Chopped: Popcorn Crusted Polenta Stacks with Barbecue-Glazed Squash & Cashew Cream

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polenta stacksUpdate:  I’m thrilled to say that I was chosen as a runner-up in the Chopped/Vegan competition!  Congrats to the winners!!

The themed dinner parties are on hiatus for today, so that I can participate in Vegan Chopped! 

When I heard there was going to be a brunch edition of Chopped for Vegan MoFo, I was eager to take part.  For those of you who don’t know the show or the concept, Chopped is a TV show in which contestants get four seemingly incongruous ingredients in a basket, and from there they have to come up with a dish that incorporates all of them in a way that makes sense and tastes great.  Isa Chandra Moskowitz of Post Punk Kitchen fame has organized two online and all-vegan versions of Chopped (unrelated to the TV show) with amazing results.  From the sidelines, I’ve enjoyed watching as people took their creativity and culinary skills to the maximum to work the four ingredients (along with any others from their pantry) to make kitchen magic happen.

The mystery ingredients for the brunch edition are: butternut squash, popcorn, fresh rosemary, and apricot preserves!  I was immediately struck by what fantastic fall flavors those were followed up by wondering how popcorn was going to get twisted into a brunch option.  After ruminating on corn, it hit me to use my favorite brunch ingredient which is also made of corn – polenta.  It’d be like the crunchy peanut butter phenomenon meeting the world of maize, with the smooth, buttery quality of polenta against the crisp, corn pop of popcorn.

I added rosemary to warmed, creamy polenta and then let it harden in the refrigerator for several hours.  Once firm, I cut the polenta into circles with a biscuit cutter and breaded and shallow fried it with popcorn that I ran through the food processor until it was in small chunks, but not yet flour.

For the butternut squash and apricot portion of the challenge, I wanted to involve some smoky, creamy flavors to marry the two.  I used the apricot preserves to make a sweet and full-bodied barbecue sauce and spread it as a glaze on roasted butternut squash.  Then the polenta was stacked with layers of the butternut squash and healthy dollops of light and airy cashew cream.  The end result was an inviting stack any brunch-goer would adore.

With several steps involved from letting the polenta harden, to soaking the cashews for the cream (if necessary), and making the barbecue sauce from scratch, this isn’t your typical Monday breakfast.  But with a little advance effort on Saturday night, it could make for a very decadent start to a Sunday.  With cool cream, smoky and sweet barbecue sauce, and the crisp outer crunch of rosemary polenta, this stack brings decadence to the weekend.

Rosemary Polenta

Serves 4

  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling baking dishes
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
  • 3 cups vegetable broth (or water + 1 vegetable bouillon cube)
  • 1 cup De La Estancia fine grain polenta
  • 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
  • Salt & pepper, to taste

(Note:  De La Estancia polenta is a fine grain, quick cooking – but not instant – polenta.  If using another brand of polenta, you’ll need to adjust the liquid and cooking time accordingly.)

Lightly oil two glass pie dishes or 8×8 casserole dishes and set aside.  In a medium-sized pot, sauté garlic in extra virgin olive oil on a medium heat.  Once translucent and fragrant, add fresh rosemary to pot and continue to sauté for another 30 seconds.  Add vegetable broth to the pot and bring to a simmer.  Once the broth is simmering, lower heat and slowly add polenta, stirring constantly.  Continue to stir the polenta until it begins to pull from the sides of the pot, about a minute.  Add nutritional yeast flakes and stir until fully combined.  Pour even amounts of the polenta into the two oiled dishes.  Top with salt & pepper to taste.  Refrigerate the polenta overnight or for several hours to harden.

Popcorn Breading

  • 4 cups air-popped popcorn
  • 1 cup rice milk or other plain non-dairy milk
  • 1 teaspoon corn starch
  • 1 batch Rosemary Polenta (above)
  • About 2-3 Tablespoons canola oil for shallow frying

In a food processor, process the popcorn until it has crumbed into small pieces.  Pour the popcorn onto a plate. Combine the non-dairy milk and corn starch in medium-sized bowl.

Heat a skillet with canola oil and bring to a medium to high-medium heat.  Once the polenta has hardened in the refrigerator, use a small biscuit cutter to cut the polenta into circles.  Dip each circle of polenta into the milk & corn starch mixture and then press the polenta into the popcorn on both sides.  Set aside and continue with all of the circles.  Put a small bit of polenta into the oil to check if the oil is ready.  If bubbles immediately surround the polenta, it is ready.

Being careful not to overcrowd the skillet and working in batches, put several polenta circles into the oil.  Shallow fry each side for about 3 minutes, until browned.  Continue until all of the polenta circles have fried.  Once fried, move them onto a separate plate.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Apricot Barbecue Sauce Glaze

  • 1 medium-sized butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds or slices
  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 batch Apricot Barbecue Sauce (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 420 degrees.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.  Toss butternut squash slices with extra virgin olive oil in large bowl until evenly combined.  Move the squash to the parchment paper-covered baking sheets, spreading them evenly across the sheets.  Make sure they don’t touch and aren’t overcrowded, so that they will roast instead of steam.  Roast the squash for 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and flip the squash slices.  Then brush a generous amount of apricot barbecue sauce onto each slice.  Roast for another 5-8 minutes until fully browned and done.  Remove from oven and set aside.

Apricot Barbecue Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

  • 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons water
  • 1 Tbsp apricot preserves
  • 2 teaspoons low sodium tamari
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon molasses
  • ½ teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon hoisin sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke
  • Salt & pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized skillet.  Bring to a simmer and then cook over a medium to low heat, stirring regularly for 20 – 30 minutes until the sauce has reached desired thickness.

Light & Garlicky Cashew Cream

Makes about 3/4 cup

  • 1 cup raw cashew pieces
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon white miso paste
  • 1 small clove garlic, chopped small

(If you’re not using a Vitamix or other high speed blender, soak the raw cashews in additional water overnight or for at least an hour.  Drain them and continue as follows.) Combine raw cashews, water, nutritional yeast flakes, white miso, and garlic in a blender.  Blend until smooth and creamy.  Refrigerate until needed.

Polenta, Butternut Squash, and Cashew Cream Stacks

  • 1 batch Popcorn Crusted Rosemary Polenta
  • 1 batch Roasted Butternut Squash with Apricot Barbecue Sauce Glaze
  • 1 batch Light & Garlicky Cashew Cream
  • Fresh rosemary leaves, garnish

Once all of the above elements have been made, you can begin to stack them on each plate.  First lay one shallow-fried polenta circle.  Top with two or three circles of barbecue sauce-glazed butternut squash.  Then top with a dollop of cashew cream.  Top with another polenta circle, two or three circles of barbecue sauce-glazed butternut squash, and another dollop of cashew cream.  Top with one more circle of polenta and a final dollop of cashew cream.  Garnish with a pinch of fresh rosemary leaves.

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41 thoughts on “Chopped: Popcorn Crusted Polenta Stacks with Barbecue-Glazed Squash & Cashew Cream”

    • Nice! I love a good pun! You’re so right about the amount of creative and mouthwatering entries for this round of Chopped. I’ve been enjoying checking out everyone’s entries! So many tasty looking things!

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    • Thank you, Maggie! Popcorn was definitely the tricky one in this round; although, I can’t say that I use apricot preserves very often either. I imagined grocery store workers across the globe all wondering, “Why are we having a run on butternut squash, popcorn, fresh rosemary, and apricot preserves?”

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    • Thanks, Laura! I really like that you utilized the squash seeds too in your entry. I wish I would have thought of that! I could see Isa getting into that too, because she has a recipe in Veganomicon that utilizes the pumpkin and the seeds in the recipe. It’s like two ingredients in one!

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  5. Cadry – you are so creative, this dish looks and sounds so amazing! I am a HUGE fan of CHOPPED mystery ingredient cooking, and you put together quite a combo. Loving your blogs this month, pulling out so many wonderful dishes I look forward to making myself. You are keeping yourself quite busy. Hooray!

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    • What an incredibly sweet comment, Jason! Thank you! It really touched me to hear you say such nice things.

      I agree that using mystery ingredients challenges a person in a way that can make some creative and interesting outcomes that likely would have laid dormant otherwise. Plus, it’s just fun to stretch yourself!

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  8. Wowza.. i love these polenta stacks.. popcorn has stumped me too. but i finally used in multiple places. i love that deep bbq sauce and the offset with the cashew cream!

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    • Thanks, Richa! The barbecue sauce with the flavors of corn & squash is something I’ll definitely want to revisit again. I really enjoyed them together.

      Great job again on your entry! Those pizzas look so mouthwatering!

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  9. Wow, that’s incredible! I really love what people are doing with the popcorn! Poenta sounds like a great flavor match. And the apricot bbq sauce is a tasty idea too.

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    • Yes, it’s been so much fun looking at the other entries and seeing how people used popcorn. It’s not something most of us use in our day-to-day cooking!

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  10. I’m very interested in the popcorn crust. I’ve often thought about doing it, but never did. What’s it like? Do the hard bits get in the way? Does it get crispy? Would you do it again?

    I’d love to be invited to a brunch and find your polenta stacks on the table. Nice job!

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    • For using a popcorn crust on something like tofu or tempeh, I think it would hold better if the popcorn was ground more into a flour. With the polenta, I could keep the kernels a little larger, because I was able to press them into the polenta. The hard bits didn’t get in the way, and it did get crispy. I don’t see this being something I do all the time since it did add an extra step from simply frying it or sautéing it on its own (and there were plenty of steps already). However, it did make the dish seem more playful and interesting. I liked the additional texture and more of a focused corn flavor. For a gluten free option, I think the popcorn crust thing could be fun for you to explore, and let me know your results! :)

      If you should ever find yourself in Iowa, Andrea, you have an open invitation for brunch. I know what will be on the menu! :)

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    • Thank you! The apricot flavor isn’t predominant in the BBQ sauce, but it does a nice sweetness that doesn’t come from brown sugar like one often uses in BBQ sauce.

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    • I wish there was a vegan version on TV! I’d totally watch it! I’ve caught a couple of episodes of the real version, and I like the concept. It’s fun to see the way that the creative mind works. (Although, the animal-heavy basket items are often more than I can watch.)

      Reply ↓

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  17. I couldn’t get the comment box to work for some reason yesterday, I was trying to tell you how incredibly impressive this is. Now that the results are up, I just have to say, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T WIN. And I really can’t believe you didn’t even get a mention. BOO MOFO chopped!

    Reply ↓

    • I was having comment box issues yesterday. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to realize it, but luckily Kelly from Three and a Half Vegans let me know on Twitter. Thanks for coming back to comment!

      You’re awfully sweet to come to my defense, but no worries! I actually did win as a runner-up! It’s easy to miss me, because they didn’t post one of my pictures. However, I’m listed after the crazy awesome butternut squash “eggs.” I’m tickled pink to be a runner-up in such an amazing line-up, and thanks for your kudos, Somer! :)

      Reply ↓

  19. This looks so wonderful- I can imagine each bit is packed with so many comforting flavors and the contrast of the creamy butternut squash and polenta with the popcorn crumbles must have been fantastic!

    Congrats on being a runner-up! Yours was definitely one of the most unique entires and one I would likely order in a restaurant- no question. :-)

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  20. Hi, I am a first time visitor – I noticed your comment on confident cook’s website and wanted to say hello. I love this use of polenta, it’s really a refreshingly different approach. Hope to come back and visit more – and I invite you to check out my site too.

    Reply ↓

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