This is a great option for a filling, inexpensive, and meat-free dinner to change up the pace from a routine of chicken, steak, or fish during the workweek. When I first tested out the recipe, I made it with coconut oil but used butter in the polenta. It can certainly be made vegan by using a plant-based butter for the polenta.

If you don’t want to use polenta, you can definitely use fine ground cornmeal, which is what I use when I don’t feel like waiting on a pot of stone ground yellow grits (which is what polenta is) to cook up. Today, I had the time to work on the grits and let them get nice and creamy on the stove, so that’s what I went with. Whatever is clever!

Make sure to have your cornmeal prepared according to package directions and keeping warm while you sauté the mushrooms and leeks. They cook fairly quickly, so it’s a super satisfying dinner to whip up during a busy week. I definitely made this on a day when I didn’t feel like stepping foot in the kitchen. Let’s get to it!

Mushroom & Leek Polenta

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

1 tbsp coconut oil, more as needed

2 packages sliced baby portabella or button mushrooms

Large pinch smoked sea salt, to taste

Large pinch cracked black pepper, to taste

A few dashes of Liquid Smoke seasoning

1 large leek, rinsed and sliced into half moons*

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Cooked yellow polenta, for serving

*Note: leeks are part of the allium family (onion, garlic, shallot, chives, etc.) that have a very subtle and delicate onion flavor when cooked down. They grow in sandy soil and need to be cleaned very well before being used. Trust me, you don’t want sand in your food that you’ve spent time on cooking! No bueno. Here’s a quick little video from Food Network to watch on how to properly clean and cut them for a dish if you’ve never used leeks before. See all the sand and grit left in the bowl pictured below? You don’t want that in your food.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil. Once the oil has melted and the pan is warm enough, sauté the sliced mushrooms. If they pile up on each other, that’s fine. Let them hang out and stir occasionally. They’ll steam at first, releasing their liquid and once they start to release that liquid, they’ll shrink down a bit and start getting crisp.

Stir the mushrooms occasionally, making sure all of the mushrooms get a nice color, adding more coconut oil as needed. Once the mushrooms are mostly cooked, add the smoked sea salt and cracked black pepper to your liking. I start with a large pinch and go from there since mushrooms absorb a lot. Salt makes mushrooms release lots of liquid, so you want to make sure they’re almost cooked before adding it; this way, you avoid soggy mushrooms! Taste as you go here, since smoked sea salt is a little saltier than standard kosher.

Next, add the rinsed and sliced leeks and cook until they’re translucent and starting to crisp up around the edges, about 10 minutes. Then, add the crushed red pepper and ground ginger.

Taste and adjust any seasonings to your liking and spoon over a bowl of warm cornmeal or grits. Non-vegan friends, if you want to get a little fancy, throw a runny egg over it. Vegan friends, eat this delicious dinner as is. That’s how I had it and it was so satisfying!

¡Buen provecho!