The official Caribbean Vegan review thread (to be updated).
Add recipe reviews for Caribbean Vegan: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion by Taymer Mason, and I will add them to the list.
Condiments and Sauces
Wet seasonings
Bajan seasoning
This has lots of green onions, onions, spices and a couple of habeneros (we don't have Scotch bonnets around here). You use about a tablespoon at a time in making various recipes and it's supposed to keep a year. It's similar to a wet Jerk seasoning, but unique. (tweety)
To followup, this did indeed keep in the fridge a year. I labeled it and through what was left out at the expiration date, but used up quite a bit. It was extremely good and I need to make some more (tweety)
Jamaican jerk seasoning
Trinidadian green seasoning
Bajan pepper sauce
A mustard-based hot sauce that is good. It calls for scotch bonnet or haberno and I used habernero and it was super hot. A little goes a long way, but it supposedly will keep six months (it has vinegar in it) in the fridge. (tweety)
To followup, this kept over a year, but now I'm reading that it should have expired in six months. My bad. No hint of spoilage. (tweety)
Caribbean caramel
Uncooked sauces
Caribbean pickle
Sauce chien
Green mango chutney
Trinidadian coconut chutney
Cucumber chutney
Tasted awesome on top of the doubles! It's really spicy but refreshing. (intheend)
Cooked sauces
Pineapple barbecue sauce
This was interesting and not too bad. I deviated from the recipe in that she calls for a whopping 3/4th cup of brown sugar. I used only 1/4th cup and upped the hot pepper sauce some. She also called for adding a cup of water and then some thickener which I didn't do since I left out all that sugar I felt it didn't need any water. I served it on top of some chicken seitan. (tweety)
Onion gravy
Eh, no one was a fan of this. It has more of a sweet taste that we felt took away from the rice. (intheend)
Creole sauce
Curry sauce
Breakfast Dishes
Saint Lucian bakes
Cornmeal bakes
Barbadian muffins
Sweet potato drop biscuits
Herbed sada roti
Salt bread
This is a really light bread that rises nicely. I just threw everything in my bread machine so all I really had to do was shape it. (intheend)
Coconut orange pancakes
Banana fritters
Pumpkin fritters
Hearts of palm and tofu scramble
It has so many spices, bitters, Worchester sauce, Braggs, curry powder, cumin, tomatoes and onions......and tastes freakin' amazing. Probably one of the best dishes I've made in years....it was that good. (tweety)
Ackee scramble
Appetizers
Eggplant and seaweed accras
Pholourie (split pea fritters)
Plantain balls
Spicy potato patties
Breadfruit chips
Eggplant choka
Feroce d'avocat (cassava meal with avocados and creole sauce)
Christophenes farcis (stuffed christophenes)
Curried potato salad
Quite good, just your run of the mill oil, vinegar (she uses both apple cider and white) and curry mix, with Scotch bonnet pepper of course. She gave the option of mayo which I took but not in the amount she suggested, I cut back on the oil as well. The veggies are onions, red and green bell peppers. She calls for a whopping 2 tsp of salt plus salt in the water you cook the potatoes in and which I used about 1/2 tsp max. (tweety)
Christophene, carrot, and green bean salad
Caribbean coleslaw
Soups and Stews
Soups
Caribbean green split pea soup
Creamy pumpkin soup
Bajan soup with dumplings
I found out I don't like kabocha squash in large amounts which is odd because I do like it in Asian dishes. Anyway, I felt like there wasn't enough seasoning but the dumplings in this were fantastic and perfectly spiced. (intheend)
Stews
Lentil stew
I'm not sure why she calls it a stew since it's just lentils, but maybe it's a regional thing. Nonetheless I loved this. Full of tons of spices, onions and tomato paste it was sooooooo good. It called for 3 tbls of Braggs and at the end "salt and pepper" and I added more salt, which made it too salty. Usually I never add the extra salt a recipe requires, especially if Bragg's or soy sauce is in it, so not sure what I was thinking. I ate it as a side dish, but with the leftoers I'm going to serve it on rice as the main course. (tweety)
Bajan beef stew
This was decent but I wouldn't bother making it again. It didn't really stand out to me as something that was good, it was just fine. (intheend)
Amazing. This recipe calls for TVP and I used instead seitan made using my standby beef seitan recipe/method as found in La Dolce Vegan. After making the seitan I used her technique to marinate the seitan in a bit of marmite and Bajan seasoning. I was pretty faithful to the recipe from except for the cooking times. She calls for about 45 minutes cooking time and I simmered about 20 minutes and then turned it off and let it sit on the stove while I did other things. The broth was so freakin' good I was eating it by the serving spoonful ignoring the seitan. (tweety)
Curried TVP stew
I feel like this dish was created with me in mind, it was that good. It has bajan seasoning, Madras curry powder, garam masala, TVP chunks, chickpeas, tomato sauce, and etc. It ends up being this super hearty dish that has a really thick curry (I thinned it out a bit) that can be eaten with some Roti or on top of rice. I was being lazy so I ate it on top of rice but do I have to make it again just to try out the Roti recipe in this book. (intheend)
Chickpea curry
This was good but it kind of had a little bit of a sour taste.. I'm wondering if it was from the mustard? Anyway, this was grubbed down with no complaints. (intheend)
Loved it. I'm all about chickpeas and curry and this version was good. I liked that it was juicy and I could dip some roti into the broth. I was in a hurry and used less water and cut back on the cooking time by half but it still came out awesome. Lots and lots and lots and lots of spices went into this. (tweety)
Mixed bean stew
One of the best dishes I've had in awhile. There's all kinds of awesome flavors going on in this! There's spices, fresh seasonings, vegetables, and a random assortment of beans (I used black-eyed peas and kidney). I omitted the hungarian wax peppers since I didn't bother buying any and I ended up with the perfect amount of heat using a chopped and seeded habanero. Don't be lazy and make the coconut rice to go with this! (intheend)
Fat free black eyed pea stew
I finally figured out the flavor combo in the book she uses that I'm not a fan of and it's ketchup + Bajan seasoning + Angostura bitters. With that being said, I wasn't impressed but it's not like I hated it either, it was just somewhere in between. It had carrots, onions, and green onions, and some fresh seasonings (optional) though so that was cool. (intheend)
Yellow split pea dal
I use coconut oil every chance I get so of course I used it in this. This has such a home-like taste to it, I loved it. I have a crazy stove so using this method of speeding up the cooking time for lentils actually took less time than even the book. Anyway, this isn't a dish that's bursting with flavor but it has the perfect amount of seasoning courtesy of the curry powder, garam masala, and a bit of habanero. (intheend)
Creole red bean stew
She is from Barbados so the recipes are authentic Island versions of their cuisine, although I'm not familiar with that cuisine at all, so it's all new to me. Used the bajan seasoning, and was very very good. (tweety)
I wouldn't say that I just hated this dish but I definitely wasn't a fan of it. Maybe it was my tomato sauce.. it wasn't Goya, it was some other Spanish brand. It mainly just tasted like tomato sauce with beans. (intheend)
Tomato based stews aren't really my thing, and while I didn't find this great, it was at least a little more interesting than other bean stews I've tried. I added some leftover ham (from this book) and that improved the dish. Had it once with quinoa (boring) and once with mashed sweet potatoes (better). (eldsjal)
Entrees
Jerk sausages
Everyday vegan ham
Divine!! This tastes exactly like the ham I used to eat on Thanksgiving. Make sure you do the glaze- it adds extra flavor and makes it even tastier. (intheend)
Loved this! So tasty, I could eat it as a snack. (eldsjal)
Lentil roast
Barbadian pelau
Meh. This was alright but that's all it was. I seem to have hit or misses with this book. (intheend)
One of those "OMG this is so freakin' good" dishes. I always have issues with converting white rice dishes to brown rice using my rice cooker, but this was easy. I just cooked everything separate and mixed in the rice and my veggies were nice and crunchy. I used chicken seitan from La Dolche Vegan, pigeon peas and the tomato based spicy sauce was amazing. (tweety)
White sweet potato shepherd's pie
Vegan beef patties
Lentil patties
Trinidadian doubles
This recipe is up there with some of the best foods I've ever tried. I'm not even exaggerating, this was amazing!! It was incredibly flavorful and made a ton so halve the recipe if you don't want a bunch of doubles sitting around. (intheend)
Island burgers
Really good! I accidentally overprocessed the mixture since I didn't cut the green onions fine enough but it was still great. I baked them in the oven and they still held together. I used some homemade bbq sauce with pineapple like she suggested.. so good! (intheend)
Jug jug
Vegan steamed pudding and souse
Cou cou and tofish
I was looking for a quick tofu marinade recipe and found this. It's water, olive oil, Bajan seasoning, nori, green onions, and Scotch bonnet pepper. It's part of a recipe that includes a sauce, but I just made the "tofish"...and baked it. It was quite good, and not fish-like at all, which I figured it wouldn't be and I hate fish anyway. (tweety)
Cou cou
Bajan macaroni pie with tofu cheddar
This has amazing flavor and is the only mac and cheese I've made as a vegan that I can really enjoy. It takes awhile to put together but it is so worth it. (intheend)
Tasty and different, but a little on the dry side. Next time I wouldn't bake it for an hour, maybe half an hour would be enough. (eldsjal)
Lasagna
For some reason I thought more of the Caribbean spices would come through in this but it didn't. It's just an average lasagna which is fine but nothing to rave about. (intheend)
I agree with intheend that the caribbean flavors aren't too noticeable. But it's still a good lasagna. I used precooked green lentils instead of TVP and used dried basil instead of fresh (maybe 1 tablespoon or so). I also didn't have prepared marinara so I just added 3 cups of crushed tomatoes and more garlic and spices. (eldsjal)
Jerk pizza with sweet potato crust
Side Dishes
Spanish rice
Simple and enjoyable, goes really well with the chickpea curry. (intheend)
Creole rice
Fantastic rice! It has peanut butter, carrot, celery, seasoning, etc and it just comes together wonderfully. (intheend)
Spinach rice
Unlike most of the recipes in this book, this calls for just a few ingredients...rice, spinach and onions. She calls for sautéing the onions in olive oil and then adding the rice and spinach and cooking. Since I like brown rice with a longer cooking time, I cooked the rice separate in my rice cooker, sauteed the onions and spinach and then folded in the rice. This is a very tasty way to get a green leafy in a meal. (tweety)
Pigeon pea rice
Lots of garlic in this means it's fantastic! I didn't taste any of the seasonings that went into this but who cares? It was still awesome. (intheend)
Curried rice
This was a kickass rice! Full of flavor and even better that you could just dump everything in the rice cooker and let it go. (intheend)
Coconut rice
This was amaaaaaazing but the amount of coconut milk is completely wrong for the amount of rice. I ended up having to add some water and I don't know how much cause I didn't keep track. This isn't one of those coconut rices where it's just coconut milk + rice + salt and that's it. It actually has some spices going on and some celery, green onion, onion, etc. so it's really flavorful. Overall, this was a fantastic meal with the mixed bean stew. (intheend)
Creole spaghetti
She is from Barbados so the recipes are authentic Island versions of their cuisine, although I'm not familiar with that cuisine at all, so it's all new to me. Used the bajan seasoning, and was very very good. (tweety)
When the sauce is cooking it smells nasty and doesn't taste that great either but just let it do it's thing and simmer down. After mixing it in with the pasta, all the flavors really come together and this ends up tasting different but so good! I added some mushrooms and green beans to make it more nutritious. (intheend)
Vegetable chow mein
Dal puri roti
Buss up shut roti
Spicy baked sweet potato wedges
While he have a lot of Islanders here in St. Pete, I've never been to one of their shops and didn't get white sweet potatoes and just used regular orange ones. This recipe is quick to make and uses several spices to include Creole seasoning, cayenne, chili powder, Madras curry, chili powder, paprika and cinnamon. (tweety)
Classic Barbadian sweet potato pie
Curried potatoes and pumpkin
Islanders call butternut squash "pumpkin" which is what I used. A lot of things went into this and it was good. (tweety)
Breadfruit cou cou
Boil and fry
Eggplant, hearts of palm, and spinach stew
Vegan Grenadian oil down
Creole ratatouille
Sauteed spinach
Hands down the best way I've ever had spinach. I doubled the recipe but didn't use a 1/2 C of butter.. that's insane! I halved it and only used 1/4C. There was white pepper, cumin, Madras curry powder, and garam masala for seasoning. This tasted great along side the bean stew and some white rice. (intheend)
Warm green banana and squash stir fry
Mashed green bananas
Fried plantains
Steamed plantains with sauce chien
Okra in sofrito sauce
Okra slush
Sauteed okra
Caribbean Tea Party
Rock cakes
Eggy tofu open faced sandwiches
Light sweet raisin bread
Coconut bread
Jam buns
Arrowroot tea biscuits
Ginger tea
Lemongrass agave tisane
Thyme tea
Bay leaf tea
Citrus spiced tea
Basil tea
Desserts
Banana bread
Gingerbread
Barbadian coconut turnovers
Cassava pone
Pumpkin pone
Conkies
Coconut flan
Run cake
Basic short crust pastry
Pineapple tarts
Coconut tart
Ice creams
Rummy rum and raisin ice cream
Pina colada ice cream
Soursop ice cream
Caribbean confections
Tamarind balls
Gooseberry syrup
Sugar cakes
Nut cake
Drinks and Cocktails
Island simple syrup
Caribbean lemonade
Mauby
Sorrel drink
Fermented ginger beer
Unfermented ginger beer
Soursop punch
Sea moss punch
Coconut punch
Peanut punch
Rum punch
I used Malibu since that's what I had on hand. If you like fruity drinks, wtf are you waiting for?! This tastes like something you would order at a bar. (intheend)
To followup the bajan seasoning did indeed keep in the fridge a year. I labeled it and through what was left out at the expiration date, but used up quite a bit. It was extremely good and I need to make some more.
Same with the hot pepper sauce, it kept over a year, but not I'm reading that it should have expired in six months. My bad.
Neither had a hint of spoilage.
I was looking in the "other cookbooks" thread looking at my World Vegetarian reviews to put on Goodreads and notice these:
hearts of palm and tofu scramble - It has so many spices, bitters, Worchester sauce, Braggs, curry powder, cumin, tomatoes and onions......and tastes freakin' amazing. Probably one of the best dishes I've made in years....it was that good.
lentil stew - I'm not sure why she calls it a stew since it's just lentils, but maybe it's a regional thing. Nonetheless I loved this. Full of tons of spices, onions and tomato paste it was sooooooo good. It called for 3 tbls of Braggs and at the end "salt and pepper" and I added more salt, which made it too salty. Usually I never add the extra salt a recipe requires, especially if Bragg's or soy sauce is in it, so not sure what I was thinking. I ate it as a side dish, but with the leftoers I'm going to serve it on rice as the main course.
Barbadian Pelau - One of those "OMG this is so freakin' good" dishes. I always have issues with converting white rice dishes to brown rice using my rice cooker, but this was easy. I just cooked everything separate and mixed in the rice and my veggies were nice and crunchy. I used chicken seitan from La Dolche Vegan, pigeon peas and the tomato based spicy sauce was amazing.
Creole red bean stew: Tomato based stews aren't really my thing, and while I didn't find this great, it was at least a little more interesting than other bean stews I've tried. I added some leftover ham (from this book) and that improved the dish. Had it once with quinoa (boring) and once with mashed sweet potatoes (better).
Everyday vegan ham: Loved this! So tasty, I could eat it as a snack.
Bajan macaroni pie with tofu cheddar: Tasty and different, but a little on the dry side. Next time I wouldn't bake it for an hour, maybe half an hour would be enough.
Lasagna: I agree with intheend that the caribbean flavors aren't too noticeable. But it's still a good lasagna. I used precooked green lentils instead of TVP and used dried basil instead of fresh (maybe 1 tablespoon or so). I also didn't have prepared marinara so I just added 3 cups of crushed tomatoes and more garlic and spices.