Cheesy Jalapeño Polenta

I know I keep complaining about making plans for dinner, but that struggle is REAL! We pretty much only have chicken and ground turkey, so keeping things exciting in any way can get tiresome. When innovation does come, however, it’s almost always in the form of seasonings and side dishes like this cheesy polenta with pickled jalapenos…

LOW FODMAP Side Dish

When my husband started following the LOWFODMAP diet, we felt suffocated in terms of flavors. Slowly, however, we started realizing (as with any diet), it just takes time to get used to.

Side dishes like rice and quinoa got old quickly, so we had to look for alternatives. The few we found were the Ancient Harvest gluten free pasta (most GF pastas have other no-no ingredients on the diet), millet, and polenta. 

To be honest, I didn’t love polenta. It was always bland and thick and blah! Since adding it to the heavy rotation, however, I’ve realized that polenta can be delicious without much work.

The first addition to our polenta side dishes were butter (obviously), dried herbs, and parmesan cheese. It was great as an Italian dinner base (like this sausage and polenta recipe). But we wanted it other ways too, so the experimenting began…

Cheesy Polenta

The jump from parmesan cheese to cheddar cheese was an obvious one, but boy was it a tasty one. I now can’t imagine the limits of what cheeses we should try in polenta (stay tuned).

And, of course, with cheddar polenta came the idea for cheddar jalapeño polenta – and it is delectable!

Originally I’d thought of using finely chopped fresh jalapeños, but my friend Lori suggested pickled jalapenos. I wasn’t sure at first, but then I remembered how much I love them on nachos and how much less overpowering they are in terms of spice and I was on board!!

And if you’re like me, then you’ll need some extra jalapeños on top for yours!

If you love polenta, try these homemade crispy polenta fries and these homemade polenta fries!

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Cheesy Polenta w. Jalapeños

If you love polenta and even if you don't, this cheddar Jalapeño cheesy polenta is a delicious recipe. A basic polenta recipe is filled with flavor from cheesy cheddar and a kick from pickled Jalapeños - just the perfect flavor without any overwhelming heat!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, New American

Keyword side dish, vegetarian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal or cornmeal grits
• 6 cups water
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 5 ounces medium cheddar cheese shredded
• ⅓ cup diced pickled jalapeños
• Sliced pickled jalapeños for garnish

Instructions

1. Place the cornmeal in a large saucepan. Pour in two cups of water and stir well. Turn to low heat. Meanwhile, bring the remaining 4 cups of water to a boil on the stove or in an electric kettle.
2. Continue to stir and pour in the boiling water. Increase the heat slightly to maintain a simmer. Stir often, about 7 to 15 minutes, until the polenta is thick. Stir in the salt and pepper.
3. Reserve ¼ of the cheese for the topping and stir the remaining cheese into the polenta. Stir in the diced jalapenos. Continue stir until all the cheese is melted.
4. Top with the remaining cheese and sliced jalapenos before serving.

Recipe Notes

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