Sweet-potato cornbread

Rather than a particular recipe, this is a general method arising from the discipline of cooking with no animal products at all. Grated sweet-potato gives a good consistency (as well as flavor) to eggless, milkless cornbread. Carrots do not have the same effect. I also use soymilk (or soy flour) to bind the bread together.

One can experiment with other grains. For me, wheat flour is for yeast-risen bread, not for cornbread (or pancakes). But rolled oats can be good in this “corn”-bread.

So try this. Mix:

• one part cornmeal
• one part other meal(s), besides wheat; say, rolled oats
• one sweet-potato, grated
• salt
• oil

Add enough soy milk to wet everything. Because there is no wheat flour, you can stir freely to achieve homogeneity without developing the rubbery texture of gluten. Let sit a while; the oats will soak up liquid, and then you may want to add more. The batter should pour into the pans, but only just.

If you have a cast-iron frying-pan and want to use butter instead of oil, then heat the pan in the oven, melt the butter in that, then pour the batter on top. A good crust will form on the bottom then.

Vegans can grease pans with natural palm oil rather than synthetic margarine.

This heavy batter takes a lot of baking, say an hour.

I like to serve and eat this cornbread in the fall with greens (such as kale or, in Turkey, karalahana—black cabbage—cooked a long time with plenty of garlic and olive oil, and salt); also with winter squash, for another bright color against the greens.