Easy Vegan Cornbread

The fall revival starts next week and the preparations are underway, which means I am simultaneously planning four nights of feeding and pretending I am not overwhelmed, which is my standard approach to large church events. I am always overwhelmed. I am never unprepared. These two things coexist in me the way faith and doubt coexist — uncomfortable neighbors who have learned to share the same house.

This week I focused on what I call the quiet cooking — the behind-the-scenes work that nobody sees but everybody eats. I made fifteen pans of cornbread and froze them. I cooked ten pounds of dried pinto beans and portioned them into containers. I peeled and cubed sweet potatoes for pies and stored them in water in the refrigerator. I browned five pounds of ground beef for chili. The freezer is filling up like a savings account, and I am depositing food the way Mama deposited food before every church event — methodically, relentlessly, with the understanding that preparation is the only thing standing between you and disaster when two hundred people show up hungry.

Marcus got his first college rejection this week. Not from Tuskegee — he is already accepted there, thank the Lord — but from a school in Georgia he had applied to as a backup. He took it well. He shrugged and said it was okay because Tuskegee was always the plan. But I saw something flicker across his face, that quick shadow that crosses a young person's face when the world says no for the first time, and I wanted to hold him the way I held him when he was five and the world was smaller and I could keep all the no's away from him. I cannot keep them away anymore. I can only make mac and cheese when they come, which I did. Extra cheese. The cheese is the comfort.

Destiny called Thursday and we talked for an hour about nothing and everything, which is the best kind of phone call. She is doing well at UAB. Her social work classes are challenging her in ways that are both difficult and exactly what she needs. She told me about a professor who said the best social workers are the ones who have their own wounds, and I thought about that and thought: then my daughter will be extraordinary, because the Simms family has wounds enough to qualify every one of us.

Made chicken pot pie Saturday night — from scratch, with a crust I rolled out on the kitchen counter that Mama would have approved of, which is the highest compliment I can give my own baking. The crust was flaky. The filling was creamy and rich with chicken and vegetables in a roux-based sauce. Calvin ate half the pie. I did not judge him. Some pies demand to be eaten in unreasonable quantities, and chicken pot pie is one of them.

The chicken pot pie got all the glory Saturday night, but the recipe I keep coming back to — the one that is holding this entire revival together — is the cornbread. Fifteen pans in the freezer and counting. I have made this version so many times that my hands do it without thinking, which is exactly what you need when you are also cooking ten pounds of beans and peeling sweet potatoes and trying to hold your son’s tender heart together at the same time. Simple, sturdy, and forgiving — the best kind of recipe for the best kind of week.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 22 minutes | Total Time: 32 minutes | Servings: 9 squares

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup unsweetened oat milk (or other plant-based milk)
1/3 cup neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch baking pan with oil or line with parchment paper.
Make the buttermilk substitute. Stir together the oat milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl or measuring cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes until slightly curdled. This is your vegan “buttermilk.”
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
Add wet ingredients. Pour the oat milk mixture and the oil into the dry ingredients. Stir just until combined — a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix or the cornbread will be tough.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and slice. Let the cornbread cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before cutting into 9 squares. Serve warm or cool completely before wrapping for the freezer.
To freeze. Wrap individual squares tightly in plastic wrap, then place in a zip-top freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or warm in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easy Vegan Cornbread — The Revival Pan That Fills the Freezer and the Soul