This city is drenched in Prince and LEMONADE. In the past week, I’ve heard nothing but Beyoncé and The Artist Formerly Known As pouring from every window. LA, as are so many other pockets of the nation, is dripping in grief and awe and the pure power of music to change us. To illuminate. To make us feel. To make us angry. To make us whole.
At every red light, under every balcony, we take pause. We remember. The sheer genius, the brilliant queerness, the sex of Prince. We feel. The boundless artistry and fire of Queen B. We are a people possessed by music. And it is beautiful.
I’ve written a lot about Beyoncé before. I’ve written about Beyoncé and superfoods. About Beyoncé and being an all-natural bad-ass. And now, of course, I have no choice but to write about Beyoncé and LEMONADE. Because we can all go home now. Because Yoncé flipped the script on so many oppressions in one fell swoop that we are left feeling nothing short of free. Or, if not free, then awake. Awake to her anger. Awake to her love. Awake.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge, first and foremost, that there are huge swaths of LEMONADE that I can only appreciate as an outsider, white woman that I am. Though I believe in the transcendent power of intersectional conversations, I also believe in owning stories, and the history of the black woman is not a story I own. That said, I can relate to LEMONADE as a woman. As an artist. As a human in awe of the many ways in which Beyoncé flipped the script on tired tropes that have bound women (and humans) for centuries.
I wrote about this at length on the List App this week—you can find my list here. Put simply, Beyoncé, revealing her own humanness, her own anger, her own power, took away shame and left us with righteous empowerment. To all the places where we might feel broken and robbed of strength, she applied the healing balm of pure self love. This is a woman on fire with the sweetness and tragedy of love, of giving oneself fully, of heartbreak and redemption. This is a woman who can own it all, who does not flinch from the darkness. Who stares betrayal and devastation straight in the eyes, and spins her pain into the gold of realness and humanity and liberation.
What more could we ask of her? What more could we ask of ourselves? If you haven’t watched LEMONADE yet, go now. Watch. Open your mind. Feel. Ask where you’ve kept yourself broken, and where you might set yourself free.
And because we get to be free not just in our bodies and hearts and minds but also in our kitchens, I had to share with you today this wild new way of eating polenta. Which begins with the purest of vegetable stocks from Progresso, and ends with wasabi powder and creme fraiche. And it is everything. This is the perfect meal to eat in the heart of spring, a warming polenta bowl with a glorious kick of heat, topped with sesame soy veggies, spiked with black sesame seeds, and brightened with fresh mint and cilantro.
I’m not kidding when I tell you you must eat this with pickled ginger and chopsticks. It’s a polenta revolution that I wish I could serve up to Prince and Bey. In the meantime, I’ll just keep LEMONADE on repeat, with a heavy peppering of When Doves Cry at the ready.
This post is sponsored by Feedfeed and Progresso. Thanks for supporting the businesses that keep Kale & Caramel thriving! All opinions are my own.
WASABI CREME FRAICHE POLENTA WITH SOY SESAME VEGGIES.
Ingredients
wasabi creme fraiche polenta
- 2 ¼ cup vegetable stock
- 1 ½ cups water
- generous pinch baking soda
- ¾ cup polenta
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup creme fraiche
- 1 ¾ teaspoons wasabi powder
soy sesame veggies
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon coconut or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds plus more for garnish
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions (about 1 stalk whites and greens)
- 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ pound asparagus washed, trimmed and cut into thirds, about 25 stalks
- 1 cup sugar snap peas washed, trimmed, and cut on the bias to reveal some of the peas
- 1/3 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
- 1/3 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
- ½ teaspoon ume plum vinegar
- pickled ginger to taste
- breakfast radishes for garnish
Instructions
Make the polenta.
- Bring vegetable stock, water, and baking soda to a boil. Pour in polenta and return to a boil, stirring continuously. Once it boils, reduce heat to lowest setting and cover pot. Cook another 25 minutes, then remove from heat, stir in sea salt, creme fraiche, and wasabi powder, cover, and set aside.
Make the soy sesame veggies.
- In a non-reactive frying pan, heat toasted sesame oil and coconut or olive oil over medium heat. Add black sesame seeds, thinly sliced garlic, and green onion. Toss for 15-20 seconds, then add soy sauce, cut asparagus and peas, and half the mint and cilantro leaves. Sauté about three minutes, stirring and shaking pan regularly to redistribute veggies for an even cook. Continue to cook over medium heat until asparagus and peas become bright green and just tender. Add the remaining mint and cilantro, and finish with ume plum vinegar. Toss to coat evenly.
- Remove from heat and serve immediately over the polenta, topped with pickled ginger, sliced breakfast radishes, and extra black sesame seeds. Don’t forget to add some of the soy sesame juices from the pan to the finished dish!
