Vegetarian Meal Ideas

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Servings:  8.   Using an 8" x 8" baking dish and cutting into 2" squares yields 16 pieces.

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Spray an 8" x 8" baking dish/pan with canola oil.
2. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. This includes the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. In a blender or food processor, add the buttermilk, thawed corn and eggs. Blend on Lo for about 5 seconds. This will help break up the whole corn kernels.
5. Make a bowl in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the blended wet ingredients. Gently fold with a rubber spatula until mixed. Mix as little as possible. Lastly, add in the melted butter and oil. Fold a few more times.
6. Pour into the baking dish and spread out evenly with the rubber spatula.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. When the time is up, test with a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, it's done.
8. Take out of the oven and place the baking dish on a wire rack. Cool for 10 min before serving.

Notes:
There are two main types of cornbread.
Northern - has more flour than cornmeal, uses a sweetener, is baked in a baking dish and is more cakey.
Southern - has more cornmeal than flour, little or no sweetener, is cooked in a skillet so it becomes browned on the outside. It is thinner, denser and crumbles more.
This recipe is for the Northern type.

There are many variations in cornbread recipes. Some use milk, oil, canned creamed corn, sour cream etc. The goal of this recipe was to have a moist, cake like cornbread with corn kernel fragments in it. Buttermilk was chosen since it gives more flavor than milk. Oil versions are crumbly and somewhat dry since the portion is usually 1/3 cup or less per batch. People are likely to add butter at the table when eating these. Butter lends more flavor and eliminates the need to add butter at the table. To simplify the recipe, sour cream and creamed corn are not used. Sour cream adds moisture or gumminess to the cornbread, can increase the baking time which will brown the top and it does not contribute a significant amount of flavor.

To make it healthier, some whole wheat pastry flour is substituted for the white, sugar and salt are reduced and some canola oil is substituted for the butter.