My latest cookbook find is The Vegiterranean Diet. It doesn’t have many recipes—the book is mostly devoted to explaining what the diet is and why it’s beneficial—but I do see several that look really good, and so far all the recipes I’ve tried have come out very well (with a little tweaking here and there).

The original recipe for stone-ground cornbread calls for it to be baked in a loaf pan, but I had very poor results trying it that way the first time I made it. The cornbread was mushy in the middle, even letting it cook up to 45 minutes (the recipe calls for 30-35 minutes), and the edges were too browned. I had more success trying this recipe in a muffin tray, and they came out great. The corn muffins have a sweet taste, but still pair well with any chilis or soups.

Ingredients:

Servings: 12 muffins

• 1½ tbs. ground flaxseed
• 1 cup plain, unsweetened plant-based milk (I use almond)
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ½ cup pure maple syrup
• 1 cup cornmeal (I use Hodgson Mill stone-ground cornmeal)
• 1 cup oat flour (put 1 cup of rolled oats in the blender to make oat flour)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• 1 cup frozen sweet corn (or any corn of your choice)
• Optional: 1 tbs. canned diced green chiles (I never add this but it’s probably good?)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a small mixing bowl combine the flaxseed with the almond milk and set aside for a few minutes. This will create a gel-like consistency and make a nice binding agent.

Stir in the applesauce and maple syrup.

In a separate bowl whisk together the cornmeal, oat flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine, but don’t overmix. Stir in the corn (and chiles, if adding them).

Pour the batter into a silicone (or non-stick) muffin pan. I highly recommend purchasing a silicone muffin pan if you don’t have one already! They are awesome!

Bake until the corn muffins are clearly browned on top, about 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick to make sure they are cooked through. Allow the muffins to cool about 5 minutes in the pan; they will crumble if you try to take them out before they’ve cooled slightly. 

Serve immediately, or store in fridge up to 4 days. Toast them again before serving or they will be kind of mushy.