A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to make something that could bake along with the Honey Baked Lentils and could be eaten with them to add some Vitamin C to the meal to improve our absorption of the iron from the lentils.  We didn’t have any squashes to bake, but canned pumpkin is a staple in our pantry.  I also thought that cornbread would be good with the lentils.  Thus, this recipe!  I invented it by reading the cornbread recipe on the cornmeal box and substituting ingredients as I went along.  As is typical of my over-confidently adventuresome approach to cooking, I made a double batch…and it turned out pretty good.  The first batch had milk in it, but I realized calcium inhibits iron absorption, so the next time I tried orange juice instead and left out the egg.  Nicholas liked it so much he requested it for his birthday cake!

If you’re making this along with the lentils, get them in the oven first and then mix up the cornbread at a leisurely pace, because its baking time is much shorter.

To make one 9″ square pan, you will need:

• 1 cup flour (whole-wheat works fine)
• 1/4 cup hemp protein powder (huh?)–if you don’t have this, just use an additional 1/4 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup sorghum syrup (huh?) or brown sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1 egg (optional–bread will be a little denser without it)

Mix dry ingredients.  Add moist ingredients and mix in.

Grease pan and put batter into it.  (The cornmeal box recipe said “pour batter”, leading me to worry that I hadn’t used enough liquid, but the mushy batter produces a nice moist bread.)

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until center of bread is squishy rather than jiggly.

If you’re going to take more than a day to eat all of it, store it in the refrigerator, because it’s moist and will go bad after a while at room temperature.