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Forget about grains and make a batch of my blueberry chickpea flour no-cornbread instead! It is vegan, grain-free, and gluten-free!
Eek! Ack! I have no idea how it is the Monday before Thanksgiving, and yet the calendar insists it is so.
I have a terrible habit of posting holiday-themed recipes AFTER the holiday, but not this time! The posts in the next few days will be brief, true, but chock full of delicious eats all the same.
First up, my Blueberry Not-Cornbread.
This is a riff on the Not-Cornbread recipe from my new book, The Chickpea Flour Cookbook. It tastes like cornbread, but it is free of corn, grains, and gluten. I was working on a recipe idea for the book (verdict: fail!), but what I ended up with was something unexpected and so much better: a newfangled, but still easy way to make “cornbread” sans corn.
My husband and son confirmed my initial, corny impressions of my (delightfully) wayward experiment. While the bread was cooling, they walked into the kitchen and exclaimed “cornbread!”
I confess, my husband tasted the difference when he took a nibble (he is a Southerner, after all) but said it was very close (so much so that he was initially incredulous when I told him it was free of corn). Nick, however, was none the wiser, and gobbled his buttered piece of not-cornbread in seconds.
I’ve given variation tips for making the plain version, but this blueberry version, with a hint of sweet from maple syrup, is pretty special. Eat it out of hand, or serve a wedge for breakfast with some extra maplesyrup drizzled over the top.
Blueberry Not-Cornbread (Vegan, Grain-Free, Chickpea Flour)
Ingredients
- 1 and 2/3 cups (200 grams) chickpea flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1and 1/3 cups nondairy milk
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup pumpkin purée (not pie filling
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 cup blueberries
- Optional: granulated pure cane sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175C). Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch (22.5 cm) cast iron skillet.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the milk, oil, pumpkin, and maple syrup well blended.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Stir in blueberries.
- Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle top with a bit of sugar.
- Bake for 23 to 28 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the bread cool completely in the skillet on a wire rack. Cut into 12 pieces to serve.
Notes
Variation:
Plain Not-Cornbread: Omit the blueberries, reduce the maple syrup to 1 tablespoon and increase nondairy milk by 2 tablespoons.
Tips: (1) Use any oil you like in place of the coconut oil (e.g., avocado oil or olive oil); (2) Use any plain nondairy milk that you like (e.g., almond, cashew, hemp).
Nutrition Information
Serving Size 1 pieceAmount Per Serving Calories 150Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 6.4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 31mgSodium 102mgCarbohydrates 16gFiber 6.7gSugar 3.1gProtein 4.6g
i made this. I did not have pumpkin puree, but I did have banana. So, i used banana instead. I needed to cook it a bit longer. I am pleasantly surprised at how much it tastes like cornbread. I made these for a bedtime snack along with a cup if carob milk. I did not have room for much carob milk.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
You are very welcome, Lacey! Love your ingenuity with the substitution , based on what was on hand–I think that is how many great recipes are born!
Hi!
Love your recipe! Thank you for posting! I was looking at the nutritional facts, and I am thinking that the fat is actually less than is posted. I think the total fat for the pan may be around 30 grams total, unless you have incredible amounts of fat in your non-dairy milk. At any rate, the bread I made only had about 2.5 grams per serving. A happy thing for me, as I am plant-based and trying to limit fat.
Thanks again!
Can I substitute the pumpkin purée for apple sauce?
Hi Lisbeth, I think that will work fine. A little lighter in color (pumpkin lends it a yellower color), but overall, should be similar overall 🙂
I live in the Netherlands and we don’t have pumpkin purée.
What can I use instead of that?
Hope to hear from you soon, can’t wait to bake!
Hi Liesbeth! You could use sweet potato or winter squash puree, or unsweetened applesauce 🙂
Made these and was so pleased! Came out really good,and surprisingly moist. It was easy and had all the ingredients already. So happy to find this recipe, will be a go to for sure! Thanks!!
So happy to hear it, Roxanne!
Hi, I’ve baked this without the blueberries and it was so lovely :). I wanted to try it with blueberries this time, but I don’t have any pumpkin puree :(. I was wondering if I could use butternut squash instead?
Hi Raj! Pureed butternut squash should be great!
OMG….I just made this recipe using flax eggs instead of real eggs – delicious! This is a keeper! Thank you so much!
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