Last time I tried skillet cornbread I forgot to add the sugar so it came out overly-salty. Thus, I needed an excuse to try again, but didn’t want to make chili again.

I also kind of wanted tacos and sort of wanted pizza, but mostly wanted a chocolate cupcake, so we ended up having Taco pizza.

For the cornbread crust, I used this recipe from Food Network and veganized it.

• 1 1/4 cups coarsely ground cornmeal (Read the labels! A lot of cornmeal has fillers and preservatives this recipe doesn’t need.)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated (cane) sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup Almond/Soy/Cashew/Hemp/Coconut milk
• 1 cup “buttermilk” (For vegan butter milk, add a tablespoon of lemon juice to your measuring cup and fill to the one-cup line with your favorite alternative milk)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten (Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer is what I used, but there are other commercial egg replacers as well as egg alternatives. For a lot of baking, I use flax seeds, but the nutty taste didn’t seem right for cornbread.) 
• 7 tablespoons unsalted margarine or non-dairy butter sub, melted (Plus another TB to coat the pre-heated skillet.)
• Couple shakes of cayenne

The recipe called for a 9″ cast iron skillet, but I used a 12″. The extra area made the cornbread a little flatter and left room for toppings in the skillet. Because of the difference in pan size, I cooked it about fifteen minutes after turning the heat down to 375F before pulling it out and adding the toppings.

The recipe calls for preheating the pan and oven to 425F while you mix up the rest with a whisk. The whisk really helps. Once hot, put the TB of “butter” in the pan and let it coat the bottom. Pour in the batter and pop it in the oven on 375F.

Toppings:

• “meat sauce”
• non-dairy cheese
• jalapeños
• taco sauce

First the “meat sauce”:

• 3/4 of a bag of Gardein crumbles
• 1/2 a jar of salsa
• 1/4 of a chopped white onion
• TB or so of coconut oil
• 1/4 bag of tri-color peppers (or fresh if you have them)
• “Mexican Seasoning” + garlic powder + cumin + cayenne (to taste, but eyeballing, I’d say maybe a 1/2 TB of the Mexican seasoning and garlic, then a 1/4 TB of the cumin and a couple shakes of cayenne)
• 1/4 cup water

Coat pan with coconut oil and cook onion a minute, toss in the crumbles, salsa, and seasoning. Pour the water over and stir to get the spices to soak into the crumbles (turn up the heat). Add frozen peppers and stir on medium heat until it all looks well mixed. (If using fresh peppers add them earlier if you want them less crunchy.)

When the cornbread’s done, pull it out and swirl some taco sauce on it (optional) before putting the “meat sauce” mixture on and spreading around.

Add non-dairy cheese and jalapeños.

Cook another 10-12 minutes at 375F until “cheese” is melted.