Skillet Cornbread

Vanesa Georgieva Savory recipes

Skillet Cornbread

This skillet cornbread is rustic, custard-topped, and crusty-edged. It is bolstered with herbs and a bit of quinoa for an incredibly good accompaniment to chili or a favorite soup. Inspired by a legendary Marion Cunningham recipe.

skillet cornbread

One of my favorite cornmeal recipes is Marion Cunningham's Custard-Filled Cornbread from The Breakfast Book. My neighbor in San Francisco brought it to a Halloween potluck (to much fanfare), and it occurred to me it was the same cornbread Molly writes about in A Homemade Life. Everyone in my family now loves this cornbread, and it has shown up at many family gatherings over the years. It is one of those recipes, so spot-on, I thought I'd never change it, tweak it, or make it any other way. There was no need. Keep it simple, leave it alone.

Skillet Cornbread: The Inspiration

Narrator voice: she was unable to leave it alone. I eventually did an alternative version good enough to share. I took the general approach to Marion’s custard cornbread, introduced a cast-iron skillet, and a few ingredients that pair nicely with corn - herbs, quinoa. My hope was that it would result in something unique and special. And wow, did it ever work out!

I hope you'll agree, the results are impressive. A rustic, minimally structured, custard-topped, crusty-edged, herb-scented corn-quinoa skillet cornbread. The recipe yields enough for a small crowd. Each piece is dense and moist, rich with ribbons of varying texture. It’s quite special and, if you are a cornbread aficionado, worth a go.


Let me know if you try it out - it's perfect for picnics, potlucks, family meals, chili night,Thanksgiving and the like!

Savory Power Bars

Vanesa Georgieva Savory recipes

Savory Power Bars

These homemade power bars are based on the recipe I published years ago in Super Natural Cooking. The main difference here is I made these savory with toasted walnuts, crumbled kale chips, and oil-cured olives.

savory power bars

Those of you who have been readers for a stretch know how much I love a homemade travel snack. These were based on the recipe I published years ago in Super Natural Cooking (2007!). The main difference here was that I made them savory. They're packed full of toasted walnuts, crumbled kale chips, and oil-cured olives. Super fantastic! And I can actually imagine little architectural cubes of them being right at home on a cheese plate. They're the perfect plane snack, and were very resilient after a long day wrapped in parchment paper in my purse. The saffron and chile flakes were a flavor bonus, but you could substitute whatever spice blend you're inspired by at the moment, and build the bars around that. I posted the recipe below.