I made this dish purely to use up some leftovers from this post over here. It can be hard to find new ways of repurposing leftovers but scroll down to the tips section below to read some of my leftover food hacks.

Creamy Polenta with Marinara Meatballs

Ingredients:

• leftover Italian Mini Meatballs or half from this recipe
• baby spinach
• 2 cups water
• 1 stock cube (veg or chicken)
• parsley or thyme
• 1/4 cup polenta
• grated cheese
• squeeze of lemon

Method:

1. Heat up your leftover meatballs in a pan. You can add a little bit of water so that it heats up quicker and is a little bit more saucy. Add some baby spinach and stir in. Take off or lower heat once hot.
2. In a separate pot, boil 2 cups of water with 1 stock cube and some dried herbs.
3. Once the water starts boiling add the polenta all at once. Whisk until the polenta starts to thicken then cover the pot with a lid. Keep the pot covered and give it a whisk every now and then. It should cook for about 15 – 20 minutes and will become very thick and smooth (not grainy).
4. Once it is at this stage you can whisk in some grated cheese. As much as you like but it doesn’t need that much. Just a little sprinkling.
5. My polenta was a little bit salty so I added a squeeze of lemon.
6. To assemble spoon hot polenta on a plate then top with meatball and spinach marinara sauce.
7. Drizzle some olive oil over the top and serve straight away.

Tips for using up leftovers:

1. Literally anything can be made into a sandwich and toasted, toasting the sandwich makes whatever filling you’re using taste fresh and it won’t taste like leftovers anymore. Add sauces or cheese to it so it won’t be dry and dhania makes everything taste better.
2. Make a wrap. Add some fresh salad and sauces and it will taste like a new dish.
3. Make sure you always have a good combination of the following: protein + starch + veg. Whichever one you don’t have add. For example: chicken + no starch + no veg = chicken + rice + veg = stir fried rice.
4. Pick an ethnic cuisine and adjust your flavors to suit them e.g. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian and Italian.
5. If it’s dry make it saucy!!!!