Vegan mushroom and tomato polenta bake

Polenta is something I didn’t know existed until I came to France. I don’t ever recall eating polenta when I was in Spain but when I discovered I quickly fell in love with it. It’s super versatile and allows you to make so many things: you can make lasagna, you can make cakes, you can make just veggies with creamy polenta or you could make this vegan polenta bake which is super delicious and healthy!

La recette est en français tout en bas du post!

Disclaimer: My camera bugged a bit when I was taking these pictures so I have few of them. What matters is that at least I have some pictures of the process and at least one of the result!

Ingredients to make this polenta bake

This recipe is suuuuper easy. You just need a couple of ingredients (And of course, polenta) and you are good to go for a great meal (and leftovers!)

• Veggies of your choice: I went for mushrooms, onions and cherry tomatoes.
• Spices: I used some oregano, thyme and garlic powder.
• Polenta
• Butter (vegan)
• Brown sugar (a tiny bit) (not in the picture cause I forgot!)
• Optional: Either grated cheese (vegan or not) or some nutritional yeast.

How to make this vegan polenta bake

Preparing the veggies

This recipe is quite easy, the only thing that requires a bit of time and patience is the onions. I “quickly” caramelised my onions before cooking the rest of the ingredients.

So take a pan, add some butter, cut the onions and add some sugar (really just a bit), slow cook those onions for 20 to 30 minutes and then you can add the mushrooms and the cherry tomatoes. Cook everything for 5 to 10 more minutes and then you will be able to assemble the bake.

Preparing the polenta

Polenta can be a bit tricky to cook if you don’t a) stir fast enough and b) don’t put enough water/broth. I cooked mine with water because I ran out of broth but you can totally cook it with some veggie broth if you want to have some extra flavor!

For reference, I always put 4 cups of liquid for 1 cup of polenta. This is what I did for this recipe and it worked beautifully. You can add the garlic powder to the polenta once it’s cooked and add either some olive oil or extra butter to make it even creamier.

Assembling the vegan polenta bake

Now that you have the veggies and the polenta ready, you can start putting it all together. In an oven plate, butter it a bit in case the polenta sticks (it never does, but we never know, ovens work in mysterious ways sometimes). Add a layer of the polenta.

Then add a bit of veggies and mix it all together. With a spoon, make the top smooth and uniform then top with the rest of the veggies.

Now if you wanna add some cheese, do it now. Whether it’s vegan or not. We are going to bake this at 200ºC for around 15 minutes max. If you want to “grill” your cheese/top of the polenta bake, go ahead and do that for the last 5 minutes.

Alternatives to this vegan polenta bake

This is a great base for many other dishes. If you want to switch it up a bit:

• Different veggies: you can add anything honestly, zuchinni, eggplant, spinach…
• Different flavors: Add some pesto sauce! or some spicy tomato sauce! It’s going to work wonderfully.
• More protein?: My recipe doesn’t have that much protein but if you want you can
  • Add some beans: black beans work well and chickpeas as well.
  • Add some tofu to the polenta: buy some soft tofu, mix it with the polenta and it will be super creamy (even more!)
• Something different with polenta? Try my creamy polenta with eggplant!

Recette en français – Polenta au four avec champignons et tomates

Liked this recipe? Pin it!