Learning to cook your own food is a very empowering way to release yourself from having to buy expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals and takeaways, often made with inferior ingredients. Choose your favourite cuisine, and master it yourself at home. Then every night is restaurant night!
Island Vegan is a unique book of recipes by a chef who lives in Montreal, whose trips to Jamaica to see his family influence the recipes.
Don’t eat cooked rice after 24 hours. Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (onions, garlic and spices are not safe near animals).
Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps)
Learn to cook:
- Jamaican Beefy Patties
- Beefy Tacos
- The Grand Rasta Pasta!
- Sunny-roasted Cauliflower
- Jamaican Noxtail!
- Island Gravy with Veggie Chunks
- Trinidad Tomato Choka
- Salt Phish!
- Cornmeal Porridge
- Callaloo Omelette
- Sweet Caramel Custard
Author Lloyd Rose is a popular chef, who frequently shares his vegan tips and recipes at @plantcrazii. He lives in Montreal, Canada.
A ‘Not Local’ Pineapple Mango Smoothie
This Pineapple Mango Smoothie (Broke Bank Vegan) is not local either, but a refreshing drink, and a great way to use up fresh pineapple or mango, you found in the store.
If you make a lot of smoothies, it’s worthy buying a good blender with a glass jug, so the motor won’t burn out.
Know that it’s UK law that if you buy a new electrical appliance, the store that sells it, must take your old one back for recycling. Saves you driving to the tip!
A Vegan Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe
Pineapples are obviously not local, but very popular in England, if only the tinned versions! And most of us have childhood memories of mothers baking us pineapple upside-down cake. Yum!
This vegan pineapple upside-down cake (Rainbow Nourishments) means you don’t have to give up childhood favourites, and still be kind to animals! Just be sure to find glace cherries that are not coloured with cochineal (red insects). Serve with vegan custard.
This is a recipe by a trained Aussie baker, who delights in not just making traditional recipes plant-based, but making them simple too. You’ll need some vegan butter without palm oil, and a few everyday staples like plant milk, baking powder, flour, sugar and oil.
The good news is that the recipe uses canned pineapples, so you don’t even have to go to the bother of chopping up a fresh pineapple, which is quite complicated! You can always find cheap tins in stores, so it’s budget-friendly too. Anthea says to only choose pineapple in juice (the syrup versions will be too sweet).
