Polenta w/Roasted Eggplant and Garlic Kale

This week's farmer's market recipe was inspired by last week's eggplant.  I don't often cook with eggplant, but it was so easy and tasty last week that I knew I wanted to make some again.  The cherry tomatoes from the farmer's market were also divine, so I thought that it would be nice to roast the two veggies (or fruits technically) together in the oven.  What to go with it?  A base - some creamy polenta would be amazing and something I haven't had in while.  And something else to give it a little extra bite - some garlic sauteed kale.  And a sauce to bring it all together - what's better than a perfectly fried egg with a runny yolk?  Now you've got an entire dish full of delicious, fresh and seasonal veggies over a creamy base of polenta (or grits, whichever name you prefer).

This week I realized that I haven't been eating much meat - that most of my recipes have been vegetarian.  When I used to come up with recipes, I would pick a protein and then think about how I wanted to cook it and what I wanted to pair with it.  Recently, I've been focusing on the seasonal fresh veggies I want to cook with and have been creating recipes around that.  Last week I did end up adding some ground pork to my zoodle recipe, but this week I found myself only making vegetarian recipes.  While I'm not going vegetarian any time soon, it's been really interesting to use seasonal and fresh veggies to create recipes.  The amount of flavor these fresh veggies bring to the table is unreal.

Servings: 4-5

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup dry Polenta

2 medium eggplants

1 1/2 lbs cherry tomatoes

5 cups kale

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups water

4 tbs olive oil

5 eggs

salt & pepper to taste

Optional: 1/4 cup ricotta cheese & 2 tbs shaved parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Chop the eggplants into 1/2" square pieces, generously salt, and place in a colander while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
2. Preheat oven to 375° F
3. Bring 3 cups of salted water to a boil and add the polenta.  Lower the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring often.
4. Pat the eggplant dry, toss with 2 tbs olive oil and place on a baking sheet.  Toss the cherry tomatoes in 1 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper.  Place on a baking sheet and bake the veggies for 10-15 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through.
5. Add the remaining tbs olive oil to a large saute pan and saute the minced garlic over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until brown and fragrant.  Add the kale and saute for 4-5 minutes until the leaves are wilted.
6. While the kale is wilting, fry an egg.
7. When the polenta is cooked, turn off the heat and add the cheeses (optional).
8. Plate your dish with polenta on bottom, then top with kale, eggplant and tomatoes.  Top the plate with the fried egg and enjoy!