With two smart shortcuts, dinner’s ready in a flash

We all want shortcuts, but in the kitchen we don’t want to taste them. The goal, especially when company is involved, is food that seems as if it took more trouble – and time – than it did.

This trick is easier to pull off in the summer, when you can fall back on a gazpacho or other raw (or mostly raw) treatment that doesn’t even heat up the kitchen. But in the winter, some of my favorite ingredients – root vegetables, whole grains – are ones that seem to require the most time to pull out their comforting goodness.

The key phrase is “seem to.” Because sometimes, once you learn a thing or two about various cooking methods, you can speed up the clock. One of my go-to pasta dishes, for instance, is penne with a butternut squash sauce you make by grating the vegetable and quickly sauteing it – in a fraction of the time it takes to roast. So when I was looking for something quick to do with another of my favorite vegetables for roasting, a beautiful bunch of beets from the farmers market, I pulled out the food processor and its grating disk.

In the blink of an eye, those scrubbed and trimmed beets were pulverized into beautiful shreds, perfect for cooking in a pan with a little water (the way Julia Child advocates in “The Way to Cook”) and my own way with seasonings, including chopped green olives for a little sharpness.

Their bed? Another shortcut. I remembered that the brilliant Maria Speck (“Ancient Grains for Modern Meals”) wrote an eye-catching piece for Fine Cooking a few months back extolling her eureka method for cooking polenta. She soaks it overnight, which when you continue cooking it the next day means it gets to that luscious, creamy state in five or 10 minutes rather than 30 or 40.

On a busy weeknight, when you’re itching to move a dish from stove to table, that’s a game-changer.

Sauteed Beets and Greens Over Polenta

8 servings (makes about 6 cups polenta)

The recipe calls for more greens than you might get from a single bunch. But if you have lots of beet greens on hand, feel free to use 10 ounces (8 lightly packed cups) and skip the addition of chard/spinach. MAKE AHEAD: The polenta needs to soak overnight; the soaked polenta can be refrigerated for up to 2 days before cooking. The cooked polenta can be refrigerated for up to 1 week. From Washington Post Food editor Joe Yonan, based on recipes by Maria Speck in Fine Cooking magazine and Julia Child in “The Way to Cook.”

2 cups polenta (do not use instant or quick-cooking)

3 cups boiling water, plus 1/4 cup water

1 pound beets, with greens (greens should be 4 cups lightly packed)

5 ounces Swiss chard leaves, fresh spinach leaves and/or a combination (4 cups lightly packed)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup pitted green olives, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon ground sumac (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt, or more as needed

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

3 cups homemade or no-salt-added vegetable broth (see recipe at washingtonpost.com/recipes)

1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt (optional)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped (see NOTE)

Finely grated zest from 2 large oranges (2 tablespoons)

Pour the polenta into a 4-quart saucepan and whisk in the 3 cups of boiling water. Leave at room temperature for at least 8 hours and up to 12 hours.

Scrub the beets and trim off their root ends and any remaining stems. Wash, dry and thinly slice the greens and their stems. (Reserve the smallest leaves for garnish, if you’d like.) Use the coarse side of a box grater or a food processor with a grater attachment to grate the beets.

Wash, dry and thinly slice the Swiss chard or spinach leaves.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and cumin; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the grated beets, olives, the sumac, if using, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, the pepper, vinegar and the remaining 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook until the beets are just beginning to get tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the beet greens and chopped stems and the Swiss chard or spinach; cook uncovered until the greens wilt and the stems lose their crunch, 2 minutes. Taste, and add a little salt as needed. Remove from the heat.

While the beets are cooking, make the polenta: Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Set the polenta and its soaking water over medium-high heat, and whisk in the boiling broth and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, whisking a few times, then reduce the heat to medium-low so the polenta is gently bubbling. Cook, whisking constantly, until it thickens to a porridgelike consistency, 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low; cover and cook, occasionally stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until you can see the bottom of the pot when you scrape it, 5 to 10 minutes; the polenta should taste creamy and not gritty. Remove it from the heat.

Divide the polenta among individual bowls. Top each portion with the beet mixture, a dollop of yogurt, if using, a sprinkle of walnuts, and orange zest. Garnish with reserved baby beet greens, if using.

NOTE: Toast walnuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until fragrant, shaking them occasionally to keep them from burning.

Per serving: 290 calories, 6 g protein, 45 g carbohydrates, 10 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 660 mg sodium, 6 g dietary fiber, 7 g sugar