Polenta

Heaven

Full Member
Ive just been to morries and only gone and bought Polenta - i dont have a clue what it is! lol

Can anyone enlighten me ? :eek::eek::eek:
 
Polenta is a golden-yellow Italian cornmeal made from dried, ground maize (corn), and also the name given to the savoury cornmeal porridge that’s made by mixing cornmeal with water and simmering and stirring until it thickens - a staple dish of northern Italy. Polenta can be ground coarse or fine and is widely used in the southern states of America to make a variety of dishes, including cornbread, because maize is a major crop in the US.

Preparation

Polenta can be served hot – known as wet polenta – or left to cool and set after cooking, then cut into slices and fried or grilled. Wet polenta can be bland so tends to be mixed with richly flavoured ingredients such as butter, cheese or fried mushrooms, or served as a side dish to accompany meat dishes, stews or casseroles. Fried or grilled polenta slices are good topped with cheese and grilled. Dried ground polenta can be used in baking, is often added to pastry and is a key ingredient of cornbread.
 
I think it's classed as a grain.

If you bought the stuff pre-packed & solid it does have syns. You can fry it & have with beans, pots etc or use in stir fry.

If you bought the grains I make polenta porridge for breakfast. Just boil some water in a pan add polenta & stir, then add fruit, yummy, you can add sweetner if you like.
 
Polenta used to be a free food on green but hasn't been for a year or so now.
It is used in cakes, biscuits or you can add water to have as a savoury dish.

It is 5 syns for 28g
 
yeah it was the hard stuff :-(((
 
With that stuff, you just slice it and either grill or fry

Basic/Non Branded Foods Polenta, whole grain, ready to use 28g cooked

extraeasy.gif
1 Syns on Extra Easy
red.gif
Original 1 Syns
green.gif
Green 1 Syns


Serve with meats or fish or as part of your breakfast "fry up"
 
Polenta used to be a free food on green but hasn't been for a year or so now.
It is used in cakes, biscuits or you can add water to have as a savoury dish.

It is 5 syns for 28g

Polenta IS still free on a green but only if you use the grain; the stuff already made up has syns.

I have just double checked online ;)
 
It's not listed in my new book though? It is in the old one but not the new and I do recall my consultant saying it was no longer free when the "changes" came into force!

Also in the back of the book it is listed as 5 syns for all plans (the grain).

Confused or what!
 
I think they need to update their list of free foods:

Basic/Non Branded Foods Polenta, whole grain 28g raw

extraeasy.gif
5 Syns on Extra Easy
red.gif
Original 5 Syns
green.gif
Green 5 Syns

 
Yep its 5 syns per oz on all plans
 
No its definitely a synned food now. Maybe the diary section hasn't been updated yet but on syns online, it's 5 syns per oz. My consultant also confirmed this. Its a real shame because I was planning on experimenting with polenta as breadcrumbs.... They've probably changed it to syns because of people like me... :D
 
It's the staple food of Kenya, and lots of other African countries. You make it with polenta and can have it as stodge in a meal, or water it down for porridge. They literally eat it for every meal.

See here
 
I occasionally make a cornbread to go with my 5 bean chilli using a recipe from a SW book. In those day the cornbread was free because the polenta was free. Now I go along with what it says in the FAQs that if a product now has syns but you've always lost weight while counting it as a free food then you can continue to call it free. As it's not an everyday food I feel quite happy doing this.
 
HI Circes,

Do you happen to have the cornbread recipie handy?

I posted only yesterday about this, as I'd seen it in a sophie grigson book, a SW recipie would be much better to folow :)

xxxxxx
 
Here it is!

Chilli Corn Bread

Ingredients:

fry light
250g/9oz fine polenta
1 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper plenty of it!
4 large eggs lightly beaten
300g/11oz very low fat natural yogurt
275g/10oz canned sweetcorn kernels drained
2 mild green chilli's deseeded & finely chopped
200g/7oz bottled roasted red peppers in brine rinsed drained & finely chopped
6 spring onions finely sliced

METHOD:
preheat the oven to 170/gas 3 spray a 20cm/8in baking tin with fry light.
Mix together the polenta & baking powder & season well.
In a jug combine the beaten egg & yogurt & pour into the polenta mixture, add the sweetcorn, chillies, red pepper & spring onions & stir lightly to combine.
Pour the batter into the flan dish & bake in the oven for 35-40mins until firm & lightly browned on top, cut the warm bread into squares or slices & serve immediately.
 
Back
Top