Our favorite healthy chef puts his light twist to a Southern staple—Shrimp & Grits.
In this installment of Not My Mama’s Meals, Bobby Deen shows us a classic comfort meal without all the calories.
If you’ve visited the South in the U.S., you probably had at least one bowl of shrimp and grits during your stay there. Shrimp & grits are an iconic dish—not to mention really delicious.
The problem is, the deliciousness comes from the loads of butter, cream, cheese, and salt it takes to dress up grits. Without all those additions, grits are pretty plain and not really all that appetizing.
Bobby shows us a great solution to this problem, however. By substituting a healthier polenta for the calorie-bomb grits, he is taking away calories and not flavor.
How? Well, polenta is a cornmeal that already has a lot of natural flavor. Give it a quick toast and add some hot water and you’ll have delicious, creamy, corny flavor without all the fatty additions. (Okay, you can throw a pat of butter in there, we won’t judge!)
The polenta, however, is just the backdrop for this flavorful meal. The real star is the shrimp cooked in tomato sauce that really packs a punch. The secret? Cooking the holy trinity of course!
Start by sauteeing a base of onion, green bell peppers, and garlic (aka the holy trinity in Souther cooking). Allow those flavors to fully develop before you add your white wine and tomato sauce for an extra layer of flavor. And, if you’re feeling saucy, you can put a few splashes of hot sauce like Tabasco or our personal favorite, Crystal.
Once the sauce is ready, the shrimp will cook up in 5 minutes. Put that wonderful mix on top of the already-cooked polenta and you have a satisfying, low-calorie meal good for nearly any time of the day.
Shrimp & Polenta Ingredients:
- ¼ cup diced Canadian bacon
- 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 14-ounce can of no-salt diced tomatoes
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 dozen large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ¾ cup uncooked quick-cooking polenta
- 3 cups hot water
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives for garnish
