Mexican Cornbread

Most of my childhood was spent in the South – Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. I grew up with things like fried green tomatoes, grits and boiled peanuts. I liked them all, but one Southern food I never enjoyed that much was cornbread. It was just okay and I often found it to be dry and bland. But my whole family seemed to enjoy it, so we had it with frequency. I was eventually introduced to Mexican cornbread, and I loved it. It was flavorful and moist, and ever since then I have thought off and on that I should try and make it.

As I was trying to decide what to make yesterday, I realized that I had everything I needed to make Mexican cornbread. This recipe doesn’t contain cheese (of course), but we tried it with some vegan butter and nutritional yeast sprinkled on top and it added a nice extra saltiness and savory flavor.

Mexican Cornbread

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 2 1/2 cups vegan milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• Egg replacer for two eggs (if using flax, mix together 2 tablespoons ground flax seed and 6 tablespoons hot water)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 or 1 onion, chopped
• 2 jalapeños, stemmed, seeds removed and chopped (if using sliced jalapeños from a jar, measure out about 1/8 cup)
• Corn, optional
• Sweet pepper, chopped, optional

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan. If you are using a smaller pan like I did (I used an 8×11-inch pan), you may want to preheat to 350 or 375 degrees Fahrenheit, because it will take longer to bake and you don’t want the bread to burn.

In a small bowl, combine the cornmeal and vegan milk. Make sure to mix it well so there are few or no lumps left. Set aside.

Mixing cornmeal with vegan milk

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. I like to use a wire whisk to make sure everything is well incorporated.

Mixing dry ingredients

If you haven’t already, prepare your onion and jalapeños, and set aside in a bowl. The pepper will not yield a lot of heat in the end, so you could probably add more if you wanted.

Chopping up onions and peppers

Add the liquid cornmeal mixture, egg replacer and oil to the large bowl of dry ingredients and mix well so that no lumps remain. Whisk together for several minutes (maximum of five).

Mixing the wet and dry ingredients together

Stir in the onions and peppers, as well as any other optional ingredients (like corn), then pour into your baking dish.

Stirring in the onions and peppers

Put in the oven and check after 35 minutes of baking. Insert a knife or toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean then take it out of the oven. Because of the size of my pan I baked probably a total of 55 minutes, with the last 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mexican cornbread, fresh from the oven

This was really very good, and was extremely moist from the fresh onions and jalapeños. Because of the level of moisture it had to be eaten with a fork. Still, it was flavorful and delicious, especially with some vegan butter spread on it. This would be great as an accompaniment to soup or salad.

Do you ever make Mexican cornbread? What extras do you like to add?