Easy Vegan Jalapeno Cornbread

This easy vegan Jalapeno cornbread is exactly that: easy, vegan, and stuffed with lots of diced jalapeño goodness that’s ready in less than 40 minutes.

Its fluffy tastiness is littered with spicy jalapeño bits. , savory with just a touch of sweetness, and easy as pie to make.

You can also customize this cornbread really easily, adjust or remove the hint of sweetness, add in corn and vegan cheese, use fresh or pickled jalapeño peppers…whatever way you like it best.

Oh, and by the way, it’s absolutely perfect with a big bowl of Guinness chocolate coffee vegan chili (trust me, sounds weird, tastes AMAZING). For afters highly recommend you try some super healthy but super delicious vegan chickpea chocolate chip cookies with a kick of spice from cayenne pepper!

What to serve cornbread with?

After researching and experimenting, I can definitely recommend the following ways to serve this vegan jalapeno cornbread:

• Crumbled on top of chili, or load the chili onto a piece and eat it.
• Warm from the oven with non-dairy spread slathered on it (or butter, if you’re not vegan).
• Cube and toast leftovers for jalapeño croutons to eat with Tex-Mex style soups or salads.
• With roasted vegetables and vegan cheese piled on top and quickly grilled for Tex-Mex style Focaccia. (If you prefer a more Italian-style bread, try my Focaccia with garlic, herbs and bruschetta dip).
• With hummus and tomatoes on top – because I’m sorry, don’t even bother arguing with me about this, absolutely everything is better with hummus and tomatoes on top.
• Crumbled for making tasty stuffing, like in this delish recipe from the minimalist baker.

Customizing and Substitutions

Prefer your cornbread sweet? Add three tablespoons more of sugar.

Like it completely savory? Remove the sugar completely – note that the recipe calls for just one tablespoon and it’s a nice counterpoint to the heat of the jalapeños and keeps the structure of the cornbread really firm.

You can also add in a cup of drained cooked or frozen sweetcorn, and/or a cup of vegan cheese into the batter (mix well).

You can use any unsweetened plant-based milk for this recipe, but as usual, I prefer to use soy milk for baking as I find it gives slightly softer results.

Either white or yellow cornmeal work perfectly well in this recipe.

If you don’t have any white wine, red wine, apple cider, or white malt vinegar to hand, you can use lemon juice instead. I don’t recommend using darker or very flavored vinegar such as balsamic.

I recommend olive oil for the flavor it brings, but you can use canola, sunflower, or grapeseed oil instead if you prefer.

Like it milder or spicier? Then check out the recommendations in the fresh versus pickled jalapeños section below.

Fresh versus Pickled Jalapeños

Most recipes for vegan jalapeno cornbread call for using fresh jalapeños only but I actually prefer to use pickled ones. There are pros and cons to using either.

Fresh jalapeños are cheaper, but they are also spicier, which means you need to use less of them and that jalapeño taste isn’t as marked.

Pickled jalapeños have a milder bite which means you can use lots of them for a wider distribution of flavor with less spice.

I have quite a high spice tolerance and I like my food very spicy (I put this peri-peri sauce or Sriracha on EVERYTHING) but I usually also make milder versions for my kids and my husband.

The amounts given in this recipe (two fresh deseeded jalapeños or one cup pickled) will result in a mild jalapeño cornbread.

If you prefer more of a medium-hot spice level, use three-four fresh jalapeños (include the seeds), or one and a half cups of pickled jalapeños. You can also chop one-two green chili peppers and add to the pickled ones.

How to make it

This cornbread is really easy to make. Check in with this section if you’re unsure about any step of the process.

First, get your ingredients together and measure them. Set the oven to preheat at 350ºF (180ºC).

Add the vinegar to the plant-based milk and put to one side.

If using fresh jalapeños, deseed and dice the flesh finely. If using pickled ones, chop the drained slices or whole peppers into whichever size dice you’d like the bits to be. You can also reserve a few slices to press into the top of the cornbread for decoration if you’d like.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients (the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar) into a large mixing bowl and mix really well. It’s important to make sure the baking powder and soda are distributed really well or your cornbread won’t rise evenly.

Next, toss in the diced jalapeños and mix well until coated with flour. This will stop them sinking to the bottom of the cornbread.

Make a well in the dry ingredients (image one above) and add the plant-based milk and the oil. Don’t worry if the milk has curdled or hasn’t curdled from the vinegar.

Mix well with a whisk to make a loose batter (image two above). Use a little of the oil or some plant-based butter to grease a baking pan or dish.

I used a 9 x 6-inch rectangular glass dish, any round 9-inch pan or dish or 8 inch square pan will ado.

I also insert a rectangle of baking paper into the bottom to make sure the top doesn’t break when I remove the baked cornbread but this is optional.

Pour the mix into the prepared dish and smooth with the back of a spoon (image three below). Add any reserved jalapeño slices and lightly press them in so they won’t slide off the finished cornbread.

Pop on a rack in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. When 30 minutes have passed, remove from the oven and test for doneness by poking a cocktail skewer or stick in the middle.

If it comes out with batter on it, return the cornbread to the oven for five-minute increments until done.

Leave to cool for at least ten minutes-It should look like image number four above. The longer you leave your cornbread to cool the less likely that it will break when you remove it.

When ready to be served, you can either loosen the sides with a knife and turn upside down to remove and slice, or cut into squares in the dish and use a long spatula or fish slice (or even a spoon) to get out.

You can cut your cornbread up into about 24 pieces, or six servings. It also freezes beautifully for about three months in an airtight container (once cooled and sliced) or will keep in the fridge for around five days.

Do make sure that it is tightly wrapped or placed in a sealed container so it doesn’t dry out.

Enjoy!

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If you make this easy vegan jalapeno cornbread, I’d love to hear how it turned out. Please tell me in the comments below or tag @the_fiery_vegetarian in your Instagram photos!

This post was originally published on the 23rd of January 2019 but later updated with new photos and an easier recipe, removing the aquafaba used before as it was found to be uneccessary.