Make this moreish cornbread for a barbecue – serve with lots of salads, fresh grilled (broiled) fish, local meat and corn on the cob, and all your friends will be happy. Under a perfect crunchy golden crust, the potato adds lightness and a soft sweet depth of flavour, while the spring onions (scallions) and hint of chilli keep it most definitely savoury.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
- Scrub the potatoes and bake for about 30 minutes until the skins have shrivelled and they feel slightly soft.
- Cut in half and spoon out the flesh to get 300 g cooked sweet potato (no skin). Set aside to cool.
- Turn the oven down to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line the bottom of a loose bottomed 20 cm round cake tin with baking parchment.
- Grease the edges of the tin with rapeseed oil.
- Combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar.
- In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients from the polenta (cornmeal) to the sea salt and whisk to disperse any lumps.
- Add the spring onions and chilli and mix in.
- Mash the sweet potato in a bowl with a fork and add the rapeseed oil and eggs, whisking to combine.
- Pour in the almond milk mixture and stir once more.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and gradually pour in the potato and milk mix, folding everything together until combined.
- Pour the mix into the prepared tin, smooth the top with a small palette knife and bake for 20 minutes, rotating the bread halfway.
- Reduce the heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and bake for a further 10 minutes.
- It is cooked when the top is starting to take on a golden colour, the loaf is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Cool for about 10 minutes in the tin on a wire rack then carefully remove from the tin and slice.
- Serve generous slices warm from the oven with lashings of coconut oil or organic butter.
- Keeps for up to five days in an airtight container.
Extract from Clean Cakes by Henrietta Inman (Jacqui Small, £20)
Main image by Lisa Linder
