Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Corn Bread with Chilied Beans

I've always loved corn bread, but I don't exactly like the traditional amounts of oil that go into the preparation of it. Recently, I heard of (and tried) a recipe that substituted a mashed banana for all the fat in the regular recipe (banana cornbread????) and it was delicious. I'll do that again!

Today, I tried a different version - one from one of Neal Barnard's books. It takes a cup of cornmeal but instead of the one-and-a-half cups of wholewheat (or all-purpose) flour, it uses barley flour. I thought 'HUH?' But, never having been misdirected by one of his recommended recipes yet, I gave it a go:

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And it was exactly right after 30 minutes. Indeed, we had it a matter of moments later with a great quick bean recipe (same source). Here it is, still steaming hot, crumbly and smelling absolutely wonderful (and tasting even better) at 125 calories a piece, no fat.

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The beans? It was your standard chilied beans, without fat or oil: a chopped onion, a chopped red pepper (because we were out of green), a cup-and-a-half of red kidney beans, a couple of cups of tomato sauce (opened a can from up the cupboard to be quickest), 1 cup tvp granules, 1 cup of frozen corn, plus chili seasonings (faked up my own, because we didn't have the requisite 2 spoons of chilie powder), more cayenne (always more!) and 3 cloves garlic - all cooked nicely in no time at all. When the bread was out of the oven, the beans were ready to serve.

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3 comments:

MeloMeals said...

I really need to grind some barley into flour.. It seems to do so well in place of wheat flour.

Speaking of wheat flour, your whole wheat sourdough bread looks fabulous! Would you mind sharing the recipe?

Also, I LOVE coconut extract.. it is insanely rich tasting.

One of my fav things is lite silken tofu, stevia, frozen pineapple with it's juice and some ice. You'll think you are drinking a Pina Colada! I made 64 oz one time this summer and the entire batch had only 600 calories!

River said...

You grind your own flour? I'm very impressed! I got mine from Bulk Barrel in town a couple of days ago - expressly for this recipe. I had never used barley flour in anything before!

My sourdough is a variation on a recipe found in Barnard and Kramer's How It All Vegan (1999), p. 121 (whew! Just looked it up to be sure that's where it was!) - but I no longer follow it exactly, adding a bit of this and a bit of that to make it work better for me. I'll be making it again this weekend (my starter needs to be fed again then), so I shall note exactly how I do it, scribble it down, and post it here. OK? :)

Oh I love your 'pina colada' smoothie! Must try that this summer!! Lovely tip :)

Thanks! Hugs, 'River'

Sheree' said...

I love using barley flour. I agree with Mel your sourdough bread looks so yummy. I am now starving after reading almost your entire blog.. :o)