Tomato Cheese Grits
Quick and easy breakfasts CAN be warm, comforting, and filling. Especially if they are Tomato Cheese Grits. A pot of these grits can be thrown together in about 10 minutes, and leave your breakfast or brunch guests salivating for more! Full of the wonderful flavor of summer tomatoes, but achievable at any time of the year with my tomato hack.
I recommend pairing this with my Breakfast Enchiladas and Sautéed Breakfast Greens. If you're feeling extra adventurous, throw in a pan of Saturday Morning Biscuits with the green onion and ground pepper add-ins.
Are you hungry yet? Let's get started!
2 small or one large onion, diced. White or yellow is fine.
4 cloves of garlic, minced (or more)
3oz tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cups quick grits
32 oz chicken or vegetable broth
4 cups of water
8oz of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup of white wine or cooking wine (optional)
olive oil, salt, pepper
In a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium heat, heat 3 Tbs of olive oil. Add your onion and saute until they begin to sweat and release some liquid. Season with salt and pepper, and continue to cook. Once the onions have become translucent, add your tomato paste and stir to incorporate. You want to be able to spread the tomato paste mixture across the bottom of your pan to achieve maximum caramelization of the tomato paste. Doing this will bring out the flavor of the tomato fully, and your taste buds will think you've used summer fresh tomatoes. Allow the tomato paste and onions to cook on the bottom of the pan, coming back every 2-3 minutes to scrape it up off the bottom of the pan, and spread it back out. You're going to do this until the tomato paste almost doesn't want to scrape back up off of the bottom of the pan. While cooking the tomato paste add your garlic, and allow to become fragrant.
Once the tomato paste is sticking to the pan, it's time to deglaze your pan. Add 1 cup of wine, or if not using wine, use 1 cup of your chicken stock. Move the liquid around the pan quickly, deglazing the pan, and scraping up all the tomato paste, and browned bits off the bottom of the pan. This is where all of your flavor has developed.
To the mixture, add the rest of your chicken stock, and bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes to finish cooking the onions and garlic. Then add your 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, reduce back to a simmer and add your 3 cups of grits, and stir to incorporate. Continue to simmer for 3-5 minutes until grits are cooked. Stir in 1 can of diced tomatoes, and 8 oz of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.
That's it! The tomato cheese grits are done! Serve them up with (LINK - BREAKFAST ENCHILADAS) or biscuits and eggs, and you've got yourself a winning breakfast.
Enjoy!
These tomato grits are amazing on their own, but to send them over the edge, blister some grape or cherry tomatoes on the stove or in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until they have blistered, and started to shrivel and release their juices. Spoon on top of your bowl of tomato cheese grits.
