Savoury Cornbread Muffins

Sara By Nature - F R E E F R O M -

These tasty savoury muffins are delightful served warm from the oven for breakfast or lunch and are a terrific addition to any picnic. To mix things up, swap some of the ingredients for different flavour combinations - for example the spinach for kale, or black olives for green, or pine nuts for walnuts. They keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container, and can also be frozen.

These muffins are perfect for a picnic.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

150ml of plant milk (I used almond milk but if you want to make this nut free, any plant milk will work); 2tbsp of apple cider vinegar; 180g of polenta (cornmeal); 130g of brown rice flour; 1 heaped tbsp of nutritional yeast; 30g of arrowroot; 1tsp of salt; a good grind of black pepper; 1 1 /2 tsp of baking powder; 1 1 /2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda; 1 /4- 1 /2 tsp of dried chilli flakes; 60g of gram flour (also called Besan flour and chickpea flour); 2tbsp of water; 30g of basil, finely chopped; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 100g of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (plus 4 cut into 3 for the tops of the muffins); 80g of black olives, chopped; 30g of pine nuts, roughly chopped; 30g of pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped; 80g of spinach, chopped; 70ml of rapeseed oil; 50ml of filtered water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases. In a measuring jug, mix the plant milk with the apple cider vinegar and set aside. In a large bowl combine the polenta, rice flour, nutritional yeast, arrowroot, salt, pepper, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and chilli flakes. In another bowl add the basil, garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not the tomatoes that are needed for the tops of the muffins), olives, pine nuts, and pumpkin seeds. In a cup or jug, whisk the rapeseed oil and the filtered water together to combine, then pour over the basil/tomato mix and stir to coat. Put this to one side. In another small bowl mix the gram flour with the 2 tbsp of water and mix to make a firm paste. This is a replacement egg; the paste will be a tough mix but don’t worry as it is meant to be. Make a well in the first flour mix and add the milk mix, gram paste and the oil mix, and stir to combine. Add the chopped spinach and mix again to combine. Divide the mixture between the 12 muffin cases, place a piece of sun-dried tomato on the top of each. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, turning the tray round half way through cooking to ensure an even bake. Leave to cool for a few minutes then serve warm or cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container. If you want to serve them warm, place them in the oven on a low heat for 5 minutes.