Pumpkin Polenta With Chipotle Pintos And Roasted Vegetables

I was looking for something to make for dinner, but the pantry and refrigerator were pretty empty and I couldn't get to the store. The one thing there was a lot of was pumpkin puree (the result of processing the Halloween pumpkin), so I started a Google search for recipes with that as my inspiration ingredient. 

After discarding all of the sweet recipes, side dishes, and those that called for ingredients I didn't have there were two possibilities. Both of them mixed pumpkin puree into a basic polenta. One called for spooning chipotle-spiced pinto beans on top. The other was topped with roasted vegetables. I took the best of both recipes, added a sprinkle of cheddar, and called it dinner.

Polenta is very easy to make. You mix corn meal with water or broth (for four servings I used a cup of corn meal, two cups of broth, and a half teaspoon of salt), heat it till simmering, then turn the heat down very low and cook it for 40-45 minutes, stirring several times so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Polenta is done when the mixture is thick and smooth, with no corn meal graininess left. Some recipes call for adding butter, cream, or cheese at this point. I mixed in two cups of pumpkin puree and a tablespoon of butter.

For the beans, I sauteed two cloves of garlic in a little olive oil, then added three cups of pinto beans along with their juice, a teaspoon of cumin, a little salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of chipotle in adobo and simmered them until the liquid was almost gone.

The vegetables were a mixture of onion, garlic, and Normandy blend of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots roasted at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. (Most recipes call for oil, but I don't think it's necessary and left it out).

The recipe made four servings. Since there were only two of us eating dinner, it lasted for two meals.