Vegan Mofo #12 - Colleen’s Quinoa Blue Cornbread...

Vegan Mofo #12 - Colleen’s Quinoa Blue Cornbread

The Book - "Color Me Vegan
The Author - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
The Recipe - Quinoa Blue Cornbread
Page # 185
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 45 minutes

I do have a couple more salads up my sleeve, but lets take a break from that shall we? And enjoy something special and spectacular. Quinoa Blue Cornbread. Did you get that? BLUE cornbread! I didn’t even care what was in it, the minute I saw blue cornbread I HAD to make it. It was just too weird not to! Kidding aside it really was one of the first recipes to jump out at me when I was flipping through "Color Me Vegan" for the first time. There really aren’t a lot of ‘blue’ foods out there if you think about it, which is a shame because blue is such a pretty color.

As strange as it might seem upon first glance this is a pretty great recipe. Though I may be bias because I absolutely love blueberries, and I’ve always loved cornbread. Who could pass up a fresh piping hot square of cornbread with a nice bowl of chili? My mom always made the best cornbread, and I’d eat a ton of it when she made it. After I got married I don’t think I ever ate cornbread. My husband you see is not a fan, he’s never liked it. Most of the cornbread he grew up eating came from a box and though I tried to convince him that my homemade cornbread would be different it was always a ‘no go’ Then because I was dying to try Isa’s "Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread" recipe I made it, told him it was polenta and he loved it. Afterwards I revealed that it was actually a cornbread recipe and ever since then he’s come around. So I was very, very excited to try this. The only problem was I couldn’t find blue cornmeal anywhere. I’d tried Whole Foods, my local grocery, specialty grocery, and ethnic groceries in my area and nowhere did I find blue cornmeal. Sadly I had to put this cornbread experiment on hold, though every time I flipped through "Color Me Vegan" I considered just going ahead and making this bread with regular cornmeal. Glad I waited though.

Over the summer on a trip out of town I happened upon a very small shop selling spices, speciality chocolate, speciality teas, and a few speciality dry goods. Among those dry goods I found Beluga Lentils (Another thing I hadn’t been able to find near me) and lo and behold blue cornmeal! I hadn’t even been looking for it, and then bam! It was right there in my face. I was so excited I almost wanted to come home early and make the cornbread right away. (I didn’t of course)

I have to say I’m really glad I waited for the blue cornmeal, it makes such a dazzling presentation, and just seems to go better with the blueberries. Interestingly a few weeks ago while in a market I don’t usually frequent I found a large bag of blue cornmeal, so I won’t have to go out of town the next time I need some, yay!

Everything about this recipe is interesting, everything is a surprise. I never would have thought ot use quinoa in a cornbread recipe, neither would I ever have thought that blueberries and corn actually pair pretty damn well together, but there you have it. Somehow it works, and it works harmoniously, as if it were meant to be. Every bite into a piece of this bread is like a party for your tastebuds. There are so many things going on and all of them are magic. Even my former cornbread hating husband loved it!

I did however find this cornbread to be very moist and therefore take longer to cook before the center was done. I don’t know if that’s because of the liquid from the frozen blueberries or simply because I added to much almond milk. Either way next time I’ll keep a better eye on it. The moistness did not hinder the taste in anyway though, and as for alterations I only did one thing differently. Colleen says to use either 1 cup of blueberries or 1 cup of corn kernels in the bread. Rather then do that I used a half cup of each, and it was brilliant. I really suggest that.

PS: Again sorry for the lack of pictures and the questionable quality. I was in a hurry to eat!!!