Mmm, good (cornbread to go with beans)...

There's nothing better than hearty comfort food in cold wintry weather. Last night's edition included black-eyed peas (pre-soaked) and cooked with kale, which took less than an hour to cook (and that's using a regular saucepot, not a pressure cooker).

Making the beans stick to your ribs is easy when eating them with their natural sidekick, cornbread. The cornbread was particularly good last night, as I modified a recipe that I use often, the all corn cornbread from Bryanna Clark Grogan; I modified the order of preparation, not the ingredients. As it does not use flour, it's acceptable for gluten-free diets, and is delicious to boot, light in texture, with an intense corn flavor.

Vegan All-Corn Cornbread
makes a 9" square panful

1 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably stoneground)

2 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. (8 tsp.) sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbs. ground flax seed

another 2/3 cup (stoneground) cornmeal

2/3 cup boiling water

1 Tbs. lemon juice, plus

soymilk or nut milk to make 2 cups

2 Tbs. melted Earth Balance spread

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. (Spread the baking pan with extra Earth Spread, then a little cornmeal, and shake the cornmeal around the pan. Set pan aside.)

Mix together the first cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flax seed in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, mix together the 2/3 cup cornmeal and the boiling water and mix well (preferably with a whisk). Stir in the melted Earth Spread, also with the whisk, then the lemon juice/soymilk mixture, with the same whisk.

Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet, then add the batter into the prepared 9" pan. Bake for 25 minutes. When done, the top should have cracks, and the tines of a fork stuck in its center should come up clean.

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Just like cornbread itself, this song by Louis Jordan, Beans and Cornbread, is an oldie but goodie.