Food that is closer to the wild version will have more nutrients than highly domesticated vegetables – bitter and spicy has been replaced with sweet and bland. Corn is a primary example– yellow corn has lots of sugar and far fewer of the nutrients that blue corn has, so I made polenta with blue corn and instead of adding cheese or cream, I used a mushroom broth that layers it with flavor.
You can top it with any vegetables you have on hand in it. Just sauté them with olive oil, butter or ghee, and add a bit of salt, pepper, Aleppo pepper or chili flakes. Toss in some fresh herbs if you have them at the end. This is garnished with chive blossoms from my container garden.
Also, putting a poached egg on top of this would make a great breakfast.
Blue Corn Polenta Cooked in Mushroom Broth
Heat three cups of mushroom broth, as it starts to boil, slowly pour in blue cornmeal, whisk and turn down the heat. If it is too thick, add more broth as you whisk. You can add some grated parmesan cheese or butter, but the mushroom broth layers in so much flavor, you don’t really need to.
Broth
8 cups of water
2 cups of dried wild mushrooms – I also include turkey tails for their health benefits and sometimes add a piece of kombu seaweed or two for all their ocean minerals
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped (or green stems left from scallions, onions, leeks and green garlic)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp of sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili flakes (I like Urfa for its smokey flavor)
Cook all ingredients on low for three-five hours.
This freezes well in a covered container.