Blue Corn Piñon Pancakes
Image courtesy of Fiery Foods Central.
Sculptor and certified permaculture gardener Roxanne Swentzell’s cookbook, The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook: Whole Food of Our Ancestors provides recipes based on foods that indigenous pueblo people ate before the Spanish came. The book is an invitation – in fact, an exhortation – to counter or prevent obesity, hypertension, and diabetes by eating the healthful, chemical-free fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, and seeds that made up traditional pueblo diets.
Instead of wheat flour, which the Spanish introduced, these pancakes are made of blue cornmeal and quinoa flour, and so it’s free of gluten.
The Recipe
Yield: six or more servings
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa flour
- 1 cup blue cornmeal
- 3½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cups water
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon berries, such as blueberries
- ¼ cup piñon nuts, shelled
- Berries and shelled piñon nuts for topping (optional)
PREPARATION
- In a large bowl, sift together quinoa flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
- Form a well in the center and pour in the water, egg, and oil. Add piñon nuts and berries. Mix until smooth.
- Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour batter onto the griddle, using approximately ¼ cup for each pancake.
- Turn when bubbles appear. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
- Top with berries and piñons (as much as you like).
This locally inspired recipe is brought to you by Pam Walker. Pam is an avid home cook, writer, and local farm and food activist who is also a board member of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. Thank you, Pam, for helping inspire us to use locally sourced ingredients!