Welcome to October! I love this time of year – the changing leaves, the winter squash, the crisp air, the pumpkin pie. And this year, October is extra special as I embark on the Vegan Month of Food (aka VeganMoFo), the point of which is to write something about vegan food every day for the entire month.
I’m starting this month with one of my all time favorite recipes, which happens to be inspired by one of VeganMoFo’s founders, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, one of my favorite books on vegan cooking.
This cornbread is nothing like the sweet stuff you make from a Jiffy box. This is savory cornbread, flecked with whole corn kernels and best cooked in a cast iron skillet for that nice crispy crust.
Cornbread freezes really well, so slice up the leftovers and store them in the freezer for cornbread emergencies (you will be surprised how many cornbread emergencies you will have once you start keeping extra cornbread in the freezer). If you slice them thin enough, you can even reheat them in the toaster.
I like like to eat my cornbread with chili, or red beans and rice (hold the rice, I’ll just have cornbread). Sometimes I have it with a little agave nectar or maple syrup. Earlier this week I tried it with peanut butter (a breakfast emergency) – it was surprisingly tasty!
Vegan Cornbread
If you don’t have an oven safe skillet or pan to cook this in, you can also use a baking pan, muffin cups, or whatever oven safe device you happen to have. Just be aware you may have to adjust the cooking time a bit!
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil (or half oil, half apple sauce)
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 cups soymilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup corn (optional)
olive oil
In a medium bowl, wisk together the soymilk and the vinegar and set aside (this will curdle the soymilk, creating a substance that’s a lot like buttermilk).
If using corn, heat a little olive oil a 9″ non-stick or cast iron skillet. Add the corn and saute until the corn starts to brown. Set aside. (You don’t need to saute the corn, but it does help bring out its flavor in the bread.)
If not using corn, lightly oil a baking pan (or whatever you plan to make your cornbread in).
In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt).
Add the oil and maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Wisk with a wire wisk or a fork until it is foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes.
Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix together using a large wooden spoon or a firm spatula. Fold in the corn.
Pour batter back into the pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Slice and serve warm.
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Wow, it looks wonderful. Sometimes it’s hard to translate all those ingredients, I get confused, cornmeal, corn flour… polenta. I don’t get the difference 😀
Cornmeal and polenta are pretty much the same… Actually, the stuff I used to make the cornbread shown was called “medium grain polenta.”
“Corn flour” could be totally different though… sometimes that term is applied to cornstarch, the white powdery stuff used to thicken gravies. NOT a good substitute.
That is such a beautiful cornbread! I also realized how wonderful it is to have some frozen cornbread on hand. It is such a great snack. I usually bake mine in a loaf pan, slice it, freeze it, and put it into the toaster. What is that delicious looking stuff on top of the last picture? Is it the corn?
Hi Mihl – it’s peanut butter and agave nectar. =) A breakfast experiment when I was out of whole grain toast the other day – it was delicious!
I’ve never made Corn Bread – I must remedy this – that looks so good.
Happy Mofo’ing.
🙂