GREEK YOGURT POLENTA BOWLS WITH BROCCOLI RABE.

GREEK YOGURT POLENTA BOWLS WITH BROCCOLI RABE.
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January 22, 2016

Adulthood has come to me in fits and starts from the tender age of 3. That’s when I first remember wishing I were older, wishing I could sit with the grown ups, talk like them, know what they knew. Settle. Have some kind of constancy and acceptance and stillness in what seemed like a world of perpetual playground teasing and name-calling and side-taking. Of course, I quickly learned that growing up does not mean leaving behind such childish behaviors—or the inconstancy of life. The brutal overhaul of change is perpetual.

Still though, I spent most of the first two and a half decades of my life reaching out to a future self I was sure was already inside me, if only I acted older and wiser and far more serious than I was. At 19 I spent hours each day meditating, At 23, I memorized Sanskrit text from ancient tomes, and soon I stopped reading fiction, I stopped watching tv, I stopped listening to pop music. And then, at 24, my mother died.

Almost instantaneously, my longing for adulthood, for the promise of constancy and stillness and self-knowledge, ceased. In the wake of her death and the space carved out by grief, I suddenly and violently only wanted to be exactly what and who I was. I didn’t want to be older. If anything, I wanted to be much, much younger.

I felt fetal. Exposed. Supremely childlike. Things I thought were one way were actually another. What was up was down. What was healthy might have been what ended my mother’s life. I no longer had any answers.

And, very quickly, I began to relish the not knowing. I relaxed in the open palm of seeing and experiencing rather than longing for or grasping after. I blasted Christina Aguilera and Beyoncé. I binge-watched Gossip Girl. I let myself be.

I felt, and still do feel, younger than ever before. Younger, in some ways, than I was in my own childhood.

But still, adulthood comes in fits and starts. This week, it came in the shape of making hard decisions to grow the business of this blog in exciting new ways that I’ll be able to share with you over the next few months. It came in the shape of welcoming one friend’s new baby into the world and sitting down to dinner with other friends to discuss my quasi-faux-doula-ing at their birth next month. It came in the shape of having at least three conversations I was scared to have. Of staring them dead in the eye and saying yes, come at me. I am ready and I am here and I can take you. Whatever you have for me, I will meet you. I will be young and old and ultimately I will just be human.

And so, this week adulthood came in the shape of being fierce and relentless in myself. In being free.

And of course, in seizing the marrow of life so poignantly, I felt obligated to offer you this incredibly simple but deeply nourishing polenta bowl, rich and tangy with Greek yogurt, topped with tender baby broccoli rabe bright with garlic and chili and lemon.

Get the recipe on this week’s Intuitive Eating with Kale & Caramel on Sonima. For extra flavor punch, use vegetable stock for part or all of the water required in cooking the polenta. You’ll thank me later.

GREEK YOGURT POLENTA BOWLS WITH BROCCOLI RABE.

Ingredients
  

Greek Yogurt Polenta

  • 3 3/4 cups water
  • generous pinch baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup polenta
  • 1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Chili-Garlic Broccoli Rabe

  • 3 leaves large stalks broccoli raab (about 20-30 and stems plus florets)
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 clove large garlic very thinly sliced, divided
  • 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes plus more for garnish
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
  • grated parmesan cheese for garnish

Instructions
 

  • Bring water, baking soda, and sea salt to a boil. Pour in polenta and return to a boil, stirring continuously. Once it boils, reduce heat to lowest setting and cover pot. Cook another 25 minutes, then remove from heat, stir in yogurt, cover, and set aside.
  • In a non-reactive frying pan, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium heat. After a minute, test oil heat with a drop of water. When it sizzles, add half of the thinly sliced garlic. Ensure the garlic fries in a single layer. When golden brown at the edges, remove garlic chips from oil and set aside.
  • Add broccoli rabe leaves, stems, and florets, red chili flakes, lemon juice, and sea salt, and remaining garlic. Toss to coat evenly, and continue to cook over medium heat until stems become bright green and tender. A bit of charring on the leaves is fine, but make sure that most are still vibrant. Remove from heat and serve immediately, atop polenta, sprinkled with extra red chili flakes and grated parmesan cheese.