Vegan polenta fries

Greg and I recently discovered the wonder that is polenta fries, so I'm going to share the recipe. The original recipe came from VegNews, although I wasn't able to find it online. We altered the recipe by using the breading formula from Beth Bee's Rabbit Food Cookbook (which is totally awesome, btw). This resulted in a delicious, almost chewy, outer coating and a creamy, soft polenta innards. While not exactly health food, it is really low in fat, since you just use a little olive oil for coating.

I discovered that many people have never heard of polenta, which is really surprising. I correctly predicted that when unable to find it in the grocery store, the first employee we asked replied "what's is it?" So here's the wikipedia article, if you don't know.


Vegan Polenta Fries

• 1 tube of polenta
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

breading:

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. salt (a little more if you really like salty)
• 1/2 t. black pepper
• 1/2 t. poultry seasoning
• 1/2 t. cayenne pepper (optional, consider replacing with paprika)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Peel the thin coating off the polenta (a vegetable peeler works great). Cut in half lengthwise, and cut into strips that resemble french fries.
2. Mix together all the breading ingredients.
3. Toss polenta in the olive oil, and then dredge in breading. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once or twice, until lightly browned.

Peeling the polenta

The oil/breading set-up

The finished product!