Spoonbread? That’s the charming and apt name for an old-school Southern side dish in which cornbread and corn souffle meet and make a quick, tasty accompaniment to any main dish. Cornmeal, egg, butteremilk, and a fork — Deliciously done and ready to delight!
What is Spoonbread?
If a skillet of cornbread went into business with a baked grits casserole or a fancy French souffle, their first product would be spoonbread and they would sell out and get rich. That’s because this homespun cornmeal creation gives deliciousness and takes only a little time and a few ingredients. It’s soft and spoonable, like a souffle, yet hearty and satisfying like cornbread.
Farmers’ Markets Have My Heart
Farmers’ markets make me happy, always, anywhere, anytime of the year. They inspire cooks, attract all kinds of people, delight children, and decorate the world with produce, flowers, jams and hand-crafted many-things. Seeing the season’s goodness laid out in color and texture and offered by the people who grew it and harvested it ? That’s a priceless gift, and their advice on how to cook their crops gives me sweet inspiration and knowledge I can’t find in the grocery store.
Local Farmers’ Markets Keeping Piedmont NC Fed
One of the fine farmers’ markets which are local for lucky me here in NC is the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, whose tagline “Locally grown, nationally known” is apt. They sell on both Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings this time of year, and they keep going Saturdays all winterlong, albeit with a smaller presence during the months of cabbages and collards.
Also handy for me are Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market, and the Durham Farmers Market, both open yearround, as well as the South Durham Farmers’ Market, and the Pittsboro Farmers’ Market, both open April through November.
Ode to Summer Tomatoes, Seasonal Treat!
I kept thinking about peaches and blueberries, but before I made up my mind, I realized that my favorite farm-raised pleasure of summertime is a ripe, sweet gorgeous aromatic tomato. But the way I was raised, we don’t do too much to the tomatoes this time of year, beyond slicing them for eating with salt and pepper, or dealing them out on well-mayonnaised white bread for tomato sandwiches.
So that’s not a recipe, nor, all by itself, a lunch. But that tomato, while not needing a recipe, anchors what I grew up loving about summer eating: the Southern vegetable plate. Not to give up or give up on meat, but to make time with the goodness from the garden, which next to everybody had. Corn, beans, squash, ‘cukes, ‘maters, okra, watermelons, canteloupes…..I’ll stop even though I’m not done.
Vegetable plates aren’t always vegetarian, as the green beans often got an assist in flavor and substance from a hunk of side meat or fatback. But the concept, based in joyful economy (no grocery bills) and flavor (can you spell ‘local’?) of garden vegetables, simply prepared and laid out like a quilt on a big dinner plate made a feast, especially if cornbread or biscuits were along for the ride.
My Take on Salade Nicoise, Simpliefied for Spring and Summer
So here’s my Southern summer vegetable plate, with sliced tomatoes, green beans and new potatoes cooked together, and hard-boiled eggs. I added in an herbed mayonnaise and some canned tuna packed in oil, as a little birthday wave and nod to Julia Child’s Salad Nicoise. Her 100th birthday is coming up August 15th. She lived into her 90’s and her presence anchors the culinary profession in powerful, precious and wise ways, to this day. With the tuna, the dressing, and the hard-boiled rather than deviled eggs, I took things in a Southern direction. For a fine salad Nicoise, visit “Simply Recipes” HERE, (and subscribe while you are there — a wonderful bountiful resource. For another recipe for salad Nicoise inspired by Julia Child, click HERE, from the blog “8.ate@eight”
Spoonbread Focus
Spoonbread is a somewhat fancy version of cornbread, although it is every bit as easy to make, and lovely with almost any main course or meal. Its texture varies, from a soft custard to a sturdy pudding to a very moist bread. Cornbread can be as simple as cornmeal, salt and water, while spoonbread adds in eggs and milk or buttermilk, and leavening to lift it up into a rustic demi-souffle, one whose ‘poouf’ deflates quickly with no loss at all. I adore it, and usually make it in a cast iron skillet, but this recipe called for a 7-inch wide dish. Searching my cabinets for a 7-inch baking dish, I grinned when I found this white ceramic French-style ramekin. It allowed my easy spoonbread to become another small nod to Julia Child on her coming birthday.
My Farmers’ Market Vegetable Plate “Nicoise” with Herb Mayonnaise and Spoonbread
Sliced Tomatoes
(I blanch them to remove skins; if that’s too fussy, just slice ’em and go)
Green Beans and New Potatoes
(Boil till tender in salted water, leaving small potatoes whole)
Hard-Boiled Eggs
(Cold water, to a boil, turn to low, 8 minutes, rinse and peel)
Tuna packed in oil
(Hated it as a kid; love it now. Stock up — uber-good pantry presence)
Herb Mayonnaise
(1/2 cup mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons each of minced green onion and fresh herbs)
Easy Spoonbread
(recipe below)
Must-Have Cookbook: Sheri Castle’s “The New Southern Garden Cookbook”
For a bountiful supply of superb and practical recipes for farmers’ market feasts all summer and throughout the year, get yourself a copy of this book:
The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Recipes for Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers’ Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes.This cookbook and reference guide by my good friend Sheri Castle delivers everything you need to make the most of the produce find throughout the year. Visit Sheri’s website HERE. Learn about the book and/or buy book HERE.
Contents
hide
Video Time:
Spoonbread
Yield:
6
This recipe comes from a package of Moss' Plain White Fine Ground Corn Meal, which is located in Kittrell, North Carolina.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup corn meal, white or yellow
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon butter, olive oil, margarine, or lard
- 1 cup sour or buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Pour boiling water over corn meal and butter, and then let cool.
- Beat in egg, milk, soda and salt. Pour batter into hot greased 7 inch baking dish.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 108Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 33mgSodium 573mgCarbohydrates 18gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 4g
oh my! spoonbread sounds fantastic! Although I’ve never had it, your description is enough of a reason for me to want to make this immediately. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure, Charissa. Love yours too. I love Let’sLunching with you and this crew.
Hi Nancie, I am a big fan of both Salade Niçoise and spoon bread, so this post is making me drool! What a perfect summer meal.
Thank you, so kind. My grandmother never had it quite this way, but I think she would have loved it, as long as I stirred the herb mayo into the tuna. She could grow vegetables, cook them, and can them. Her pantry was a playroom for me, cool and jewelly with all those jars on burgundy shelves. She would have cooked her beans to a darker green, with side meat. Good. But I like them this way too. Happy summer to you.
What a beautiful plate of vegetables! And spoonbread! I remember my first taste of spoonbread, visiting Old Salem as a child. My mom was on quite a spoonbread kick after that. I’ve always meant to make it for my girls and now that I have your recipe, I will. Outstanding post; Julia would swoon.
What a wonderful thing to say. Makes my day. Old Salem: Do you have NC roots, like me? Many thanks and happy summer, Lucy.
Spoonbread is just about one of my favorite things — and that vegetable plate looks mighty fine, too! Thanks for sharing…
My great pleasure, Cheryl. I love your book and I love #LetsLunch lots! (Alliteration award…)
What timing: I actually had spoonbread day before yesterday. Your recipe looks great; I’ll be interested to see the difference using buttermilk instead of regular milk makes.
I love that. And I came close to posting about shortcakes. We are tuned in to the same magical culinary radio station in the sky! I am determined to leave the corn meal out on the counter (though hmmm maybe not till fall and coolness) so that I make spoonbread and corncakes often enough that they become just regular to me, like pasta and rice. I forget how much I love it, and how simple it is to make. I will love making your shortcakes with peaches, and also damsons, of which I’ve got a small supply coming from a good friend.