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 that’s great with soups, stews, and chilis!
Sweet Chia Cornbread
Sweet chia cornbread is one of our favorites. With a rich texture and moist and tender center, it perfectly complements any chili dish!
The chia seeds give this a slightly crunchy texture, so those who don’t like little bits of crunchiness may not like it. But for those willing to explore new things, I highly recommend giving this delicious cornbread a try!
Chia seeds add an extra dose of nutrition. In a single 2-tablespoon serving, they contain six times more calcium than milk and six times more iron than spinach. These little seeds also contain almost half your daily fiber requirements.
Adding them is a healthy way to mix up traditional cornbread, making it egg-free and vegan. I enjoy breaking up my cornbread and eating it in my chili, and barely notice the seeds. It’s so good!
It bakes up beautifully golden in the oven and is ready in about 30 minutes.
Leftovers store well on the counter for 4 – 5 days.
So grab your ingredients and enjoy this chia cornbread!
What To Serve With Cornbread
Here are some of our favorite cornbread pairings from the archives…
- 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 Bread 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!