Natural Flava: Quick & Easy Plant-Based Caribbean Recipes

Product Information

There are recipes that are a spin on popular dishes which will have the keen meat eater licking their lips.

This delicious, vibrant Caribbean-influenced cookbook from the bestselling duo behind Original Flava includes over 100 easy recipes.Determined to find more interesting Vegan recipes with actual ingredients rather than 'fake meat' this book wonderfully fit my requirements. Think Potato and C hickpea Curry with Roti, Jerk C auliflower Wings, Coconut, Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Stew, and Plantain Cookies . As with their first book, Original Flava, it draws on the generous tradition of Caribbean food, though its focus — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say its inspiration — is Ital cooking; the “ital” derives from “vital” and denotes the Rastafarian approach to eating, with its emphasis on fresh, unprocessed food and and its celebration of the earth’s bounty. Rastafari is an expression of unity with all things, and the Ital diet reflects that through a sense of peace and togetherness with the natural world.

By the way, I used vegetable shortening (in the form of Trex, which is much the same as Crisco) rather than the vegan butter stipulated in the recipe, as I always have it in the fridge for pastry. Anyhow if you have been looking for a very accessible plant-based Caribbean cookbook to complement your Bryant Terry collection, this is fab and doesn't go over the same territory (this is more like a pure UK Caribbean with way less cajun influence etc).

There really is much to love here, especially if this is a cuisine you want to try as the recipes look both delicious and accessible and cover a range of scenarios and influences that will make you drool. Some recipes just say to "cook the ingredients" while others actually provide temperatures, but those temperatures are sometimes in Fahrenheit and sometimes say "Gas 3" or "Gas 6" etc. True, there’s an argument for the blanketing stodge of Beige Food, too, but it’s not a case of either/or).