We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Food

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

What is Blue Corn?

Amy Pollick
By
Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 62,733
Share

Corn, indigenous to the Americas, is one of its oldest vegetables. Blue corn is one of the oldest varieties. The Pueblo tribe in the Southwestern United States was using it at least as far back as 1540, when Spanish explorers discovered the region. But this type of corn certainly goes back to the pre-Colombian era.

Blue corn is open-pollinated, so its growth is not as easily regulated as is that of commercial hybrid yellow or white field corn. It is a floury corn, and has about 30 percent more protein than the average hybrid corn. It is still widely used in the Southwest and Mexico, where it is a staple food. It can be used to make tortillas, chaquegue, a type of gruel, and nixtamal, which is a type of hominy. Blue corn was also reputed to have healing properties when offered as a beverage.

Nixtamal is made of corn kernels that have had their hulls removed in a lime water. The result may be cooked into hominy or ground into masa flour, suitable for tamale dough and many other uses in that cuisine. Atole de maiz is a beverage made of ground corn with add-ins like chocolate or chiles.

Blue corn, with its higher protein value, has also become a trendy ingredient in Mexican restaurants. It has, in fact, expanded into the mainstream commercial market, in products like corn chips, muffins, pancakes and even breakfast cereals! Its strong, nutty flavor is a favorite in corn muffins.

If blue corn products are not locally available, they are everywhere online. A quick search will turn up numerous sites offering blue corn, cornflour, pancake mix and muffin mix. Chaqugue instructions are available as well, for the adventurous eaters.

Share
DelightedCooking is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Amy Pollick
By Amy Pollick
Amy Pollick, a talented content writer and editor, brings her diverse writing background to her work at DelightedCooking. With experience in various roles and numerous articles under her belt, she crafts compelling content that informs and engages readers across various platforms on topics of all levels of complexity.
Discussion Comments
By anon356309 — On Nov 24, 2013

Not much point in arguing about grain vs veggie. It isn't meat, so that's close enough. Tomato is a fruit (a type of berry), and off we go. Some people simply divide the earth into animal, vegetable and mineral. That makes a spider --what? a vegetable?

Tortillas are traditionally corn, yellow or blue. Flour tortillas have a much longer shelf life and are less likely to break when used for "wrappers" or whatever the new name for burrito is, so they have become popular with modern folks, but are hardly traditional. I know of no evidence that Hopi or Navajo made flour tortillas 100 years ago.

By anon353886 — On Nov 03, 2013

Corn is a grass.

By dfoster85 — On Aug 08, 2012

Fruit? Vegetable? Grain? To me, the important question isn't so much what it "counts as" botanically, so much as how it should be thought of in your diet.

And that's mostly as a grain, although blue corn is probably somewhat more nutritious than most grains. Whole corn is high in fiber and not super high in micronutrients. But it's a whole grain. You are much better off enjoying an ear of corn. say, than a piece of white bread.

But if you are making corn bread or corn muffins and using part cornmeal, part flour, you're not going to be doing yourself any favors if you use white flour. You can find good recipes for whole wheat cornbread -- cornmeal with whole wheat flour. My family likes it better, actually; you use liquid sweetener (we like maple syrup for ours) and that makes the bread stick together better than traditional cornbread.

By anon247954 — On Feb 15, 2012

Where in the US, is blue corn grown commercially?

By anon216635 — On Sep 22, 2011

It's a vegetable anyway.

By anon181379 — On May 29, 2011

Why would they call it a vegetable? It is a grain, however if you don't know it's a grain you should at least assume that it is a fruit.

By anon104134 — On Aug 15, 2010

Corn is a grain, not a vegetable.

By origami — On May 23, 2010

Blue corn is one of the few blue foods. Blueberries tend to be more purple than blue, but anyway, if you think about it, there are very few blue foods. Almost any other color of food is well represented in a supermarket.

By sikkim — On May 23, 2010

to #1

Blue tortillas are just made with blue corn. White tortillas tend to be made with wheat flour. The tortillas that are more yellow are usually made out of yellow corn.

By anon21110 — On Nov 10, 2008

What is the difference between blue and white tortillas?

Amy Pollick
Amy Pollick
Amy Pollick, a talented content writer and editor, brings her diverse writing background to her work at DelightedCooking...
Learn more
Share
https://www.delightedcooking.com/what-is-blue-corn.htm
Copy this link
DelightedCooking, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

DelightedCooking, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.