Crispy Polenta Cakes w/ Cabbage and Beans

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Do not make our mistake and cook this in the summer. From the cabbage to the white beans to the dark beer to the caraway, this is wholly a cold winter night comfort food. I would also recommend a few tweaks on the original to make it better, suggested below.

Crispy Polenta Cakes with Cabage and Beans


1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced
few tbs cup apple cider vinegar OR lemon juice
~3 cups leftover polenta
~6 oz dark ale
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp+ mustard
2 tbs butter
1 cup cooked white beans

heat a bit of olive oil in a large pan and toss in your onion and cabbage. Add a pinch of sugar, a bit of vinegar or lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir-fry until they both get soft and browned to your liking.

We made our sauce just by pouring the ingredients over the cabbage, but I would recommend food-processing your if possible, or grinding the caraway before adding it. The large caraway seeds in our sauce were a little bit unpleasant. Either way, you want to end up with a sauce of the beer, caraway, mustard to taste, and salt and pepper to taste, reduced a bit and poured over the cabbage and onion. Stir in the beans.

Heat some oil in another pan. I made the mistake of trying to make a cake out of very soft polenta and ending up with a terrible half-fried gloppy mess sticking to my pan. So make sure your polenta is cooked very firm, and if it's not, stir in flour until it gets there. if your pan isn't perfect, you're going to need a good amount of oil and lots of careful attention to keep the cakes from sticking and breaking... but you will be rewarded with awesome crispiness. put a lump of the polenta into the oil, flatten it with your spatula, and then immediately push it from it's initial landing point to prevent sticking. keep moving it around as it cooks and flip when it's brown. put a few cakes on top of the cabbage and enjoy!