Cajun Cornbread Muffins | Thanksgiving Thursday

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Cajun Cornbread Muffins

Turn up the heat on your cornbread this year with these Cajun Cornbread Muffins!

Course Healthy Junk, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 12 muffins

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

• 1 cup non dairy milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons coconut nectar (sub honey or agave)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 cup water
• 4 oz tempeh, cubed
• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 tablespoon cajun spice
• 1 cup corn
• 2 jalapeños, seeded and diced

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. In a small bowl mix together the almond milk and apple cider vinegar. Set this aside. (It will curdle, 'cause you are basically making vegan buttermilk.)
3. Heat a skillet over medium high heat, with 1TBSP of olive oil.
4. Add the tempeh, sweet onion, corn and jalapenos to the skillet, and season with Tony's Creole Seasoning.
5. Sauté for about 3-4 minutes, or until the tempeh is slightly browned.
6. Then add 1/8 cup water to the skillet, and sauté until this is evaporated. (About 2 minutes.)
7. Take the skillet off the heat and set aside.
8. In a large bowl mix together the corn meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
9. In a separate medium sized bowl, mix the date syrup or coconut nectar, applesauce, and coconut oil. Then add the "buttermilk" to the bowl.
10. Pour the liquids into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
11. Add your skillet of sautéed tempeh and veggies to the bowl and mix.
12. Pour the batter into a greased muffin pan (or line with muffin paper!)
13. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
14. Take the muffins out and let them cool for 15 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. (They may require a little TLC to get them out of the muffin tin.)
15. Now you must EAT THEM. (or share... or whatever.)

Recipe Notes

*If you aren't a lover of spicy, reduce the amount jalapeños from 2 to 1.

It’s that time of the week again, y’all. Thanksgiving Thursday! And I’m really freaking excited about this one, because these flavors send my mouth straight back to Georgia. You see, my aunt is Cajun and so are her additions to our Thanksgiving meal. And my favorite thing that she makes is her Spicy Crawfish Cornbread Stuffing. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with it. Buuuutttt the Cajun culture isn’t usually health-minded. So I thought this year I would take matters into my own hands, and make my own version. (And I am awfully proud of the results.)

So the spice I use in this recipe is Tony Chachere’s , is the spice that my family puts on EVERYTHING. Seriously, we barely event salt anything. A common phrase you can hear at our dinner table is, “Can you pass the Tony’s?” See, we’re so tight with the spice we are on a first name basis. Yeah. Our love goes that deep. Tony’s contains normal spices like salt, red pepper, black pepper, chili powder and garlic, however there also must be witchcraft in there, because this spice is so mind-blowingly delicious. My friend Britt once said to me that the best part about becoming my friend was learning about Tony’s. (Ouch.) But I get it. 

I spice-rant in order to say, I OBVIOUSLY used Tony’s to season the fillings of my cornbread muffins, which included tempeh, onions, corn and jalapenos. And I HIGHLY suggest you do the same. You can find Tony’s in your local grocery store (usually), and if you can’t find it there you can always order it HERE. I use the original, but if you are watching your sodium intake they have a salt free version. But I cannot account for the deliciousness of that version.

Also, I feel like I should say that I am in no way being paid by this company, my love just runs very very deep. 

Okay, now back to the muffins… The great part about these is that they aren’t very labor intensive. The batter is simple, and the hardest part is sautéing the fillings. But I promise you can do that successfully. And when you do, your reward will be these spicy, delicious muffins. 

Also, should we or should we not discuss how great cornbread is? Like WHAT? It’s sweet and filling and airy, and (in this case) also spicy?!? Is that not the best thing to exist? Okay, now that we all agree that it is the best, I’ll make a confession. When I was a kid, I would say 2/3 of my plate at Thanksgiving was cornbread. The other 1/3 was sweet potato souffle. And everything else I ate when I got seconds. But, what can I say? I had my priorities straight. 

From a health perspective, I should also mention that because these muffins have tempeh in them, they are a pretty good source of protein. So you won’t just be getting empty carbs that don’t fill you up. AND because they are spicy, they will help speed up your metabolism and slow down your eating. And both of those things are great things to happen any day, but especially on Thanksgiving.