SWEET CHIA CORNBREAD (VEGAN + HEALTHY)
Sweet Chia Cornbread features the classic flavor of cornbread with a dose of chia seeds thrown in for extra nutrition and texture. It’s an easy vegan recipe and great with soups, stews and chilis!
Sweet Chia Cornbread
The vegan sweet chia cornbread has lots of texture, is moist and tender, and completes any chili dish perfectly!
The chia seeds give this a little bit of a crunchy texture so those who don’t like little bits of crunchiness this may not be for you. But for those willing to explore new things, I highly recommend giving this vegan cornbread a try!
The chia seeds add some good extra dose of nutrition to this cornbread recipe. Per serving, they contain six times more calcium than milk and six times more iron than spinach. These little seeds contain almost half your daily fiber requirements in a single serving, 2 tablespoons.
Adding them is a nice healthy mix up to traditional cornbread. I enjoy it best by breaking it up and eating it in my chili barely noticing the bits. It was so good!
This easy vegan cornbread bakes up in about 30 minutes and stores well on the counter for 4 – 5 days.
What To Serve With Cornbread
- Easy Three Bean Chili (shown below)
- Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
- Vegan Minestrone
- Vegetable Chili
- Quinoa Verde Chili
- or this fan favorite Sweet Potato and Quinoa Chili
- and it’s great smeared with this Triple Berry Chia Jam!
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Vegan Naan
- Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins
- Socca (flatbread)
- Artisan Bread
If you try this chia cornbread recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment and rate it below. I love to hear what you think, or any changes you make.
PrintSWEET CHIA CORNBREAD
A terrific vegan cornbread using chia seeds as a binder in place of eggs. If you don’t mind little bits of chia seeds in your bread than you’ll love this!
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Makes 9 slices 1x
- Category: Side, Bread
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan, American
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic cornmeal (fine, medium or course grind)*
- 1 cup flour (spelt, whole wheat pastry, or all-purpose gluten-free flour)
- 1/3 cup pure cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- juice of 1/2 lemon or 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup oil (coconut oil, melted or extra light flavored olive oil)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8 or 9-inch square baking pan.
Prepare a vegan buttermilk by mixing the almond milk with the lemon or vinegar and set aside.
Mix the chia seeds with the water, set aside. Let these set for 10 minutes.
Combine all dry ingredients in medium size bowl. Add milk, oil, chia seed mixture and combine making sure to break up any lumps of chia seeds. Pour batter into greased baking pan or dish. Bake for 25 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick, if it comes out clean it’s ready.
Makes 9 slices
NOTES:
*All grinds of cornmeal work great here. I’ve tried them all and they all hold up well. For maximum texture use course grind.
You could also add in 1 cup canned, fresh or thawed corn to the mix.
For a spicy kick, add 1 diced jalapeno, leave a few seeds for extra heat.
UPDATED: This Sweet Chia Cornbread was originally posted in January 2012, and has been updated with new photos and helpful tips in September 2019.
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If you like vegan gummy-on-the-inside-hard-on-the-outside hockey pucks, this is a great recipe for that. I followed the recipe exactly and they didn’t rise at all. I used my Namaste all-purpose baking flour – which is rice-based – because the recipe stated any gluten-free flour could be used in this cornbread. Apparently, that is not the case. A total waste of ingredients. :( I really wish people who post these recipes would actually test them using all the all-purpose gluten-free flours available before claiming one can use whatever gluten-free flour one prefers and, regardless, the recipe will turn out just fine.
Sorry, you had an issue, Dylan! There are so many different brands with these flour blends that it makes it hard to try them all. We recommend using King Arthurs Measure to Measure Flour for a trusted all-purpose GF blend. I’ve also updated the recipe card with our recommendation. Thanks for the feedback and I do hope you try again!
can this cornbread be frozen?
Since reading The Alzheimer’s Solution, I’ve been searching out more vegan recipes. This is superb! So light, great texture (I added a cup of corn). I also used erythritol instead of sugar, and it still had a light sweet taste. Thank you! So glad I can still keep corn bread in my diet without eggs, dairy, or real sugar.
★★★★★
Super good!
★★★★★
Yum yum! Cornbread can be a tricky one, this was so good! I used a combination of spelt and wheat flour, as well as a grape seed and olive oil combo. Thank you!
★★★★★