Clover Blossom Spoonbread Recipe

Spoonbread is a cross between cornbread and a souffle. It is creamy enough to warrant eating it with a spoon, hence the name. In this clover blossom spoonbread recipe, the edible wild flowers add a dash of color, texture, and a subtle but interesting layer of flavor.

You can use red clover (Trifolium protense), white clover (T. repens), or any other edible Trifolium species in this recipe. In this batch, I used shield clover (T. clypeatum).

Note that there are plants in other genera that are sometimes called “clover.” For this recipe, stick to Trifolium species. There’s info on how to identify wild clover, plus a recipe for red clover soda bread here.

Clover Blossom Spoonbread Recipe

Serves 4

2 cups milk, divided

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons honey (ideally clover blossom honey)

1/2 cup corn meal or polenta

1/4 cup fresh or dried clover blossoms, measured after stripping them from the tough bases and separating them into individual florets

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg, divided

Preheat the oven to 350F.

1. Heat 1 1/2 cups of the milk plus the butter and honey in a medium size pot, stirring occasionally until the butter and honey are completely melted.

2. Meanwhile, combine the corn meal, red clover, and salt in a bowl. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and stir to combine.

3. Whisk the corn and clover mixture into the hot milk mixture a little at a time. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

4. Lightly beat the egg yolk. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with an electric beater until it forms stiff peaks.

5. Add a spoonful of the hot corn mixture to the egg yolk and stir it in. Add another spoonful and do the same, then add the tempered egg yolk to the pot of hot corn - clover mixture.

6. Add the baking powder to the corn - clover mixture and stir well. Gently fold in half of the beaten egg white, then the remaining half. It’s fine if the egg white isn’t completely mixed in; in fact you want to see pockets of fluffy egg white in the mix.

7. Spoon the mixture into lightly greased ramekins, filling them no more than 3/4 full. Bake in a 350F oven until puffed up and starting to turn lightly golden on top. Serve immediately.

Recipe for Clover Blossom Soda Bread

Upcoming Workshops and Events

“Fantastic. Informative. Top-notch. Lovely time.” - NYC foraging tour participant

The Forager’s Feast: How to Identify, Gather, and Prepare Wild Edibles is part field guide covering 50 plants, mushrooms, and seaweeds with a widespread distribution, and part cookbook for turning these wild edibles into delectable dishes.

“Leda Meredith is, in my opinion, the Foraging Goddess, and the next best thing to this book would be to share a field expedition with her! I highly recommend The Forager’s Feast to anyone who has a love of the wild foods.” - Amazon review by Susan C.

Northeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Beach Plums to Wineberries

“A book that wild food gatherers of all skill levels will want to own.” - Sam Thayer