Cornbread Collard Casserole

Oh, Food, I love you.

I discovered a few weeks ago Wild Hive Farms. They seasonally sell small batch, stone ground, local flour at the Union Square Farmer’s Market on Fridays. I made some vegan chocolate chips cookies with some all-purpose flour I got when I first found them. When I stopped by this past Friday, I picked up some cornmeal. I’m a Texas girl, and I have been craving some cornbread. I didn’t want to want to just make a pan of cornbread, so on Saturday I bought 2 bunches of collards, 1 bunch of ramps, 3 onions and 3/4 of pound of Portobello mushrooms. The goal is another Southern Comfort Food (yes, that deserves caps): Casserole!!!

I used the recipe in Veganomicon for the cornbread, subbing rice milk since that’s what I had on hand (and thought almond milk would just taste wrong). I placed half of the batter in an oiled pan. Then I chopped the onions and started them sauteing in the pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil plus salt and garlic power. I prepped the ramps (meaning I cut off the ends). I laid them on top of the now translucent onions. Next I chopped the Portobellos and added them to the pan. While that was cooking down, I ripped the leaves of the collards off of the stems and added them. Next I crumbled a pound of extra-firm tofu that I had pressed and added a shake of pepper flakes. I cooked the mixture down and poured it over the cornbread batter. (Note: Next time I will just place the mixture over the batter rather than pouring to reduce the amount of moisture in the dish.) Topped it with the rest of the batter and baked it for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

And it is GOOD! Could definitely use a little more salt in the cooking process, but a little addition on the plate (which I do anyway) made it just right.

Cornbread Collard Casserole – the three Cs of Southern Comfort Food