb content of 1/8 of that log was around 15 grams. That seemed to be a decent amount of carbs for a low-carb breakfast. Initially, I did not know how to cook it, I just cut out small portions and pan fried it but its bland taste did not suit our palettes. Then one day I crumbled some of the polenta and made polenta upma with it and voila! a spicy low-carb Indian-style breakfast. This upma tasted pretty good with a sweet taste going on throughout and it was quick and easy too. The whole process took only about 10 minutes. I had used some onions and scallions for this and if needed any other veggies can also be used here.

INGREDIENTS:
Ready made polenta, crumbled, about 2 cups.
Onion, medium-sized, 1.
Scallions or spring onions, 1 bunch.
Green chilies, small, 2.
Ginger-garlic paste, 1 tsp, (optional).
Salt as per taste.
Mustard seeds. ½ teaspoon.
Curry leaves, 1 twig.

PREPARATION:
Crumble the polenta finely and keep aside. Chop the onion and scallions into fine pieces and split the green chilies into two. Heat some oil in a pan and when the oil is hot enough, add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the chopped onions, scallions, and green chilies along with ginger garlic paste and sauté for a few minutes until everything is tender. Add the crumbled polenta along with salt for taste and mix everything well and sauté for a few more minutes until everything is well blended, garnish with curry leaves and serve hot.

Variations: The same method can also be used with cornmeal instead of readymade polenta. I have used readymade polenta since its fast and easy, especially during the weekday mornings.