This bowl of quick-cook polenta and a poached egg is comfort food at its finest. It only takes 35 minutes to make, and works great as a mid-week meal, but can also work as a dinner party starter if you're looking for something different.
Green beans are cooked until tender, mixed with a pre-made jar of green pesto, and served with a cheesy, buttery and creamy polenta, all topped with a fresh poached egg.
If you've always struggled to poach eggs, take a look at our how-to video to get it right every time.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
15 mins
Total Time:
35 mins
Cal/Serv:
560
Ingredients
250g
fine green beans, trimmed
3Tbsp.
fresh basil pesto
500ml
milk
2Tbsp.
white wine vinegar
4
large eggs
200g
quick cook polenta
75g
Parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese, grated
25g
butter
Directions
Step 1
Bring a large pan of water to boil and cook the beans for 4min until tender. Lift out beans with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl (reserve boiling water in the pan). Mix pesto into beans and cover with foil to keep warm.
Step 2
Meanwhile, in a separate large pan, bring milk and 500ml water to boil.
Step 3
Lower heat under reserved boiling water to a simmer. Add vinegar. Carefully crack in eggs, spaced apart. Poach for 4min, or until, when lifted out with a slotted spoon, the whites feel firm but yolks soft.
Step 4
While eggs are cooking, add polenta in a steady stream to boiling milk mixture, whisking for 1min. Remove from heat and whisk in cheese and butter (add more water to thin, if desired). Season.
Step 5
With a slotted spoon lift eggs on to kitchen paper to drain. Divide polenta among four bowls and top with the pesto beans and poached eggs.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
